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My dad used one around your age, maybe slightly younger and was the best thing he ever did in terms of his pension.

He retired 2 years ago at 60 but still speaks to his FA every 6 months as he's drawing down on his pension until he's state pension age and has it invested in moderate risk funds.

My mum is an ex teacher with a final salary pension, so think he's just drawing down the max without paying tax on it for the 6 years then taking a lower amount once he has his state pension.

Think both are still living off their lump sums anyway the jammy gits!

 

Edited by Squirrelhumper
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I used an FA in connection with my personal pension fund.  It was worth the cost as he advised how to implement my own plan of using the fund to buy property within a SIPP, and advised strongly against an annuity (which I had worked out for myself years ago).  I'm now in the process of transferring other property (my old office, bought with a loan paid off years ago) into the SIPP and as I know how to do that now, I'm just organising it myself.  The FA advice is useful in terms of avoiding actions that can cost you in tax or in other ways, but watch that you don't get stuck with an ongoing annual charge based on the value of your pension fund if the FA is not involved in managing it for you after set up.

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I've had some good advice on here about this. I'm 52 now and have pretty much decided to transfer my Final Salary pension from a previous employer, of 23 years, into a private pension 'pot'. I'm in my second year in a new career and paying into a new pension via my employer. Planning to work until at least 65 as so far I love what I'm doing now. Might go part time or supply in my 60s. 

Spoken to a couple of FAs. One was an initial fee and a annual percentage. Think it was 2% and then 1.5% a year. Another was 2 or 3% depending on having above or below £250,000 to invest but no annual fee. Sounded too good to be true but the guy was recommended locally by a couple of former colleagues and when I challenged him he said he would make money from us using him for all of our financial products.

Both speculated that they would be disappointed if my 'pot' didn't grow at 3-4% a year with a safe and moderate risk split. My plan is to transfer ahead of taking the full tax-free lump sum at 55. Then, as SH suggested above, take out an amount each year that doesn't hit punitive tax rates on top of my salary. To be honest  think I'd be comfortable in retirement with the state pension and the pension from my new employer, so the transferred pension pot is a real bonus.

In response to the OP, I'd certainly recommend opening an initial free chat with one or two FAs to see if it would make sense for you. One thing that swung it for me was having two young kids. They get to keep the full pot if I kick the bucket, but only 60% if I leave it where it is. I also like the idea of being able to choose my investments and dipping in for an extra 3-4 grand a year without being taxed more.

If I've got any of this wrong, please correct me!

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As other have mentioned, I also used an IFA to transfer to a private pot. My work pension was a bit all over the place but I’d banked on getting the mortgage paid off, then drawing it in my early 60s. 
As it turned out, that wouldn’t have worked for me due to health problems so moving into a private pot enabled me to clear all my debts (student loan excepted- they can f@@k right off)  & draw an income. 
There is a risk of course, but the guy I deal with has been pretty good throughout about how to mitigate them & map out likely long-term spending plans. I think you just need to do your research & make sure you’re clear on what you want, what your risk profile is & how that compares to what you’ve already got. 

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I am not sure what pension advice you need but if you are planning on coming out of a defined benefit / final salary pension the regulators are getting very strict so ensure you get a decent advisor. 

I have 2 final salary pensions , neither of them large, but between my husband and I we should be ok in retirement as we have other funds and if we really needed to we could sell our house and move to a flat. . 
I am the same age as you and wanted to come out one of the final salary pensions as there is much more flexibility if you do. 
 I want to have money to spend whilst I am able to, not when I am 96, if I ever see it.

I used a financial advisor who guided me through the transfer out process. My advisor  used a large  wealth management company for this. You have to give details of all your savings , pensions and expected expenditure. 
 It took ages to get everything together and after all that they rejected my application, they said I was too ambitious with my projected outgoings( I was spending too much 🙄)  and they could not recommend me moving out. I was raging. I did not expect my application to be rejected as I was only planning on moving out one of the pensions and felt there was sufficient funds to support us. .  
In fairness to the FA he took no fee as he felt he should probably have realised I was being a bit extravagant  with my numbers, we are just going to resubmit next year and I will rein in the outgoing figures as I am determined to do this, the decision is a no brainer for me.

It is good that there is scrutiny as so many people have been ripped off, but very frustrating for someone who is well aware of what they are doing. 
 
Sorry for the saga, I just want to make you aware of the tight regulations these days if final salaries are involved. 

That said, having missed out on this and been stung for £3700 on Thomas Cook I am probably not the best person to give financial advice 🙄
 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Alan said:

Love all this tax avoidance and multiple property ownership! 👍

The IFA I spoke to charged 1% which is a lot lower than some charges posted above.

Nothing wrong with a bit of tax avoidance. Most folk folk who have a pension scheme are doing it.

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7 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

Nothing wrong with a bit of tax avoidance. Most folk folk who have a pension scheme are doing it.

Imagine you have two shops next door to each other. One sells a loaf of bread for 20p, the other sells the exact same loaf for 10p. So you buy the 10p loaf.

That would be price avoidance... which makes obvious sense. Who needlessly pays twice as much for something?

So if you can arrange your personal affairs to pay the least amount of tax you'd be an absolute twat no to do so and pay more.

Some folk on here seem to think paying tax is like giving to a good cause. ha ha.

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12 minutes ago, thplinth said:

Imagine you have two shops next door to each other. One sells a loaf of bread for 20p, the other sells the exact same loaf for 10p. So you buy the 10p loaf.

That would be price avoidance... which makes obvious sense. Who needlessly pays twice as much for something?

So if you can arrange your personal affairs to pay the least amount of tax you'd be an absolute twat no to do so and pay more.

Some folk on here seem to think paying tax is like giving to a good cause. ha ha.

It never ceases to amaze me how many folk volunteer to pay more tax than they need to. A lot of it is just down to ignorance of how the system works but it would appear that some folk enjoy doing it. Maybe it makes them feel superior? 

A lot of folk think something tastes better if they have paid more for it, even when they are told it's the exact same stuff. Weird.

 

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6 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

Are you going to keep working until you die? Or, rely on taxpayers giving you handouts in your old age?

Possibly, re working! I'll take the state pension that I've contributed to (so yes, I guess, I do have a pension), and live on the money and assets I've accrued.

 

7 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

It never ceases to amaze me how many folk volunteer to pay more tax than they need to. A lot of it is just down to ignorance of how the system works but it would appear that some folk enjoy doing it. Maybe it makes them feel superior? 

A lot of folk think something tastes better if they have paid more for it, even when they are told it's the exact same stuff. Weird.

 

Not for me I've got pretty simple tastes. I just want to have as little to do with capitalist shenanigins as I can get away with.

Edited by Eisegerwind
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1 minute ago, Orraloon said:

It never ceases to amaze me how many folk volunteer to pay more tax than they need to. A lot of it is just down to ignorance of how the system works but it would appear that some folk enjoy doing it. Maybe it makes them feel superior? 

A lot of folk think something tastes better if they have paid more for it, even when they are told it's the exact same stuff. Weird.

 

A lot of it is virtue signalling. How many of them claimed capital gains tax relief when they sold their x-hundred thousand pound home? I am guessing they could have simply not said it was their home and paid the full capital gains tax. Tax avoidance pure and simple. 

Everyone takes advantage of the things we are allowed to take advantage of. That is tax avoidance. Like avoiding an oncoming vehicle.

Tax evasion is just law breaking, like Rangers and the EBTs for example. Like evading the law.

 

 

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2 minutes ago, Eisegerwind said:

Possibly, re working! I'll take the state pension that I've contributed to (so yes, I guess, I do have a pension), and live on the money and assets I've accrued.

 

Not for me I've got pretty simple tastes. I just want to have as little to do with capitalist shenanigins as I can get away with.

:lol: Man, that's just pure mental logic.

 

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