Pensions
Planning for Your Retirement
Calculating how much money you will need in retirement, without knowing what the future holds, can be a daunting experience for us all.
At Dukes, we work with you to plan, review and manage your retirement savings so that your transition into your new stage of life is smooth and stress-free. Our Lifetime clients have peace of mind in the knowledge that Dukes’ advisers are working hard to improve the size and longevity of their retirement funds, and in turn, their quality of life.
Reviewing Your Current Pensions
Pensions are tremendous tax-efficient tools, which can offer a wide range of options and benefits. With those benefits, however, comes a great deal of complexity.
The government introduced new ‘Pension Freedoms’ in 2015, which allowed pension providers to offer much more flexible withdrawal options, such as Flexi-Access Drawdown FAD and Uncrystallised Funds Pension Lump Sum UFPLS. Providers are not legally required to offer these benefits so your pensions may be out-of-date and unsuitable for your long-term objectives.
Each pension plan is different and understanding the advantages and drawbacks of each plan is crucial to maximising the potential of growth from the funds, and the tax-efficiency of your withdrawals when the time comes to draw an income from your pensions.
At Dukes, we speak to your pension providers directly to ask the important questions and determine whether your pension plans enable your retirement funds to reach their true potential. After our advisers have thoroughly researched your pensions, we explain the benefits of each plan to you in detail so that you have complete clarity on your current circumstances.
If we feel that your pensions are no longer suitable for you, we may advise to transfer your plans to an alternative pension which may be more beneficial for you.
Pension Annuity
When you retire or semi-retire, we can arrange to convert all or some of your pension funds into a pension annuity. This will pay you a guaranteed regular income for the rest of your life, no matter how long you live and we can build in benefits for a nominated beneficiary. We source the whole market to find the best rates and benefits for you.
Investing for Your Future
Together, we create an investment strategy that will maximise your returns and support you to achieve your financial objectives. We regularly monitor and rebalance your portfolio to ensure that it remains up-to-date and does not fall out of line with your risk preferences.
At Retirement
The transition into retirement can be very complicated. You need to draw an income from your savings and investments to make up for your lost income, but what is the best way to do this? Perhaps you have an Individual Savings Account (ISA) and several pension plans, but you are not sure which investment is the best to draw from to achieve your financial objectives. When factoring in complex income withdrawal options such as (FAD), Phased Drawdown and (UFPLS) from pensions, together with the various tax implications of each investment, these important decisions can quickly become overwhelming without guidance.
We will work with you to draw up a flexible plan that achieves your aims in the most tax-efficient manner and will advise on managing your income to try to achieve sustainability. Your financial needs may change as you progress through retirement, so we insist on meeting at least annually to discuss your current circumstances and evaluate whether the plan in place remains suited to your needs. If any changes are required, we will discuss these in detail and action them swiftly.