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We want to ensure that you fully understand how our investment service is provided to you and the terms and conditions of the service. Please ensure that you review the documents below before you take out an investment with us. Thank you.

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Pension Advice & Services

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Pension Service Options

Are you at retirement age, not quite there, or some way off?

No matter what position you are in, Goldstone Wealth can help you get the most from your pension.

Retirement will be the longest holiday you will ever take so planning from as early age as possible is very important to ensure you can continue to enjoy the lifestyle you have become accustomed to. At Goldstone Wealth we will help you plan ahead to help meet your goals in retirement and ensure that your pension fund is working as hard as it can in line with your attitude to risk.

A pension is a long-term savings plan that helps you to save for retirement in a tax efficient manner. Your contributions are invested to provide you with an income when you retire.

Personal

Personal Pensions

One of the vehicles that can be used during the accumulation phase is a Personal Pension Plan. Here, you can either make regular or individual lump sum payments to a pension provider via this plan. They will send you annual statements, telling you how much your fund is worth and your adviser can provide reviews on an agreed periodic basis to ensure your plan is on track to help meet your goals.

The amount you get when you retire depends on how much you paid in, how well the fund’s investments have done and how you decide to take money from your pension pot e.g. as regular payments or lump sums.

You can take up to 25% of the fund as a tax-free lump sum if you want to after the age of 55. Contact us for further information.

Pension Drawdown

Income drawdown (which you may also hear referred to as an unsecured pension) is a simple way to withdraw benefits from any pension plan registered within the United Kingdom. When you retire, you don’t have to go down the route of purchasing an annuity.

An alternative to purchasing an annuity is to leave your pension invested, and take a portion of the pension pot each year as an income, hence the phrase ‘income drawdown’. The pension changes that came into effect in April 2015 make it easier than ever to take an income from your fund.

Income drawdown has the advantage of possibly leaving your family some legacy when you die as your pension pot will pass on to your family according to your wishes. Depending on the age you are when you die, the unused pension pot you pass on may be tax-free. If you are under 75 when you die, your dependents will receive a tax-free payment. If you are 75 or older, the payment is taxable at the beneficiary’s income tax rate.

At Goldstone Wealth Management we can offer you independent financial advice to ensure that you access your pension fund in the most tax efficient manner and the most appropriate to meet your individual needs.

SIPP

A Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) is one of the most tax-efficient and flexible ways of saving for retirement. Like all pensions, a SIPP offers up to 45% tax relief on contributions and there is no UK capital gains tax or further UK income tax to pay. The tax benefits will depend on your individual circumstances and tax rules are subject to change by the government.

You can receive tax relief at your marginal rate on an Annual Allowance of £40,000 or 100% of your earnings, whichever is lower. If you start to withdraw a taxable income from your pension alongside tax-free cash, the Annual Allowance is replaced by a lower Money Purchase Annual Allowance of £10,000, subject to certain rules

However, whereas traditional pensions typically limit investment choice to a shorter list of funds, normally run by the pension company’s own fund managers, a SIPP lets you invest in almost anything you like, letting you choose your own investments which can include for example commercial property, land and individual shares. Please contact us for further information.

Pension Transfers

A pension transfer, quite simply, is the process of transferring the value of your existing pension schemes to another, more suitable, pension scheme. Here’s an example.

Let’s say you have £10,000 sitting in one pension scheme that may have high costs and poor performance. Those factors could by eating away at the final sum that £10,000 may grow to at your retirement date. You therefore may want to move that lump sum to a different pension scheme with lower costs, which better meets your needs, your current attitude to risk and offer potentially better performance, to get you more money in retirement – it really is that simple.

The difficult part however, is understanding whether or not you’ll actually benefit from transferring your money from one pension to another. Transferring your UK pension may not be in your best interests and pension plans can be complex with hard to quantify guarantees and special terms and conditions. Goldstone Wealth Management as independent financial advisers can review your plan and will only recommend a pension transfer if it suitable and appropriate for your circumstances.

Annuities

An annuity is a product that converts the money that has been saved in a pension pot into a monthly, quarterly or yearly retirement income payable for either the rest of your life or for a fixed number of years. Additional benefits can also be added to an annuity as appropriate for example a spouses benefit, guarantees or even indexation of the future payment.

We understand the importance of quality of life after retirement so we always work with our clients to find the annuity that best fits their needs and gives them the best return for their pension reserve.

Business

Auto-Enrolment

Goldstone Wealth can help your business set up an appropriate auto enrolment scheme to meet your obligations as an employer. By using the latest technology we can help you set up a suitable scheme quickly, and at a low cost, which will allow you to administrate it easily without much fuss so you can continue to focus on running your business.

The law on workplace pensions has changed. Every employer with at least one member of staff now has new duties, including putting those who meet certain criteria into a workplace pension scheme and contributing towards it.

This is called automatic enrolment. It’s called this because as an employer it’s automatic for your staff – they don’t have to do anything to be enrolled into your pension scheme. But it’s not automatic for you as a business owner. You need to take steps to make sure they’re enrolled.

Each employer has a date by which they need to comply with the law. This is called your staging date. Find out yours now by using The Pension Regulator staging date tool then please contact Goldstone Wealth Management for further information.

Personal Pensions

One of the vehicles that can be used during the accumulation phase is a Personal Pension Plan. You can either make regular or individual lump sum payments to a pension provider via this plan.

The amount you receive when you retire depends on how much you paid in, how well the fund’s investments have done and how you decide to take money from your pension pot e.g. as regular payments or lump sums.

Executive Pensions

Executive pension plans are designed for people in employment whose employer wants to make a contribution. An executive pension plan is set up by trustees (usually your employer) on your behalf. An Executive Pension Plan can only be set up by an employer for an individual director or an employee. The main benefits of an Executive Pension Plan are as follows:

  • The Plan – set up under irrevocable trust for you and your dependants – will be a secure asset, completely separate from your business affairs.
  • It will provide benefits at retirement, up to Revenue limits.
  • A wide range of attractive funds – plus low risk investments in times of stock market uncertainty.
  • When you retire, the full accumulated fund value of the Plan will be used to provide you with your retirement benefits – normally a tax-free cash lump sum, plus an income for the rest of your life.

Pension Transfers

If you belong to a final salary pension scheme, it’s usually best to leave your money there rather than transferring to your new employer’s defined contribution scheme.

This is because final salary pensions give you a guaranteed income when you come to retire.

Your final salary pension pot is not linked to how the pension scheme’s underlying investments perform, unlike defined contribution schemes. Final salary pensions also increase your leaving salary to keep pace with the rate of inflation.

Under the April 2015 pension freedoms, you will be able to transfer from a private defined benefit scheme to a defined contribution pension, but you could lose valuable benefits and you should always receive appropriate independent financial advice first.

Group Personal Pensions

Group personal pensions (GPPs) are a type of defined contribution pension which some employers offer to their workers. As with other types of defined-contribution scheme, members in a GPP build up a personal pension pot, which they then convert into an income at retirement.

In a group personal pension, the scheme is run by a pension provider that your employer chooses, but your pension is an individual contract between you and the provider.

The provider claims tax relief at the basic rate on your contributions and adds it to your fund. If you’re a higher or additional-rate taxpayer, you’ll need to claim the additional rebate through your tax return. Your pension pot builds up using your contributions, any contributions your employer makes, investment returns and tax relief.

Recent Blog Entries

What is a SIPP?

A Self Invested Personal Pension. This is a pension scheme that allows you to invest in a whole range of funds and other assets not just those of Insurance Company. You can also appoint a Discretionary Fund Manager to manage...

What is auto enrolment?

Automatic enrolment is a government initiative designed to encourage saving for retirement. It started in October 2012 and is being rolled out across the UK so that by 2018 all employers will have to provide a workplace pension which eligible...

What is Lifetime Allowance (LTA)?

There’s also the Lifetime Allowance (LTA), which is the maximum you can have in all your pensions without paying extra tax. For most people, from 6th April 2015 the LTA is £1.25m. In the 2015 Budget it was announced that...

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