Starting a new pension
By making a monthly, annual or a single contribution, this will be invested in a range of investment funds. The pension fund then grows, free of tax, to give you a tax-fee lump sum when you retire. You are entitled to tax relief currently 20% , which means that if you invest £80.00, the Inland Revenue tops this up by £20.00 to a total amount of £100.00 being invested in your personal pension each month. Higher rate taxpayers are entitled to an additional 20% tax relief which they need to claim themselves.
Under the present rules, you can take the benefits of your pension plan any time between your 50th and 75th birthdays. This will change from 6 April 2010 the minimum retirement age will rise to 55.
If you want us to look at your pensions
We'll ask you to complete a fact find, it will give us your view of pensions and enable us to calculate how much or how little risk you're willing to take with your money.
It will also enable us to ascertain your future aims and objectives and this can be done either through an appointment with one of our Financial Advisers or by downloading this via the website.
If you have any questions about this process, please contact us.
When we have all the information
A pension specialist will go through it with you. We want to ensure you understand everything about your pensions.
We'll design you a portfolio with a spread of managers and funds, matched to the level of risk you're prepared to accept.
Our aim is to help you achieve 'above average' growth: to maximise the return you'll achieve within the level of risk you're prepared to take.
If you want to proceed with our suggestion
We will make it very easy for you by pre-populating all the forms.
Once your money is invested
We want you to be confident about your pension fund .
Every six months, we will review your portfolio and publish the results on our website, suggesting changes you might consider to the make-up of your portfolio.
Once a year, we'll check your view of risk hasn't changed. Then we'll rebalance the funds in your portfolio, so you have the best opportunity for growth on your pension fund, without taking undue risk.
We can send you regular quarterly newsletters to keep you informed of current financial issues that may be of interest, if you sign up for this service ( free of charge).
At any time, you can contact us to discuss general or specific financial matters with a specialist.
And finally, when you come to retire, we'll help you make the right choice for you and your family.
We get paid like this: we normally receive commission from managers we place your money with. But if you prefer, you can pay us a fee.
