A Reliable Pension Income
The Maintenance Stage
Many people find it takes a little while to adjust to being retired. The daily routine has changed and you are now having to live on your assets rather than your employed income. It is perfectly natural to find this a little unsettling to begin with. Especially if your pension income doesn't come from a scheme with guarantees or an annuity. Our on-going financial reviews will help you to maintain a reliable income and have the peace of mind that comes from understanding exactly where you are.
Whether you get your income from an existing conventional draw-down scheme or have taken advantage of the pension freedoms introduced in April 2015 you will need to ensure that your funds are invested so that:
- they will maintain an adequate level of income for as long as you need it,
- any death benefits paid to your spouse are paid as tax efficently as possible and
- inheritance tax is mitigated as much as possible.
How much risk is enough?
When advising our clients we follow our normal investment process but we will always pay particular attention to the risk levels that you will need to take in order to have the opportunity of producing an adequate level of income that will last until you die. If or when you come to the stage where the level of risk necessary becomes too high we will be pleased to recommend an asset backed or other annuity based strategy to reduce it to acceptable levels.
With draw-down schemes your biggest risks are:
- Increasing longevity. We all tend to see this as a benefit but, the longer you live the more money you will need.
- Inflation "The thief that keeps on taking"
- Not taking enough investment risk (sometimes called "Reckless Conservatism" ). This goes hand in hand with longevity and inflation and can lead to you running out of money too soon.
Retirement isn't all about pensions
Whilst pensions will usually provide the main part of your retirement income it is likely that you will have built up other assets that could be invested to provide additional income. Please see our Savings and Investments page in our 'Later Life' section for further information.
Regular reviews are essential
We do recommend that you review your position regularly, at least annually, so that we can deal with changes as they occur and, if you take advantage of our Wealth Management service then you will always have your adviser available on the telephone should the need arise.