Chapter 2E - Retirement Planning Flashcards
What percentage of members of occupational pension schemes retire on their maximum allowable pension?
1%
What percentage of pre-retirement income do most people retire on?
20-30%
What factors are increasing the uncertainty over the future reliability of State Pension payments?
-longer life expectancy, working population is falling and need to support a larger retired population
Which inadequate planning factors cause financial hardship in planning for retirement?
- contribute too little
- contribute too late
- ignore shortfalls from job changes or unemployment
Which five basic factors will affect a clients pension requirements?
- age
- income
- dependents
- previous and current pension arrangements
- State provision
What are the two main Age considerations when planning for pensions?
- how old are you now?
- at what age do you want to retire?
What is the current state pension age?
What proposed changes are planned, and when will they be actioned?
- 66
- 67 (2026-28); 68 (2037-39)
How does age affect the ability to save into a pension?
- young people may be better placed paying for protection
- 40s may have fees related to financial dependents
- 50s may be too late and require larger contributions
Annual Allowance
- base
- higher earners
- flexibly accessed benefits
- £40,000 or 100% of gross taxable earnings
- for every £2 over £240,000, £1 is taken from the allowance, to a minimum of £4,000
- Money Purchase Annual Allowance - £4,000
What are the benefits of assuming a client will retire tomorrow, when pension planning?
- allows cost expression in todays values
- level of required income can be expressed as a percentage of current earnings. Include monthly costs, any large one-off’s and remember that some costs (mortgage, commuting) may reduce
- inflation can then be applied to project inflation-linked figures to retirement age
- consider alternative scenarios such as retiring early or income failing to rise as expected
What is a major factor in determining clients priorities and the money available for contributions?
Dependents and their costs
What needs to be taken into account when identifying the amount of ongoing pension provision that can be made?
An income earning spouse giving up, or taking up, work to raise a family
True or False: with pensions, a partial contribution is better than no contribution at all
True
What other Dependent-based provisions may need to be taken into consideration?
- life cover
- dependents, especially their needs when the client retires
What are the three potential sources of existing pension provision?
- state pension benefits
- current membership of pensions
- retained benefits in old pension schemes
How do you calculate the pension payments a client needs when existing provisions are a factor?
Total amount required minus existing provisions divided by the months to retirement
Why are pensions such an effective means of saving for retirement?
- tax relief on contributions
- exemption from income and capital gains tax within the fund
How do ISAs compare to pensions when saving for retirement?
- contributions do not get tax relief
- fund grows free of income and capital gains tax, as with a pension
- proceeds are free of tax, where a pension is taxed as income
- whole fund can be taken tax-free at any time
- particularly attractive to lower rate taxpayers who would not get higher rate tax relief