Pensons and retirement Flashcards
14 points workshop Q
- Outline the** factors** an adviser would **take into account **when advising Tom and Sally on an appropriate course of action to provide them with sufficient income in retirement?
Use factfind informaton, info you already know and benefits and features
- Tom and Sally’s current state of health and life expectancy/family longevity history
- Tom and Sally have 14/15 years of working age before they reach minimum pension age (dependent on increase min age to 58)
- The level of state pension and whether there are any shortfall in NIC contributions
- Whether they will claim state pesnon or defer
- What level of income in retirement do they need and whether this will guaranteed or flexible
- Amount of capital needed and when
- The importance of death benefits and flexibility of these benefits
- Previous investment experience
- Desire of receiving ongoing advice and accept associated cost
- Their overall wealth/assets
- Capacity to fund further pension provisionm and where it is in the priority of objectives
- Mortgage due to be repaid by 2041 they will be ag 60 and 59
- They both have medium ATR and medium to high CFL
- Affordability/over £3,000 in surplus income, willingness to salary sacrifice
- Employers wont match increased contributions
- Both have wide fund choice and switching without penalty under their WPS
- Desire to invest in ESG, commodities and precious metals
- Likely amount of inheritance from Tom’s mum
- Two dependent children which they intend to help with university costs
- Whether they intend on claiming state pension or deferring it
- Career plans until anticipated retirement age
- Tax position now and in the future
- Tom and Sally’s overal wealth
- Possibility of Tom’s mums future inheritance
- Capacity to fund furtherpension provision and interaction with other objectives
What approrpriate course of actions can you recommend Tom and Sally to help them achieve their retirement goals
- Investigate salary sacrifice
- Increase pension savings lump sum or regular - they have over £3,000 in disposable income and large amount of investments
- Take more risk - as they have medim to high capacity to loss
- Maximise ISA allowance - Income tax and CGT free growth
- Consolidate their pension - To benefit from more competitve charges for holding higher fund thresholds
- Use cashflow planning - Identify shortfalls and various scenarios that can help decision making
- Ongoing reviews - Make sure any plans put in place are on track and assets rebalanced
- Invest cash base assets to achieve potential growth - to reflect their medium ATR and reduce exposure to interest rate and inflation risk
- Overpay on mortgage - reduces term/payoff before retirement
- Ensure suitable protection policies are in place - means savings and investments not accessed to help maintain standadrd of living
- Use investment bond - provide tax deferred income in retirement
- Review of the suitability of Sally’s deferred pension
- Review pension funds and Tom and Sally’s objectives
Benefits of salary sacrifice
Employee
* Keeps Toms NAI below personal allowance threshold of £100,000
* Reduction in earning above the upper earning limit saves 2% NI (REMEMBER earning above this point is £50284 a year
* Could get back all or some child benefit if both Tom and Sally’s ANI is below £80,000 to £60,000 - Extra £2000 odd a year
* Immediate benefit of higher rate tax relief on pension contributions
Employer
* NI contributions reduced on amount sacrificed saving 13.8%
* Could contribute this savings into Tom and Sally’’s pension
Drawback of salary sacrifice
- Reduces Tom and Sally’s entitlement to employee benefits such as death in service and sick pay benefits based on low figure, salary increses or overtime
- Cant revert back to original salary unless a major change in circumstances
- Borrowing ability such as for mortgage reduced as income is lower
Rules to Salary Sacrifice
- Must be in writing and signed by Tom and/or Sally confirming reduction in gross salary in exchange for non cash employee benefits
- Must be done before any salary sacrifice takes place, cannot be done retrospectively
- Salary or bonus in exchange for non cash employee benefits
- Must be for at least 12 months
What additional informaiton would you require from Tom and Sally in order to advise them on the suitability of their pension arrangements
NEED
* Sally and Tom’s antifcipated retirement date/age or date access to funds would be required
* The level income they require in retirement or capital
* Do they need a lump sum or income
* Do they need a guaranteed income or do they want their income to be flexible
* Do they want their income to be indexed to protect the value against inflation?
* Tom and Sally’s views on future legislative changes or on inflation
* Tom and Sally’s views and expectation on future growth rates
* What is Tom and Sally’s social responsible investment preferences, do they have a criteria
GOT
* Up to date statement of Tom and Sally’s scheme benefits
* The current value of the funds Tom and Sally are invested in and the investment returns/performance on the fund
* Projected benefits to Tom and Sally’s anticipated retirement age
* Level of contributions made by Tom and Sally and their employers for the current year and the previous three tax years
* The charges/penalties applicable to the plans for switching funds or transfers out of scheme
* The range of funds available that Tom and Sally have access to
* What the asset allocation are the funds in Sallys deferred pension
* Tom and Sally’s state pensions entitlement BR19 and whether there are any NIC contributions to be made up or are missing
* Is Tom and Sally prepared to earmark other assets they may have to this area
* Can the existing or deferred plan be accessed flexibly?
* Any guaranteed income or indexed income
* Can Tom and Sally access the pension before NRA and are there any penalties in doing so?
* Any salary sacrifice arrangement available with their employers
FILL
* Are there any penalties on Sally’s deferred pension to switch out of the scheme
* Has Sally nominated Tom as beneficiary on the deferred pension nomination form
* Affordability for this objected
* Willingness to bridge the gap from chosen retirement to state pension age
* Willingess to use existing assets towards this objective
8 points
Factors to take into account when pension switching
- The charges on Sally’s employers scheme and the charges on the deferred pension
- The intial cost of transfer and cost of advice
- Any transfer penalties that would be imposed by the deferred scheme
- Any gaurantees or indexation in the deferred scheme
- Flexibility and access in Sally’s employers scheme and the deferred scheme
- Fund choice, performance and cost of both plans
- Ease of administartion of both scheme
- Access to ethical or ESG funds or investments on the deferred scheme
- Liquidity issues in existing fund
- Sally will be out of the market during the transfer
- Future career plans
Additonal information needed when considering pension switching
- Charges on the plan for the deferred pension and Sally’s employer’s scheme
- Asset allocation of the funds and associated charges of the deferred pension
- Associated charges and range of investments of the deferred pension and Sally’s employer’s scheme
- Any penalties to transfer out of Sally’s existing pension scheme
- The performance of the existing fund
- The projected value of the existing scheme and that of the Sally’s employers scheme
- Are there any death in service as part of the scheme or what death benefits are payable
- Can the plan be accessed flexibly
- Are there any penalties for taking benefit before NRA
Pension switching options
- Sally could leave her deferred pension where it is
- The deferred pension should be reviewed to ensure its in line with her ATR as we dont know what the current asset allocation is
- The plan should be reviewed to ensure its competitively charged
- If the plan cannot be amended to reflect ATR or if the charges are too high she can
- Transfer the plan to her employers scheme if its found to be more competitve in charges and suits her needs better e.g ease of administration, access penison information in one place and reduce paperwork
Retirement money purchase death benefits
- Tom or Sally can purchase a lifetime annuity or scheme pension with the funds
- Tom or Sally can designate the funds into a dependents flexi access drawdown plan
- Tom or Sally can take all the funds as a lump sum
- All the options are tax free if death was before 75
- Tom or Sally must designate the benefits in some form within two years of advising the scheme administrator of the deceased spouse death
- All the options would be taxable at the surviving spouse’s highest marginal rate if:
- Either of them died after age 75
- Either failed to designate the benefits in some form within two years of advising the scheme administrator of the deceased spouse death
What is the annual allowance and what is isnt
- Maximum amount of pensions savings an individual can make each year iwth the benefit of tax relief - The sum of all pension contributions from all sources relevant to that individual
- It is not a restriction on the amount of tax relief given out when pension savings are made e.g so Tom and Sally can put their salary £96,000 and £86,000 putting into pension and can get all the tax relief on it -
important they claim tax relief as that will offset some of the annual allowance charge - Instead, the annuallwance works by applying a taxcharge when the annual allowance is exceed
Carry forward basics
- Unused allowance (not tax relief) that get carried forward
- Last three years
- Current year’s allwoance first, then oldest unsued allowance
- Member of UK pension scheme
14 points workshop Q
Describe in detail the process an adviser would follow to **ensure **that Tom and Sally’s existing pensions and investments are on target to provide their desired level of income at thier anticipated retirement age
- Establish the level of income and any capital they require at their intended retirement age
- By completing a lifetime cashflow forecast
- Ontain state pensions forecast BR19
- Agree inflation, growth and interest rate assumptions to be used
- Likely tax status now and in retirement
- Obtain fund projections to intended retirement age of pensions of pensions
- and other assets to be used to provide income at retirement
- Include assumptions in increases in contributions going forward
- Based on the term and the likely longevity
- Establish withdrawal rate or annuity rate
- Determine fund required to provide the level of income needed
- then determine the shortfall
- Calculate the level of contributions needed to meet shortfall
- Implement, monitor, reblance and review regularly with Tom and Sally to ensure objective is on track
7 points workshop Q
**Explain **to Tom and Sally how **‘pound cost averaging’ **from investing regular contributions could be used to assist them in their objectives providing sufficient income throughout retirement
- Allows them to have decipline to savings
- Benefit from volatility as more units purchased in falling market
- Avoids market timing risk, investing lump sumbefore market down turn
- Suitable for longterm investment term of 14/15 years that Tom and Sally have
- They have flexibility in contributions and can increase or decrease later
- Reduces the risk of investing in higher risk funds
- Evens out/averages the cost of units
10 points
Outline the key factors that Tom and Sally should consider when building a diversified investment portfolio within their pension funds
- Diversification of asset allocation, no fixed interest, propety or alternatives in current investment
- Tom’s WPS only in global equities not math ATR
- Diversification of geographical area as Sally’s WPS with monarch is only in the UK market
- Fund switching costs to reflect a diversified portfolio
- Whether the proportions meet their medium ATR and CFL
- Their interest in investing in ESG, commodities and previous metals
- Builidng in assets that are non correlated
- Availability of a wide range of funds nd investments that can match thier medium ATR and to enable diversification of various different asset classes
- Cost and charges in relation to asset classes, pension wrapper and other related costs
- Liquidity of assets
- Currency risk
- Passive vs Active
- Personal control/time and administration