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Equity Release will reduce the value of your estate and can affect your eligibility for means tested benefits.
The value of pensions and the income they produce can fall as well as rise. You may get back less than you invested.
Transferring out of a Final Salary scheme is unlikely to be in the best interests of most people.
Retirement & Pensions
With the pension landscape constantly evolving and becoming more complex than ever, the importance of understanding the process and maximising your pension is higher than ever.
Individuals and companies often seek expert advice for themselves and their employees because the decisions made are often irrevocable and determine how you will live for the rest of your life.
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Seeking expert advice will help you understand all the options available to you at key stages before and after retirement and can also save time, minimise tax and provide the peace of mind in having a clear and realistic retirement plan for you and your family.
How can we help?
Pension and Retirement guides â–º
Our practical and easy to understand guides will help you to get a better understanding and grasp of your own pension arrangements.
Free tools and calculators â–º
Our tools will help give you an instant glimpse into how far on or off the track you are with your retirement plans.
Whether you are still working, near retirement or already retired, having a tailored retirement plan in place and seeking expert advice can help provide you and your family with a maximised and tax-efficient income when you stop working. It will also mean you can achieve your other retirement goals such as regular holidays, home improvements, hobbies or supporting your grandchildren.
Many of those who approach us are already retired but require advice about how best to take their income and what options are available to them.
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Our advisers hold some of the highest specialist qualifications available in the country and in keeping with our ethos that, we will only recommend using our services if we can demonstrate how you could financially benefit from them after taking account of our fees, we encourage you to book a free initial consultation to get a clear understanding of your retirement arrangements.
Retirement Planning
Pension Consolidation
If you have numerous and complicated pensions, pension planning advice may be valuable. Managing pensions across different providers and platforms is time-consuming, you may be paying unnecessary fees and your arrangements may not still be suitable for your wider financial needs which naturally change over time.
To make your retirement easier to understand and plan for, you could consider pension consolidation. Our expert advisers will only recommend consolidation once they have taken the time to check you won't lose valuable guarantees or benefits or incur excessive exit fees.
Equity Release
Equity release gives homeowners aged 55+ the option to turn the equity built up in their property into tax-free cash without selling or downsizing. You continue to own the property 100%, keep the deeds in your name, have the right to remain in your property for life and you can choose how to spend the money you receive which is completely tax-free.
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Releasing equity is not for everyone and therefore it is essential you seek professional advice beforehand to fully understand the benefits, drawbacks and implications that releasing equity may have on your retirement and legacy.
Click on the button below to read more about our equity release advice.
Graduated member of The AIR Later Life Academy.
Company Pensions
We work with small and medium sized businesses to arrange, review, reorganise and improve their workplace pension schemes.
Our advice has been invaluable for owners, management teams and boards when deciding on key issues such as what type of scheme is best for their company, establishing a tax efficient pension structure and arranging enhanced benefits for key staff.
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Once a company's pension arrangements have been established, it is important that it is periodically reviewed to identify potential cost savings, tax efficiencies, and overall suitability for the company, it's employees, legislation changes and the wider pension environment.
Our advice covers, but is not limited to:
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Auto Enrolment
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Ongoing review of schemes
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Final Salary Pension Transfers
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Enhanced benefits for key staff
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Tax planning
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Companies often approach us, not just for workplace pension advice, but to work on a wider range of key services overlooked by most companies such as tax planning, employee benefits and personal financial advice for the owners and key staff. To see how we can help your company grow click on the read more button below.
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Final Salary Pension Transfers
Also known as defined benefit schemes, final salary pensions are becoming increasingly rare due to the guaranteed and generous nature in which benefits are accrued. As such it is normally sensible to hold onto them.
However, there are circumstances where an individual may benefit by choosing to transfer benefits away from the scheme in exchange for a large lump sum. This is known as a final salary pension transfer.
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The reasons for wanting to transfer a final salary pension are varied. They may include wanting greater income flexibility, pension simplification, an incentive from the employer to transfer or wanting to access benefits that are not relevant to them such as a dependent's pension.
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Anyone looking to transfer a final salary pension over £30,000 must receive financial advice from a pension transfer specialist before the transfer can happen. Unlike many other financial advisers who outsource this service, we are able to provide this advice in-house, meaning you do not need two different advisers and therefore will save considerable time and money in the process.
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Transferring out of a Final Salary Pension will mean you take on the investment risk yourself and you may run out of money if you withdraw your pension too quickly.
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Our expert advisers will carefully analyse your needs, objectives and the benefits you will be giving up. The scheme and anticipated benefits will then be compared to the offered lump sum and it's expected growth, to determine if it offers fair value and enable you to make an informed decision.
Estate Planning
Good financial advice takes account of the bigger picture beyond the immediate needs of a client, so that future needs and objectives can also be met.
Passing on wealth to loved ones often forms a big part of a wider financial plan. With the right forward planning it is possible to significantly reduce, or eliminate altogether, any tax liability your loved ones may have to face. Our advisers can help you navigate the complex and constantly changing rules, minimise the tax payable and improve the amount to be paid to your loved ones.
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As estates get larger and more complicated, advice from a professional will help guide your way through your options to find the best combination for you. This becomes more relevant with extended families, or where your estate has multiple properties or business interests.
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Estate planning is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Long Term Care
Long term care is not a topic we like to think about, however is a process you can have the necessary arrangements in place for should the time come that you or your partner should need it. Most of us want to decide on our own long term care arrangements well in advance whilst we are still able to, and so we offer a range of advice to help with this.
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Long term care planning will help provide care if and when needed, for as long as needed and in a way that suits the individual and their immediate family. It gives peace of mind for an individual who does not want to be wholly dependent on their children and wider family. It also gives peace of mind for the family in knowing that their loved ones are in the best possible hands, without worrying about the expensive costs associated with care.
