Elegant Homes Worldwide - Retirement Plans / Pensions
Retirement Plans / Pensions
When you retire, you can usually take part of your pension fund as a tax-free lump sum. The remainder of your fund must be used to provide you with an income. If you have a money purchase pension, there are a number of ways you can do this, for example, using annuities or unsecured pension options.
If you're getting a pension from an occupational salary-related (defined benefit) pension scheme, your income in retirement is provided by your employer's pension scheme direct. So you don't need to make any of the retirement choices mentioned here. Talk to your pension scheme administrators for more information. However, Montpelier will give you an Independent overview of the plan.
If you have a money purchase pension scheme (occupational defined contribution, a personal ( inc SIPP ) or stakeholder pension
Retirement
Retirement means when you start to take benefits from your pension. You can usually do this from age 50, but the minimum age from which you can take your benefits is going up from 50 to 55 by 2010. The precise timing may vary between pension schemes, so check with your pension provider.
Flexible retirement
Since April 2006 retirement has become much more flexible than in the past. You have more options, for example, you can:
delay buying an annuity;
receive an income but continue to work, if your scheme rules let you; orwork beyond normal retirement age if your scheme rules let you.
Review your plans
Montpelier can provide you with an excellent service to review your retirement plans.
This involves gathering information from all of your pension plan providers, reviewing each plan individually, whilst providing an overall total position. To do this we need your authority to approach the individual providers. Please ring us and we will send you the authority forms, since we need your signature.
Related links
The Pension Service
For information about your State Pension