Personal

Retirement Planning

The recent overhaul of the UK’s pension rules provides savers with far more flexibility than before. With increased freedom comes increased choice - and this makes it all the more important to make sure you are getting sound advice about what to do with the pension pot you’ve accumulated.

Creating a sustainable retirement income

Once we’ve discussed your goals we’ll start by looking at the retirement provisions and other assets you already have in place. Understanding your existing arrangements means we can establish areas where we might be able to improve your income provision.

The suitability of existing arrangements will depend on a number of factors. These include their potential for capital preservation and investment performance, along with charges and product flexibility. We’ll also assess the characteristics of your existing schemes, looking at things like guaranteed annuity rates and enhanced tax free cash – or the options you have under any final salary arrangements.

As well as providing for yourself, you will probably want to ensure your spouse or partner is financially secure in retirement. There may also be other beneficiaries and death benefits to take into account. We will advise you on the best way to pass your pension on to your partner or children.

Once we have a clear picture we make our recommendations based around realistic and sustainable income requirements. We use cash flow modelling to help make sure your income will meet the needs of you and your family. And with the help of our dedicated in-house paraplanners we carry out extensive research to find the most suitable products and providers on your behalf.

Our pension advisers are not tied to the products of a particular provider. Kirk Rice acts independently, which means we are able to consider any product in the marketplace. This means you get access to the best products available. Our pensions advisers are also pension transfer specialists which means they can advise on the suitability of transferring final salary pension schemes. The retirement products we will consider are:

• Flexi-access drawdown
• Flexi-access drawdown with an income guarantee
• Traditional annuities
• Short-term and fixed-term annuities
• With-profits and asset backed annuities

We also have our own on-site tax specialists. So we will monitor and take advantage of any additional tax allowances for you. This enables you to take advantage of carrying forward unused allowances, to save yourself paying unnecessary taxes.

How often do your pension assets get reviewed?

Retirement planning is not something you do once – it’s an ongoing thing. So, we can extend our service to include regular reviews. The frequency of reviews will be agreed with you, although many of our clients favour our model portfolios which are reviewed every six months (in January and July). Following each review you will receive an email which will clearly:

• Summarise the performance of your portfolio
• Summarise the proposed changes
• Provide a link to a detailed portfolio report, portfolio update report and rationale for our recommendations
• Ask for your permission to make any recommended changes

Each review includes a realignment of your investments where necessary. Also, Kirk Rice’s Investment Committee are regularly meeting fund managers, and attending webinars and seminars to keep up to date with fund managers’ views. All of this is taken into consideration at our six-monthly reviews.

We don’t make any changes to your pension investments without your consent. And we’ll provide all the information you’ll need – including the rationale for changes and in depth analysis – to enable you to give us the go-ahead.

Occasionally a situation may occur that warrants a change outside the normal review period. An example could be the unexpected departure of a fund manager. In this case, we would get in touch during the interim period with our recommendation. (Any recommended switching between funds is free of charge.)

On top of this twice-yearly review you will also have a review meeting with your adviser. This will typically be annually – but can be tailored to your requirements – and provides you with the chance to discuss your portfolio face to face and to review your objectives and progress to date.

A no-obligation retirement planning meeting

You receive a no cost, no obligation meeting with one of our qualified pensions advisers who are also pension transfer specialists. They will discuss your circumstances and income objectives, as well as your attitude towards risk. Everybody’s circumstances differ and this way we can talk about maximising a sustainable retirement income and provide a personalised service.

Kirk Rice LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (www.fca.org.uk/register). FCA Registration No: 531538.

Kirk Rice LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England & Wales (Registered Number: OC354936) and having its registered office at The Courtyard, High Street, Ascot, Berkshire, SL5 7HP.

Scenarios

Equity Release