Retirement Planning & Pensions

Financial Planning for Retirement

Retirement Planning & Pensions

Making the Most of Your Retirement

Regardless of the life stage you have arrived at, it is important to receive expert and professional advice on your retirement planning, pensions and achieving your goals.

Whether you need to set up or review existing retirement planning strategies and pensions, for you or your employees, we have ways to help you make the most of your retirement opportunities.

The value of an investment with St. James's Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds you select and the value can therefore go down as well as up. You may get back less than you invested.

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Pension Opportunities

Despite the ever changing pensions landscape, pension planning and saving for your retirement are still as vital as ever. Pensions still remain highly efficient, offering tax relief at your marginal rate of income tax on your contributions, assuming that anything over the basic rate of income tax is reclaimed via the individual's self-assessment tax return, and therefore are an important part of your overall planning.

  • Tapered Annual Allowance  The annual allowance has increased from £40,000 to £60,000 from 6 April 2023. Tapering has also changed, with the adjusted income limit increasing from £240,000 to £260,000 and the minimum tapered allowance increasing to £10,000. Other than the increase in the threshold and limits, tapering will continue to work in the same way with the minimum annual allowance of £10,000 applying where adjusted income is £360,000 or more. This is a very complex area so it is vital that appropriate advice is sought.
  • Carry Forward of unused reliefs You may be able to contribute in excess of current tax year's Annual Allowance  or your tapered annual allowance if applicable, and potentially receive tax relief at up to 45% using Carry Forward. This would happen if you have contributed less than the Annual Allowance in the previous three tax years and were a member of a UK registered pension scheme during that time. As this is a potentially complex area, particularly where Defined Benefit schemes are concerned, advice should be sought.
  • Lifetime Allowance The regular changes in the Lifetime Allowance mean that advice is more important than ever to ensure that you are optimising your retirement planning, and are fully availing of the latest Lifetime Allowance protection opportunities.

The value of a pension with St. James's Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds you select and the value can therefore go down as well as up. You may get back less than you invested.

The levels and bases of taxation and reliefs from taxation can change at any time. The value of any tax reliefs depends on individual circumstances.

Helping you to plan for your retirement is a large part of our business.

We will work closely with you to identify those things that are important to you and help you to make the right decision when the time comes to retire.

Working with a carefully selected panel of providers, we offer the following range of products:

  • Self-Invested Pension Plans (SIPPs)
  • Trustee Schemes
  • Retirement Plans
  • Draw down Plans
  • Annuities

The value of an investment with St. James's Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds you select and the value can therefore go down as well as up. You may get back less than you invested.

In retirement your income from employment or self-employment may be replaced by an income from your pensions.

One way of doing this is to use your pension fund to purchase an annuity from a suitable annuity provider, providing you a secure income for life, no matter how long you live.

Alternatively, flexi-access drawdown allows you to take an income directly from your retirement fund rather than buying an annuity, but due to the risks involved you will need to take specialist advice.*

Far-reaching pension reforms, known as the 'Pension freedom reforms', were implemented in April 2015, which changed retirement planning significantly:

  • Individuals now have full access to defined contribution (DC) pensions  from age 55, with unrestricted income available, subject to paying their marginal rate of Income Tax on any taxable withdrawals. It is still be possible to take up to 25% of the pension fund as tax free cash.
  • A DC pension can now be passed to anyone after death, not just a dependant. Income taken from the DC pension by beneficiaries will be tax free if death is before the age of 75, and at the beneficiary’s marginal rate if death is later than this.

These changes are good news for pensions in that they remove most of the concerns many people have about their inflexibility. More flexibility means that taking advice, to help protect your retirement savings from being exhausted and meeting your needs for life, will be more important than ever before. The right type of advice can make a huge difference and it is important that you make the appropriate choices for your specific circumstances.

Please contact us if you wish to discuss your personal situation.

*The level of income from pension drawdown is not guaranteed. There is a very real chance that you may need to reduce your drawdown income in the future, in particular if the performance of your investments is lower than expected, or you live to a greater age than originally anticipated when choosing your initial income level.

The value of an investment with St. James's Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds you select and the value can therefore go down as well as up. You may get back less than you invested.

The levels and bases of taxation and reliefs from taxation can change at any time. The value of any tax relief depends on individual circumstances.

Self Invested Pension Plans (SIPPs) give a much greater range of investment options than those available through most traditional pension plans.  Investment is allowed in a number of assets and asset classes including equities, unit trusts, gilts and commercial property.

Saving in a tax efficient manner towards your pension is always desirable and SIPPs make this possible, along with the added benefit of flexibility.

This flexibility allows you to spread the risk, especially if some investments perform badly. However, these do tend to have higher costs than a standard pension and active management is essential to maximise the benefits of the wider investment choice on offer. For these reasons, they will not be suitable for everybody and generally only those who are fairly experienced at actively managing their investment should consider this type of investment.

The investment growth within the fund is currently free from all UK Income Tax and Capital Gains Taxes.

The value of a SIPP can fall as well as rise.  You may get back less than the amount invested.

The levels and bases of taxation and reliefs from taxation can change at any time and are dependent on individual circumstances.

Please contact us if you would like to know more about the St. James's Place range of pensions.

There is one golden rule with retirement planning. Work out how much money you think you are going to need after you retire.

It does not matter when you intend to retire, if you do not start planning for it now, there is a real danger that you could outlive your savings. It will soon no longer be unusual for people to spend nearly as long in retirement as they did in employment.

St. James's Place has a range of plans to help provide for your retirement, no matter what stage of planning you are at. You must have flexibility in all aspects of your planning as your needs will change as your future earnings and career evolve.  

We offer a service that is personal to you, delivering bespoke advice.  Planning your retirement with us puts you in control, so that you can be confident about your future pension.

The value of a pension will be directly related to performance of the funds selected, and will fall as well as rise. You may get back less than the amount invested.

Pension legislation and the way benefits are provided have changed so much over recent years that many employers feel that they are no longer in total control of this important employee benefit.

In addition to this, the introduction of auto enrolment has had an affect on all employers, no matter how small.

As a director or business owner, it is your obligation to understand this legislation, what the process will be, how it will work, what duties you must comply with and when to take action.

We work closely with employers to make sure:

  • You understand the requirements surrounding auto enrolment and ensure you are compliant with legislation
  • You understand the extra administrative burden placed on you as a result of auto enrolment, and assist to make it as painless as possible
  • When seeking to recruit new staff, the pension scheme offered by your company will enhance the package on offer, aiding the recruitment - and retention - of a better quality of staff
  • You are in the best possible position to be prepared for any future changes, either legislation or specific to your company

St. James's Place has relationships with a number of carefully selected market leading pension providers, allowing us to advise on a range of pension products.

Please contact us to discuss how we can help simplify your pension arrangements.

The value of a pension will be directly linked to the performance of the funds you select and the value can therefore go down as well as up. You may get back less than you invested.

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Your Partner, together with St. James’s Place Wealth Management plc, are the data controllers of any personal data you provide and any further information which you subsequently provide to us. For further information on our uses of your personal data, please see the Partner’s privacy policy which can be accessed on their website and St. James’s Place Wealth Management plc’s privacy policy which can be accessed at www.sjp.co.uk/privacy
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