George Osborne today announced that a new range of pension bonds will be issued by the National Savings Office next year.  First indications suggest the interest rate offered will be higher than most bank rates and the interest will be taxable. The limit for each bond is expected to be £10,000.  More to follow soon.

George Osborne today announced potentially far-reaching changes in retirement planning and funding effective from next April.  Central to the new regime is the ability to withdraw the whole of a pension fund as a single lump sum or as a series of lump sums over a period of time.  25% of the pension fund can […]

In today’s Budget, George Osborne announced higher ISA limits of £15,000 per individual from July 2014. The new limit will combine both Cash and Investment ISAs with greater flexibility to switch between each type. More to follow soon.

There a number of processes, some straightforward and some complex,  to consider well ahead of your ultimate retirement date.  Hopefully, the following key points will be of some help:

It has been announced that the September CPI value was 2.7%.  This is the rate that the State Pension and other pension revaluations will be increased by with effect from next April.

With one of the key annuity providers reducing annuity rates again this week, it is key to shop around not only for the best standard annuity rate but also for non-standard annuities.

………………and of course a pension fund of £1.25 million is, indeed, a lot and I am sure most of us will accumulate a pension fund far less than this.  But the new limit coming into effect from 2014 may tell us a bit about how the Government is thinking about private pension provision and retirement savings generally.

After so much change and news announcements in the world of pensions over the last year or so, we appear to be in a bit of a lull – perhaps it is because all the politicians are on holiday!  Last year, Richard Collinson published an article about collectable cars which we know many of you enjoyed but […]

The ABI this week launched its free ‘’Annuity Window’’ tool.  If you are approaching retirement, the tool provides a dozen examples of real annuity rates

DWP (Department For Work & Pensions) yesterday hailed the new Auto Enrolment Pension rules that became mandatory for large employers last October as a big success.