Later Life Should Still Be Fulfilling

Most of us can expect to live for a further 20 to 30 years after we have retired. We do not want to spend those years living a life that is less fulfilled than we had hoped for, or worse still worrying about how we will make ends meet.

For those who have spent most of their working lives in one of the careers where 'final salary' pension schemes are the norm, there is not currently much to worry about. Your employer, usually central or local government or some other government backed organisation such as the police force or NHS, will have provided sufficient income for you in retirement for you to carry on living in pretty much the same way.

However, for the majority of us, the pension fund we have at retirement will be largely the result of our own foresight and effort. This may consist of benefits from an occupational or private pension scheme, a stakeholder plan, personal pension, or SIPP and will include a measure of State pension benefits. That fund needs to be at least several hundred thousand when we reach retirement age to provide us with anything like the standard of living we have enjoyed until then. For many higher earners the fund will need to be well in excess of £1 million.

However much we eventually accumulate, it is essential to make the best use of that when we reach the point at which we want to start taking the benefits, both in terms of cash sums and ongoing pensions. We can guide you through the options and make sure that you do not inadvertantly make the wrong choices.

If you would like to have a no-obligation discussion with one of our advisers about your pension planning, please contact us on enquiries@arch-fp.co.uk or telephone 01483 204600 (if local) or 0845 3700 660 (local call charge only) and ask for Sarah Bond.

Nucleus SIPP

A Self Invested Pension Plan (SIPP) can provide a greater level of fund and asset choice than other types of private pension arrangement. We therefore encourage you to allow us to review your existing pension plans to see if one or more of them could be consolidated into a SIPP.

For pension portfolios in excess of £20,000 we now favour the use of the Nucleus SIPP (part of the Nucleus Wrap)to hold such pension funds.

The charges on the Nucleus Wrap are totally transparent. Apart from our fees you would pay 0.35% pa for the Nucleus Wrap charge and a reduced annual management charge to the fund manager (typically around 50% of their standard AMC). There is usually no initial fee apart from our fee.

Where Next For The Economy?

We have produced a précis of the economic outlook which was expounded by Stephanie Flanders, the BBC's Economic Editor, at the New Model Adviser Conference and Awards which took place in the Lancaster London Hotel on 12th and 13th January.

Stephanie said that this has been an unusual recession and gave examples such as the fact that we have not seen the level of corporate failures as in past recessions.

Stephanie also dealt with what we should look out for in 2012 and what is happening to the Euro.

The Outlook is More Encouraging From Kazakhstan!

If, as investors, we could get a better grip of what is happening in places like Kazakhstan and the way that the needs and desires of peoples like the Kazakhs will drive the world’s economy, we would stop leaving quite so much money in deposit accounts where it is of little use to anyone.  Instead we would invest in companies both here and abroad which can take advantage of the great global advancement in places which, until now, we might have found difficulty in finding them easily on a map.

For more information on this please refer to the Arch Blog.