Part two of our helpful pensions glossary covers everything from L – Z. If you haven’t had a chance to take a look at part one, click here to brush up on your pensions terms from A-J, then get to grips with the second part in this Jones Hill double bill.
Lower Earnings Limit – This is the point at which your earnings will build up the right to state pension benefits.
Member – Different from an ‘active member’ of a plan, who is actively making payments, a ‘member’ is someone who is still entitled to benefits under their pension plan.
NIC – National Insurance Contributions are deducted from the income of all employees on a scale which is linked with income levels. You need 30 years of National Insurance Contributions in order to get a full State Pension on retirement.
Open Market Option – Buying an annuity from their own pension provider is not the only option for the retired, and more often that not it’s not the best option – we can compare rates and arrangements for other insurance providers and purchase the one that suits you best.
Preserved Benefits – These are classed as the benefits a pension scheme member has already earned when they stop making payments, or when their scheme closes. They are also known as frozen benefits, and they will be paid when the individual takes their benefits.
Redirecting payments – You can change the funds that future payments are invested in by redirecting your future payments. It won’t affect any payments that have already been invested, and many providers don’t charge for this service.
SIPPs – A self-invested personal pension gives the planholder maximum flexibility and choice with regards to their investments. It is best for those who are more comfortable with investment risk and they can be more expensive to run. SIPPs are also used for pension income drawdown contracts. Alternatives to SIPPs are SSAS – Small Self Adminstered Schemes. If you’re considering either, take professional, independent advice.
Tax Relief – Tax relief means that some of the money that would have been paid to HMRC will be paid into your pension plan instead, encouraging those saving for their retirement.
Upper Accrual Point – This is the maximum earnings that are used to build up the right to state pension benefits.
With-Profits Fund – If your pension plan contains this type of fund, your fund manager retains a percentage of the profits to supplement your investment earnings in the case of a bad year for returns. It helps to smooth out the instability of the stock market, but it can incur heavy penalties for those that cash in early., usually called a Market Value Reduction.
At Jones Hill, we know that pensions terminology can be confusing for those thinking about their retirement for the first time. We’ve put together a handy glossary of the most important terms you’ll ever need to know when it comes to understanding your pension.
Annuity – This is a type of financial contract that guarantees a fixed or variable payment of income. It can be monthly, quarterly, biannually or annually, and it can last for the life of the annuitant, called a lifetime annuity, or for a previously specified period of time, often called a term annuity or temporary annuity. Those diagnosed with health problems or other issues can qualify for what’s known as ‘enhanced annuity’, where they are entitled to receive more, and these are always lifetime annuities.
Basic State Pension – The flat rate for a State Pension is paid to everyone who has met the minimum contribution requirements for National Insurance. It currently stands at £110.15 per week for a single person, but changes come into play each year to keep the basic pension rate in line with inflation. Bear in mind that even with the proposed new flat rate of £140 per week, this is just £20 per day – the poverty level in the UK is, apparently, £17.50 per day!
Contribution – This is an alternative term for the word ‘payment’. Your pension contributions are essentially what you or your employer have pay into your pension scheme.
Drawdown Pension – This allows you to keep your savings for retirement invested and draw an income directly from your plan, instead of buying an annuity. Drawdown pensions come with a number of stipulations, one of them being regular reviews and preferably on-going financial advice from an impartial expert.
Early Retirement – This hardly needs any explaining – it’s what we’re all aiming for! This is when someone takes their pension benefits before the ‘normal’ retirement date stated in their pension plan documentation.
FCA – This stands for the Financial Conduct Authority, and it helps to regulate the financial services in the UK. It was formed as a successor to the FSA (Financial Services Authority).
GPP – A GPP (or Group Personal Pension) is set up by an employer on behalf of their employees. All of the pension contracts are arranged by the employer, but are between the pension provider and the employee.
Higher Rate Tax – The dreaded phrase ‘higher rate tax’ is 40% for those with a taxable income above £32,010 for 2013/14 (plus their personal allowance).
It is a question that sits at the back of many people’s minds. It doesn’t hold much weight during your 20s and 30s, but by the time you reach your 40s, retirement will be on the horizon and you’ll be wondering when you should start putting real, concrete plans into place.
So when should you start thinking about retirement? The answer, according to many experts, is as early as possible. The earlier you start making plans and paying into a pension (this will soon become compulsory thanks to auto-enrolment), the better quality of life you will have when you retire. Thinking you’re ‘too young’ to start thinking about pensions is one of the biggest mistakes many savers make, purely because every year you work without paying into a pension, you are essentially losing money.
People live longer nowadays than they ever have done before, which can often mean that retirement stretches out for longer than you think. In order to avoid living off a pittance when you retire, it’s important to put away some savings early on. It’s better to save smaller amounts over a longer period of time, than to rush paying into your pension in the last five years before you retire.
Savings need time to grow, and the longer you give them, the better they will look when you finally receive those projected pension figures. Would your income now be enough to live on in 20 or 30 years? Think of how much you would need to save in order to achieve that figure when you retire. You are the only person who can save for your future.
If you are rapidly approaching retirement age and still worried about how much you’ll be able to draw when you retire, get some advice. Independent financial advisers are often full of tips that can help you to boost your income close to retirement, and you can be sure that they are impartial, with only your wellbeing and financial status in mind. Just as it’s never too early to think about your retirement, it’s also never too late to boost your retirement income and ensure you are set up for your life post-work.
If you have worries about your pension plan or you simply want to reassure yourself that you’re on the right track, speak to Jones Hill independent financial advisers today.
It’s never too early to start thinking about your pension, and putting away funds that can be used as your income later in life. At Jones Hill we have put together a helpful timeline that will help guide you through the pensions process – starting ten years in advance, so you have plenty of time to perfect your policy and your plan.
10 Years Away
With retirement ten years away, it’s time to take a step back and review all of your current savings and investments. Be sure to take into account any pensions that you may have lost track of from years gone by. There is a Pension Tracing Service that can help you to calculate these figures, as well as a predicted figure of your state pension from the Pension Service. With ten years to go, you’ll be able to work out if you’re on course for the pension you want, and you’ll have plenty of time to make up the difference if your projected income is less than you’d hoped.
Five Years Away
Conduct another review of your finances, and assess how much risk there is involved with your investments. Around five years before retirement is the perfect opportunity to begin reducing your involvement with investments that have a higher risk status, turning to those that have a more steady flow of income. At this point, a sizeable loss would be hard to recover so close to the date of your retirement. Reduce risk five years from retirement to ensure your income becomes more steady and reliable.
One Year Away
This is where things start to get serious. Get an up-to-date overview of your state pension, and put together detailed plans for your predicted income expenditure in the run up to your retirement, and the first few years afterwards. This is the point when independent financial advice is highly recommended, to ensure that you are fully prepared for retirement, and to help make any small adjustments that might be necessary.
Six Months Away
Your pension provider will send you a letter confirming your date of retirement and the current value of your fund. For those who have saved with different providers over this year, this may result in multiple letters and a few quick sums to figure out what this means for your total income.
Three Months Away
Again, you’ll receive a letter from your pension provider, this time outlining the annuity they are prepared to pay you for your pension. In certain cases, it is sometimes worth consolidating your various pension pots (if you have more than one) in order to receive a more competitive annuity arrangement. Shop around, seek some independent advice, and find the best rate for you.
Retirement Day
By the time your retirement arrives, you should feel happy and comfortable with the decisions you made in the years leading up to drawing your pension, whether you received independent pensions advice or whether you did your own research and figured out your own best policy. You should have enough to enjoy a happy and fruitful retirement.
In a landmark year for pension policies and legislation change, one of the country’s leading independent financial advisory services is demystifying the pension process for businesses in the Wiltshire area. Jones Hill are experts in the world of pensions and finance, and their team of friendly, non-nonsense experts are helping to educate businesses on the new auto-enrolment changes and simplify pensions for all employers at a time when pensions are undergoing the biggest reform since their inception.
A recent report by insurance company Aviva found that 14% of employers view legislative change and updates to policies such as pensions as one of their key business concerns. Many employers are still getting to grips with what the new auto-enrolment policies mean, and many are struggling with aspects such as communicating the changes to their workforce, on-going compliance management and the overall cost of making the changes.
Businesses with fewer than fifty employees are not required to make the changes until mid-2015, and many SMEs are still trying to strategise for the impending legislation change. Jones Hill offer a simple service for businesses to help them solve these issues and set up a foolproof pension plan for their employees that will keep them on the right side of the law.
Brian Hill, ranked in the top 200 Independent Financial Advisers in the UK, and Managing Director of Jones Hill, said, “This year is a complex year in the world of pensions, and many employers are anxious to make sure they get everything right. At Jones Hill, we are here to offer specialist support for businesses that are implementing these changes, supporting them and offering professional advice throughout this transitional period.”
He adds, “We are accredited by organisations such as the Society of Pension Consultants, so our clients can rest assured that they will receive the very best advice, and we won’t overcomplicate things. We pride ourselves on being able to simplify these processes for our clients. We don’t bombard them with jargon and we don’t look to make a complicated matter even more confusing; we are a friendly bunch and we want to make sure our clients come away with an in-depth understanding of the pension process, rather than a head full of complex lingo and no real comprehension of what they must do.”
The team at Jones Hill are down-to-earth without ever compromising the kind of professional attitude and impartial advice you’d expect from a financial adviser. There are no gimmicks, no flash cars and no formal offices; just valuable advice coming from a team of experts that have become instrumental to many Wiltshire businesses as they assess their financial operations.
With the deadline approaching for smaller businesses to put auto-enrolment schemes into place, services like those offered by Jones Hill are more important than ever in ensuring that businesses remain compliant, and understand every element of their new policies thanks to uncomplicated advice and simple explanations.
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