Retirement  

Hopefully you have arrived in good shape and looking forward to a long, healthy and happy retirement. By now it’s impossible to add significantly to your capital and resources. However this does not mean that you cannot improve your situation.

“Although you cannot decide the direction of the wind you can adjust the sails”.

You may be tempted to draw your pension from the company to which you contributed. That in all likelihood would be a massive mistake. Different companies pay different pension incomes on the same pension fund values.

Over a lifetime, the difference between the best and worst amounts to a small fortune. Once you decide it is fixed for life. To ensure you make the right choice See Options at Retirement 

With increasing life expectancy and earlier retirement twenty five years after work is quite common and thirty not unusual, which is a long time. The two main enemies to your capital are inflation and tax.

For example, an annual rate of 3% inflation means that £1,000 would halve to £500 in today’s money after 24 years. The time drops to just 18 years at an annual rate of 4%. Add in tax at 20% and you can soon see how quickly your money disappears. To stay ahead See Investment 

• You may wish to augment your income to enjoy life more
• advance your children some of their inheritance when it will do the most good
• reduce or eliminate the inheritance tax liability on your estate.

One way to achieve these objectives is to access equity in your property.  See Equity Release

As you get older your thoughts turn to preserving your wealth and passing it on to your family. With the correct advance planning it is very possible to not only mitigate but totally circumvent inheritance tax altogether. To prevent the taxman being a beneficiary of your life long labours See Inheritance Tax

Your children are at a stage of life where it may be difficult just keeping their heads above water. You may want to help them with your grandchildren’s future university costs or failing that to give them a head start in life. See Investing for Children / Grandchildren

Finally the one thing many of us fear is losing our independence and not being able to look after ourselves. How would you cope and how much would it cost for someone to look after you in your own home, or even a nursing home? This might not be as intimidating as it sounds if we help you do some advance preparation. See Long Term Nursing Care