Personal pension with a personal touch

Local advice matters when it comes to organising your personal pension

Today’s guest post stresses the importance of getting the right advice when arranging your personal pension:

The key reason for investing in a pension is to ensure that you have enough income to live comfortably on once you retire. Getting it right is, therefore, essential.



If you are not a member of a workplace pension scheme or are self-employed, you can arrange a personal pension with providers that range from insurance companies to banks or building societies.



Paying into a pension has a number of benefits that include tax relief on contributions and investment growth and the ability to take part of your pension pot as a cash lump sum at retirement. But how do you find the pension that’s right for you?



You won’t find personal pensions featured on comparison sites or best buy tables. This is because they are individual products designed to meet your needs and are, therefore, more complex than other financial products. Whilst you can go directly to a pension provider, most people will wish to seek independent financial advice.

The benefits of advice
Personal pension schemes are money purchase schemes. This means that the amount you’ll be paid out as a pension depends upon how much you pay in, how well the investment does and the annuity rate at the date of retirement.



A pensions advisor will be able to look at your circumstances and determine the right type of personal pension for you, whether it is a standard personal pension, a stakeholder pension or a self-invested personal pension, for example.



They’ll be able to give you advice about how much you should look to contribute to ensure that your pension provides you with the income that you are looking for in your retirement.



As experts in this field, a pensions advisor will know which providers offer the type of pensions that are suitable for you and which will be able to offer the most competitive terms. So, how do you find a good advisor?

Going local
Arranging the right personal pension is an important decision, so you will want to find an advisor that you can trust. Whist online services can be convenient, there can be limited flexibility on the options available or ability to tailor the arrangements so that they align with your personal circumstances.



Seeking out the services of a local independent financial advisor can, therefore, be beneficial. Not only will you be able to physically meet the advisor and ensure that you feel comfortable with them, but you’ll be able to ensure that they have the full information on which to make their recommendations.

You can seek clarity on any issues you are unclear about.

They will also have the opportunity to ask the right questions to fully understand your circumstances and the issues that are important to you, making it easier for them to make the best recommendations.



This personal touch can be invaluable when it comes to arranging your personal pension. It is important to use an advisor that you can have a relationship with. After all, you’ll be investing money regularly over a significant number of years so will want to be sure that you’ve got it right.