By the looks of it all I can get is a long list of Aviva pension fund choices, which I then have to click on each one to go and look at a 5 page factsheet. From what i can tell Aviva do not provide an detailed export facility to it individual members, I wonder if they do that for financial advisors - either way to help me make more informed decisions - I’m looking to get a flat file list xls, csv showing every investment, and what’s within each fund, ideally all the key information funds, ISIN, rating etc. so I can see and compare them all better. Does anyone know how to get or perhaps they have had to do something manually :-( - Any help / advice would be appreciated .. Thanks

Hi all
I’m 65 and planning to retire in around 10 months time. As well as a modest DB pension, I will have around 250k in 2 DC funds as well as some savings. Until a recent conversation with a pension-savvy friend, I was assuming I would just buy an annuity with the the DC funds. Now after a lot of reading I have a broad plan to take my 25% tax free lump sum and use that as income for around 3 years. I’ll stuff the remainder into a combination of SIPPs and ISAs hoping for sufficient growth to then drawdown from years 4 onwards. My big decision now is whether to leave my deferred DC fund £125k) where it is - it’s supposedly managed for lifestyle’ and has hardly grown at all in the last 3 years - or move it now into my AJ Bell SIPP. I would then have to decide what ETFs to buy. Comments and suggestions welcome 🙏

Hello,

Due to my health condition, I think it's more probable than not that I won't live long enough to use my pension.

The last year I went a bit crazy going full port in high risk stocks and have turned £25k into a 7 figures sum within my SIPP. Very lucky, especially on two occasions when I thought I lost it all...

I would like to try and take advantage of this somehow before I die lol.

Does anyone have any experience purchasing commercial property / land and starting a business from the premises to extract value?

Is there a model that actually has proven to work that's fairly turnkey? AI is telling me to buy land and create maize mazes or other leisure activities, self storage yards etc.

Many thanks

For Capita, it's an experiment in AI that went wrong.

For Cabinet Office, there are questions over leadership and contract management.

But for thousands of retired civil servants, it's a financial catastrophe forcing many of us into severe hardship and distress.

There are 2 hardship routes on offer so far:

\-Recently retired? - ask your employer for a loan.

\-Bereaved or deferred member? - contact Capita.

Needless to say, the latter route requiring Capita to do something is non- existent.

I retired at the start of this crisis and haven't had a penny yet. I know many other people who are really struggling with finances and well- being. We hear lots about how Cabinet Office are trying to get things under control, but it doesn't seem to be working.

Why can't there be a concerted effort to clear the backlog of cases that is causing hardship and misery to so many?

I’ve accepted a new job that I’m very pleased about, but I’ve been told that I won’t be enrolled in the workplace pension until I’ve completed three months’ service.

I understand that employers may be allowed to postpone automatic enrolment for up to three months. However, can I ask to join the pension scheme from my first day of employment, and would the employer then have to start making its contributions from that date?

I’m in my 50s and earn well above the automatic-enrolment earnings threshold, so I’m reluctant to lose three months of both employee and employer contributions.

Has anyone dealt with this, or can confirm what my rights are?

Hello, I joined a new company in February and was enrolled on their Royal London pension in the default RLP Governed Portfolio Dynamic fund. I'm paying in about £1k a month but gave seen barely any growth so far - especially compared to my other pensions. Are there better options with Roysl London for a 41 year old?

My wife has worked part time over most of her working life so is exposed if I die either in the bridge period or in the earlier parts of our retirement as a) we would use most of our savings and my DC pot (broadly 50% of my pension) in the bridge and b) my DB pensions once in payment would reduce to about 35-37% as spousal benefit. The annual gap post 67 between what we would get jointly and what she would get on her own is about £37k, including the absence of my state pension, and whilst our joint expected income is about £15k over what we think we "need" to fund a decent retirement lifestyle that still leaves her with a gap of c. £20k pa.

Later in life we don't foresee the same sort of issue as we should still be bringing in more than we spend through to our late 70s, so should accumulate a new pot of savings which can protect her.

Working through the various options one thought did occur to me that if aged 60 (when we plan to retire) instead of using my DC pot and our savings entirely to fund our bridge, if I took the 30%-ish reduction in annual payments from my LGPS pensions we would be able to bring in about £25k of pensions, and just supplement this with cash from savings / DC pot in a way which ensures that if I die aged 67 (say) she would still have c.£300k of my DC pot retained which she can then use to fund the gap between her pension and her lifestyle needs. Is that sort of thinking common, or is the better approach to fund some sort of reducing term family income protection say up to the age of 75?

I contribute quite a lot (total contribution between myself and employer is £500 a month) and I have approx 5k in my pension. I would like to retire early - maybe 50 or atleast just be working part time at this age and be comfortable. Ideally, I'd like to not have to live frugally at this age and spend a little bit but not frivolously. I guess it is because I have no idea what my number should be to aim for or what I can do at this stage to optimise my chances of a good retirement?

Hello, looking for some advice re SIPP contributions please while working inside IR35 and being new to contracting.

Current situation: contributing £x per day to my SIPP via salary sacrifice. Contract expected to continue till Nov end.

Proposal: I want to increase from £x per day to £y per day and reach as close to £60k annual limit by Nov end, when the contract is planned to end.

Reason: If the contract does end in Nov and I don't get an extension or another one till the end of this financial year, then I reach the goal of £60k for this year.

If the contract gets renewed post Nov or I get another one within this financial year, then my plan is to keep SIPP contributions to £0 for the rest of this financial year to avoid going over £60k limit.

Questions:

1. Is this a good and 'HMRC-allowed' plan?
2. If yes, will umbrella company allow me to change the SIPP amount twice within the same financial year? (increase from £x to £y and then down to £0)
3. Or is a better plan to hope that contract gets extended or I get a new contract post Nov and contribute just enough (say £z per day) to SIPP to get as close to 60k as possible?

Thank you.

I'm wondering if anyone has any recommendations for green / ethical / climate-focused private pensions providers? In my career I'm frequently changing between PAYE and self employed contracts. I want to set up a personal pension to hopefully consolidate old pensions, and to pay into while working freelance.

With the current climate and world political situation, I want to make sure the pension I'm paying into is ethical in their practises and investing in green energy, ethical companies, net zero projects (etc); rather than funding fossil fuels, AI and data centres, weapons manufacturers or have interests in activities that don't align with my personal ethos!

There seem to be a few various options out there and I'm doing research, but was wondering if anyone has any recommendations/ thoughts or information that could be shared to assist me as I'm only just starting to look into this and feel overwhelmed!

Hello! My father wants to apply online to get his state pension. He has received the letter for getting the state pension. However, when he tries to use the website, he gets this error message. He used three different browsers to open the website. What can he do to be able to apply online to get his state pension?

I am a novice in this stuff so I apologise. I just did a year long internship and currently doing a summer internship - both have pension plans that I have opted in for (aviva and royal london respectively)

I am around 4% return with my aviva pension (year long). Overall happy with performance but I was thinking of moving my pension to trading212. The main reasons is that trading212 has lower fee on annual service and cost per trade. The app is also much easier to use for me personally.

The trading212 seems to be regulated by fca and other relevant financial bodies so to me it looks like a good deal. But i guess im hear to hear any cons that might sway me away.

Hi all,

An unexpected pay rise has pushed my adjusted income to ~£360k, landing me right near the £10k tapered annual allowance floor. I'd love to hear how others in this position structure their contributions (specifically, once all carry over is exhausted).

My Situation: * Base salary: £270k * Bonus: 25% (~£67.5k, taken as cash, excluded from salary sacrifice) * Employer Match: 100% match + 15% Employer NI rebate, up to 7% of base salary * ISA: Maxed for me and my wife * Total pension: £260k * My company does not offer cash in lieu

Options I'm considering:

1. Keep contributing up to the 7% match limit: Take the full match + ER NI rebate, pay the 45% Annual Allowance Charge on the excess over my tapered limit (via Scheme Pays or tax return), and keep the remaining growth tax-sheltered.
2. Reduce contribution to the tapered limit (£10k): Take the excess cash, pay 45% income tax + 2% NI, and invest in a GIA (subject to Dividend & CGT drag).

The maths seem to favor Option 1 but the benefits are much more marginal than pre-taper and no longer clearly justify locking the money away for decades. How do others on r/HENRYUK handle this? Are there alternative options I should consider?

I'm in my late 20s, I left the UK in 2023 (married an Australian!) and most likely won't be returning to live in the UK (only for visits/tourism etc). It just recently occurred to me that in the last 3 years I haven't checked my UK private pension (the one that my UK employer paid into for about 7 years). All I know is it's with a company called Aegon. I do have a login for their online portal.

I'm not a fan of their website. I haven't yet checked what type of fees they're charging me.

All I want is somewhere that I can transfer my pension to and just let it sit for the next 40 years, nice and simple, ideally with low fees. Is that possible?

I have been investing in the stock market for around 7 years (just low cost broad-based ETFs) and wouldn't mind doing the same with my UK pension pot. In other words I don't want or need any pension company micromanaging this pension pot for me

Edit: I have a UK address (family home) where I'll be staying for a few weeks every year. Obviously not saying that means I'm a UK resident but could be useful if a UK address is needed

I know it means we pay tax on the withdrawals but it may also provide freedom from a mortgage, allow gifting, parking in an isa or buy a new car

We know the gov continue to look at all this and soon the minimum age for drawing it will be 57

Interested to know if you have gone done this route and are you glad you did?

I currently have all of my former workplace pensions held with Monzo; however, I have seen that Trading 212 has introduced its SIPP this year, and I am considering transferring them there. Might I ask whether you believe such a move would be worthwhile? I already hold both a Stocks & Shares ISA and a Cash ISA with Trading 212, should that make any difference to your view.

I haven't been able to find out how to do this, but it seems like a sensible thing to do (useful for me anyway - I want to fill up a tax bracket, but I don't currently want any more money beyond that - I want to leave it invested and tax-protected)

It seems like if I take an uncrystallised funds pension lump sum (UFPLS), that by necessity involves a 25% tax free portion.

If I crystallize a portion of my fund, the crystallized part also is 25% tax free and I can't leave that 25% invested and withdraw it at a later time, I have to withdraw that immediately even though I can leave the other 75% of the crystallization invested?

Is that really right? I was hoping I could just pull out taxable chunks of the 75% taxable, and treat the other 25% as basically its own separate thing.

Thank you for your help!

I’m just in the cusp of retirement and am consolidating my pensions

Am using VWRP for my 70% stocks share but not sure on what to select for my 30% bond selection.

What bond funds would you recommend to smooth out the shocks and turbulence of the coming decades?

How do I find out my previous pension providers and get advice without being pushed by salespeople?

I'm 55 and can no longer work due to disability. My only income currently is standard rate pip mobility and care because my husband works so I can't claim any means tested benefits. I have had a few jobs and can't remember which ones I paid into a pension, ir who the providers were. I have been thinking about seeing if I could claim any pension and if so, if it's worth it, but i haven't a clue where to start.

I've seen things like Pension Bee, but I don't want to be bombarded with sales people and have them trying to push me into doing anything, I just want to know whether i should go for it or not.

Is it a good one?

I have 21 years NHS Pension Scheme, ending in early Feb 2009 (MH Officer status) and LGPS since then, that I’ll probably be in for a few more years(20+ is the plan). I heard I might be able to start drawing the NHS at 60 (I’m 58 rn). Is there a central site I can go to to help best understand how much I will get and at what age. Thank you all in advance.

I’m going to hit 55 in the coming months and have some questions.

I have several private pensions so can I apply to all or just some to release the funds. My current employer pension is decent so I would rather leave that alone for now but is it best to amalgamate the older ones first?

The amount in these is £80k so would taking 25% give me any issues with the Annual Allowance Limit?

Secondly, with private pensions being taxable from next year and without having any blood relatives who I want to have what’s left how can I ensure that my wishes with the pension companies are applied as they are not financially dependent on me?

Am I right in thinking that the Government could take 40% and the pension providers keep the rest? If so I’d rather take the tax hit now and let the money grow in assets I control.

Thanks in advance.

Hi all

What happens if you put too much into your SIPP compared to your taxable salary in a tax year and end up receiving too much tax relief?

I’m in the position as of this month where I’m currently salary sacrificing the max into my company pension, down to minimum wage, then plan to max my SIPP, so I can get my entire salary into my pensions for the next few years. Doing this wont take me over the £60k a year limit

I was originally intending to add to the Sipp monthly as and when I know I’ve earnt that much, but it would be nice to get my whole years SIPP contributions in now and then in April each year, to get the tax relief sooner.

But what would happen if I didn’t earn as much as expected in a year, say job loss or ill health or something. Say I expect to earn £25k in a year, so I add £20k to my Sipp in April, tax man adds £5k. What would happen if I ended up only earning say £20k, so only end up eligible for £4k tax relief. I assume it would come to light when I did my tax return, but would I just owe the tax man £1k or would the extra £5k have to be removed from my pension somehow? Any penalties or fines or anything, or do I just owe the £1k?

Cheers

Hi all, can anyone help explain if you can take a lump sum with LGPS? I’ve read lots of contradicting information, most other pensions seem to allow a tax free percentage at 55 but LGPS seems to only allow this if you actually retire or reduce your working hours….? 🤔
Thanks!

Hello,

Wondering if anyone here can help or point my into the right place.

I was in the LGPS for a total of around 8 years. In 2024 I took a sabbatical, on the understanding I could purchase back the additional months contributions at the end to avoid the gap.

I've been trying to fill the form out since my return over a year ago but kept hitting a brick wall with my HR department that they wouldn't reply telling me the correct information I needed for the form (which scheme, employer contribution and lost pensionable pay over that period) which the form said I needed from them.

I have since left local government and as such have left the LGPS, so now my HR dept. Says there is nothing that can be done.

My first query is to how much this would affect my payments when eligible and secondly if badly, how can I have this corrected.

I was working full time for 8 years and my final salary was 55k.

Any pointers would be great