Rob – At retirement

Having worked for various IT companies for 30 years, then two universities as a researcher, he had a number of defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) pension schemes.

In 2018 I’d reached a stage where my research contract had ended and I wanted to know if I could afford to retire. I’d never been interested in pensions and investing; I left that to the pension providers. So when I started looking into all of the paperwork associated with all of the different pensions I had, and the various options, I quickly realised that I needed help!

After a couple of meetings and several phone calls, Bev helped me to untangle all of the pensions I had. She helped me to understand how my pensions could provide me with an income, which meant that I could afford to stop working. I took the decision to invest the funds from two of the DC pension schemes in a drawdown pension. This, together with one of my DB schemes, currently provides us with an income which meets our needs.

A big concern for me was being able to provide for my wife in the event that I die before her. We had considered ways in which I could share my pensions, but due to the tax implications, this simply isn’t possible. Whilst a DB pension provides me with a guaranteed income in retirement, one of the drawbacks is that, upon my death, only half of the pension would be provided to my wife.

To help manage this risk, Bev helped us to set up affordable life insurance which would make things more comfortable for my wife, should the worst happen to me.

We really appreciated how Bev took the time to understand our approach to risk. She understood that neither of us are comfortable with speculative investing, and where other advisers might have tried to persuade us to take risks, Bev identified an investment portfolio which we feel comfortable with.

Most importantly, Bev gave us the information we needed to make informed decisions about our money.