Retirement planning, and finding the right pension, has become a lot more complicated in recent years. Without good-quality independent financial advice it can be hard to make truly informed decisions. You could be:
As fully qualified pension specialists, we can help you start planning for retirement, and structure a personal pension plan created specifically to support you and your family. We will review your existing pension arrangements, and ask you about your retirement objectives and your personal attitude to risk and return.
At Blue Fox Wealth, as well as working closely with individuals and families, we also act on behalf of employers wishing to set up Group Pension Schemes. We are specialists in advising Directors on Self Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs) and Small Self-Administered Schemes (SSAS), as well as other associated funding and property investments. See our tax planning page for further information.
Get in touch to discuss how we can help you.
“Pensions have never been fashionable, but they are still one of the most tax-efficient ways to invest over the long term. We can give you independent financial advice that helps you and your loved ones plan for a more comfortable retirement.”
Because of our reputation for delivering independent financial advice, we are often contacted by professional contacts such as solicitors, accountants and stockbrokers who refer their clients to us. Here are two recent examples:
A stockbroker in the Dorset area got in touch with us to see whether we could help one of his clients. His client was a widow who was finding it difficult to access her late husband’s pension. Naturally, we were happy to help.
We contacted the pension providers and reviewed the paperwork relating to the pension. It soon become clear that the death benefits being offered to the widow were incorrect. Our research revealed that the provider had no record of the late husband’s wish to leave his £120,000 pension to his spouse – as a result the widow had been offered a standard death benefit of a lump sum payment subject to a 55% tax charge. This would have resulted in the widow receiving just £54,000.
We took up the widow’s case and discovered that when the pension providers upgraded their IT systems, her late husband’s application had not been fully transferred over to the new system. We were therefore were able to prove that a nomination for the spouse existed.
Faced with this evidence, the pension provider withdrew their original lump sum offer and paid out the full £120,000, saving the widow £66,000 in unnecessary tax.
One of our clients was referred to us by a local solicitor who had been dealing with the client’s financial affairs. The client wanted to consolidate several different pension schemes and withdraw a tax-free cash lump sum as soon as possible.
Before arranging a lump sum transfer, we carried out a thorough review of each individual pension, to determine whether consolidation was in the client’s best interests. When we researched the client’s pension plans, we discovered that one pension featured a hidden guarantee that the client was not aware of. The guarantee stated that as long as the client sent in a form before they turned 65, the pension plan would secure a guaranteed annuity rate of 11.11%, payable for the rest of his life.
As this annuity rate is far superior to most annuity rates available in the open market, we advised the client to not transfer this pension, but to complete the paperwork in time to obtain the guaranteed annuity rate and avoid needless transfer costs.
"When our company needed professional advice for our employees' work pension scheme, Blue Fox Wealth were there to help. The knowledge and advice they gave was fantastic and I would certainly recommend them to any business."
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