Have You Made a New Year’s Resolution for your UK Pension?

03 January, 2014

In addition to setting yourself those exercise and eating resolutions this year, why not also include two resolutions to help improve the occupational or personal pensions that you left in the UK when you moved to the United States?

As pensions are often perceived as being complicated, people can neglect them until retirement has arrived. However, your UK pension could be a very valuable asset, so it is important that you review and understand it well before retirement in order to try to maximise its growth and benefits. With this in mind, below are two New Year’s resolutions for your UK pension in 2014:

1. Review your UK pension investment performance
How are your pension investments performing relative to their peers? It is this performance which will determine the level of income you receive in retirement, so it is important to keep this under review.

2. Determine what retirement options your UK pension provides and whether these fit with your retirement objectives

What options will you have when you start to draw your pension? In many cases a person’s only option under an existing UK plan will be to purchase an annuity – an irreversible transaction. However, there are now much more flexible options available. In addition, understanding what pension benefits your loved ones will be entitled to in the event of your death is important and can differ between pension providers.

As the UK pensions’ landscape is constantly changing, it is recommended that you also have your UK pension arrangements reviewed by a pension advisor who understands the complexities faced by expatriates. In certain cases there can be ways to improve upon existing pension arrangements which should not be overlooked.

As well as adopting these New Year’s resolutions, also resolve to follow through with them. Typically this can be the most difficult resolution of all.