You may have moved around in your working life and accumulated several old style pension plans –i.e. company schemes, stakeholder plans, group personal pensions, with profits pensions, free standing AVC’s (FSAVC’s), section 226 pension contracts, all sorts of strange sounding contracts, that they were previously known as – rather baffling and confusing.

In April 2007 the government introduced ‘Pension Simplification’, which in a nutshell is a way of getting rid of the confusion. It also gives the ability to freely transfer to new style pension contracts, that are not only easier to understand but have more flexibility, investment fund choices, retirement options and most important, are fairer charging. Furthermore, you may be able to access tax free cash now, also known as Retirement Commencement Lump Sum. If you are currently approaching your 50^th birthday or are already a little older, it is possible to take the tax free cash out of your plan and keep the balance reinvested for income at a later date*, you don’t have to physically retire to do this.

Many of my clients have benefited from reduced charges on their existing pension plans by consolidating a number of old plans together; they have also taken their tax free cash and have left the balance of their pension pot actively managed for maximum growth, which I review with them on an annual basis.