A good pension still remains the most tax efficient way of accumulating wealth for retirement. In addition the rules governing annuity purchase have been relaxed; opening up the possibility that upon death, an individual’s residual pension fund could pass into the pension funds of their children. This will remove a major obstacle to pension provision for many people.

Insured Pension Plans used to be poor value for money. However, modern Stakeholder charged plans are excellent value and free of the contractual early surrender penalties that can trap people into poor performing ‘old style’ plans.

Unfortunately, these old style plans still exist meaning that many people could benefit from switching to a lower cost Stakeholder Pension. In addition, the rationalisation of the pension industry continues apace, with possibly only a few companies remaining in the battle for market share. This will leave an increasing number of funds ‘closed to new business’ and therefore at risk of long term under performance.

Never before has there been a greater need to review your existing pension arrangements, enabling you to plan effectively for your future.