Assess your Defined Benefit/Final Salary Pension Schemes

New figures last month showed six million people with defined benefit/final salary pensions have seen their transfer values increase in the last year mainly down to interest rates remaining low (reason being is that the transfer value needs to be higher to buy an annuity of worth in the open market). Under the rules of most defined benefit/final salary schemes, workers have the right to swap their pension entitlement for money. With a rising defined benefit/final salary pension worth, some individuals are being offered 'eye-watering' sums, often tens of thousands of pounds more than a year ago, to trade in their scheme for cash. For someone with a pension income worth £20,000, it is not uncommon to be offered 30 times that amount - in other words, £600,000 in cash.

Even though transferring your pension can offer a more flexible retirement, extra tax-free cash and further inheritance tax relief, individuals are being warned that this may not be the most suitable option, as defined benefit/final salary pension schemes can offer the luxury of greater certainty, inflation protection and risk-free income. If your transfer value is above the lifetime allowance of £1m, further income protection is available, through taking out individual HMRC protection schemes.

If you would like more information regarding your defined benefit pension schemes and the most suitable course of action, please contact us immediately.

Budget 2021 – Small Business Owners

The planned increases to Corporation Tax Rates and what these mean for small business owners. Who will be affected? The corporation tax ‘main rate’ (currently 19%) is scheduled to increase considerably to 25% by April 2023. A new ‘small profits rate’ is also being introduced for business which make less than £50,000 profit a year. The main rate will be applied to businesses making more than £250,000 profit a year, with a ‘tapering’ of the two rates between these amounts. Those companies under this lower £50,000 threshold will find themselves relatively unaffected by the new measures. Businesses which find themselves between these rates will arguably be affected worst, having smaller profits to pay the extra tax from. For these companies, particularly which find themselves just over each of the limits announced, or indeed the tapering limits yet to be confirmed; additional tax planning will become an essential exercise going forward. Fortunately, these same companies will hav...

Why are CPD and Qualifications important to us and our clients?

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is activity undertaken to ensure our skills and knowledge are up-to-date. The Chartered Insurance Institute member CPD scheme provides a practical framework for ensuring development is addressed in a structured way to meets our personal and business needs and requirements of the CII as a Chartered professional body. CPD is a common requirement for qualified members of professional bodies. It reflects the fact that, in today's fast changing world, knowledge gained through qualifications quickly dates and, if you are to remain competent, you must continue to develop and enhance your knowledge. Equally, eligibility for and use of member qualification designations is not simply an indicator of study completed, but also of a commitment to subsequently keeping this knowledge current and being bound by a Code of Ethics. We believe it is essential to be part of this CPD programme and go beyond in studying CII modules, this allows us to: Build publi...

Remote witnessing of wills

There has been much debate since COVID and social distancing about whether wills could be executed remotely. The issue has surrounded the understanding of the word “presence” and could it encompass remote video presence as well as physical presence? When initially put to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) remote presence was rejected in England and Wales “because it was open to abuse”. However the rules have now been relaxed to allow “remote presence” and the main points are as follows: backdated to 31 January 2020 will last until 31 January 2022 or until necessary applies to both wills and codicils MoJ authorised as a last resort for emergencies only where possible arrange for witnesses to be physically present execution should be recorded and that sound and video sufficient to see and hear what is happening signatures must be wet witnesses must see testator sign and not just a pre recorded video While the government retains the power to reduce or extend the deadline for this amendment to ...

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