Are Pensions too complicated?

Well Andrew Haldane seems to think so!

My usual morning scan of my generic news app led me to an interesting article this morning. The Bank of England's Andrew Haldane says he cannot make "the remotest sense of pensions" and many experts "have no clue either" read the story. The Bank of England's chief economist, says the complex nature of retirement funds is harming Britons' efforts to save enough for their old age, it continued.

Whilst headlines are meant to shock and prompt us to read on, the thing that alarmed me most about the article was the point that Andrew feels the complex nature of pensions is harming our efforts to save. Having worked in Financial Services for over 16 years I come across clients every day who share with me their lack of understanding on pensions and it’s my job to educate them, a part of the job I enjoy. But if a Bank of England Chief Economist is having trouble, what hope is there for the rest of us?

So it’s time to go back to basics! If you put some money into a pension now, you will have some money when you come to retire. The more money you put in, the more money you will have. There is tax relief on personal contributions, so for every £1 that goes in, the cost to you is only 80p (or 60p if you pay higher rate tax). When you come to retire, you can have 25% of the value of your fund tax free, the rest is taxable.

Now, there is a lot that goes on between, but that’s what we’re here to help with. Pensions needn’t be too confusing. Get good, independent financial advice and make sure you are putting the pieces in place for the retirement you want.

*Investing into a pension is a long term commitment. The value of the pension can go down or up and you may not receive back what you originally invested.