Don’t overdo pension drawdown

Low take-up of financial advice

Low take-up of financial advice and guidance provision means that many older people make risky decisions they may later regret. Many investors are at risk of taking an unsustainable income level and being left financially vulnerable later in retirement.

The government’s tax takings from pensions are currently around £2bn higher than expected due to pensioners drawing large sums all at once and/or drawing so much they pay a higher tax rate. Also, around 30,000 drawdown users are holding inappropriate investments that could later result in losses.

Unsustainable withdrawals

Accessing drawdown while the market is falling can harm individual pension funds – a phenomenon known as ‘the sequence of returns risk’. In other words, drawing from a fund in a falling market can make it harder for the fund to recover later, as it has less capital to work with. Tens of thousands of retirees face a large drop in income or risk running out of money altogether by not modifying their withdrawals at the right time.

Hilltop Finance can help

It’s essential to be informed and understand all your options about pension drawdown to ensure you don’t risk financial hardship later in life. Here at Hilltop Finance, we can help to bring clarity to your retirement decision-making, so do get in touch.

Please call our team on 0161 413 7051, and we can discuss how we could help you with your retirement planning and pension drawdown advice.

*Zurich, 2019