Embracing retirement: a new chapter of life begins

Your goal, like that of many retirees, may be to generate as much income as possible from investments, while making sure that enough remains in your pension pot and other investments such as an Individual Savings Account (ISA), so that they last as long as you need them to. There are a number of income producing products you could consider for this.

An annuity could pay you a regular income for the rest of your life, no matter how long you live, giving you valuable financial stability. You can choose the features of the annuity to suit your needs, including how often you receive the payments, and whether they’re fixed or increasing. You could also choose an annuity which provides a regular income for a fixed period of time for example to cover the period between you retiring and your state pension starting.

You could consider using the money saved in your Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) or General Investment Accounts (GIA) to provide an income and/or a lump sum when you retire. Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances and may be subject to change in the future which an adviser could explain.

Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs) offer a tax-efficient and flexible way of keeping your money invested whilst allowing you to draw down an income to fund your lifestyle. You can start to access your pension pot once you reach minimum pension age (this is currently 55 but rising to 57 from April 2028).

Both onshore and offshore bonds are essentially investments in the form of insurance contracts with certain tax advantages as they have a different tax treatment from other UK-based investments.

A long-term care annuity is a type of insurance policy which provides regular payments to a care home for as long as you live in exchange for a lump sum payment which could protect your estate in the long run. This could be particularly valuable if you live significantly beyond your life expectancy.

After you finish working, you’re likely to experience evolving stages of retirement. These can have profound implications, affecting both you and your family. From potentially being active at first to needing care later in life, what are the financial considerations associated with change?

When planning for later life, often people probably think of this as saving enough for retirement or putting a will in place for passing on wealth. But what about planning for later life care? Just because needing care is not a certainty, it doesn’t mean that you can’t plan for it.