New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have shown that employers paid £40.6bn into company pension schemes in 2008. This represents a £4bn (9%) drop year-on-year.

Should you ever take retirement benefits early from your pension plans and in particular take the much loved tax free cash lump sum?

The difference between need and want is an important part of retirement planning when choosing annuity options. Choices sometimes force you to have to think and consider what you really need, rather than what you might want.

A local lady came into see me yesterday for some basic advice about her pensions. Like many people I meet, she started our conversation by pointing out that “I don’t really understand pensions”.

Pension investment funds will, in the main, have fallen in value over the last couple of years. So the challenge for those individuals who are close to retirement is going to be do they take their benefits now or do they defer taking benefits in the hope of further recovery.

Why would someone have two Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) plans? A client we met this week did had two.

We learned today that the introduction of Personal Accounts (the new form of Government enforced savings for retirement) will be soft launched in 2011 with volunteer employers.

Savers need to readdress their approach to private pensions in 2010 – a year in which the general election will shape the financial landscape, says Informed Choice.

I had a great client meeting yesterday morning. We spoke about retirement planning and he explained how he needed to accumulate £1 million in his pension pot by age 65.

The FT reports today on a survey by the Association of Consulting Actuaries. The survey tells us that almost 9 out of 10 final salary pension schemes are closed to new members and that 18% are now closed to further contributions by existing members.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has today published policy proposals intended to improve peoples’ options for taking retirement income from their Defined Contribution pensions.

Financial Planner is the official magazine of the Institute of Financial Planning. Each month they publish a ficticous client case study and invite two Certified Financial Planner (CFP) professionals to provide a response.

As we start to pour over the detail in the Pre-Budget Report, our initial reaction is that pensions appear to have escaped quite lightly. There were several pension announcements within the Chancellor’s speech and the report.

Back in the 1960s, the original hippies celebrated “flower power”. As this generation approaches retirement, a new ‘HIPpy’ spirit has emerged. HIPpy in this context refers to the ‘Home Is Pension’ mantra so common amongst Britain’s over-50s.

Informed Choice chartered financial planner Nick Bamford was featured in an article on thisismoney.co.uk recently, answering a question from a reader about what will happen to his annuity fund when he dies.