Advice makes you better off

There was a great pull-out in The Times today – Sort out your pension: 10 things you need to do.

Two points particularly captured my attention.

The first was the suggestion that investing pension fund money was “daunting”.

I accept that for some people it can be, but it needn’t be so.

What is important is to have a process for making the decision.

Link investment fund choice towards your attitude to risk and make sure that you review your pension plan on a regular basis.

One commentator suggested this should be once a year and I agree with that kind of frequency.

Perhaps more frequently the closer that you get to retirement.

The second point in the supplement that I found interesting was the research carried out by Standard Life which suggests that people who take retirement advice from an IFA have an average retirement income of £493 per month compared with £261 per month for those who do it themselves.

So for those who wonder why they should pay an adviser for services this seems to be quite a compelling reason for doing so.

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