You don’t understand your retirement income options

Last year I wrote a post that described the 40 questions consumers should ask themselves, their pension pot provider and their adviser, to ensure they understood their at retirement income options.

Between Christmas and the New Year I took that post one (big) step further and wrote a book called How to Take Your Pension Pot- A Practical Guide to Your Retirement Options.

There is a massive amount of information available on the choices about what to do with your pension pot at retirement – some written in a consumer friendly fashion and some less so – but as far as we are aware little about how best to find out about the right choices.

With a sea change in pension choices coming up in April, arming yourself with the right questions to ask is the obvious starting point.

It is estimated that about 400,000 people each year have to make their retirement income choice and a substantial number are making those choices without fully understanding what they are doing.

In Money Marketing magazine today it is reported that ILC-UK carried poll of 5,000 people aged 55 -70 who are yet to retire or take benefits from their pension pot;

• Only 35% understood what “income drawdown” is; • 50% understood what an “annuity” is; • 20% understood what an “enhanced annuity” is.

The survey also identified that only a small number of people had made retirement plans; 60% of interviewed people had made no plan even when they were close to taking benefits from their pension pot.

There has always been something of a an asymmetrical relationship between consumers and the financial services profession. Financial Planners may have the answers but many consumers do not have all the questions.

We want to change that by providing the questions to ask.

Regardless of whether you are going to take advice, take guidance or DIY the decision be prepared with the right questions to ask.

At £1.99 for the Kindle edition and £5.99 for the paperbook edition, buying a copy of How to Take Your Pension Pot is a cheap and easy way to properly understand your retirement income options.