How to make the most of your pension

Saving for retirement is often little more than an afterthought when there are more pressing concerns to put money aside for, such as a house, school fees… the list goes on. Yet having a robust retirement plan in place has never been so crucial. Fewer people are saving into a company pension plan than at any point in the past 60 years, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The pensions gap is a growing worry – namely because we are all living longer and crucially will be drawing a pension for a greater amount of time than our parents did.

Gold-plated pensions that pay a fixed amount are a dying breed and while the Government is trying to plug the gap with the introduction of auto-enrolment – which puts all employees in a workplace scheme by 2018 unless they opt out – minimum levels are low and so this alone won’t be enough to fund a decent retirement.

State pensions too are being squeezed with the inevitable delays to the age at which people are eligible to take it without getting slammed by early-access fees and tax penalties.

Prince Charles waded into the pensions debate in October, telling the industry to help people make the most of their money or risk consigning them to “an exceptionally miserable future”.

For more information on how to find your way through the tangle of pensions, download the latest edition of FE Trustnet Investazine here.