• Acorn Financial Planning
  • 25 St Georges Road
  • Cheltenham
  • Gloucestershire
  • GL50 3DT
  • Tel: 01242 230024
  • Fax: 01242 230052

Company Pensions

Employers work place pension schemes including Final Salary, Money Purchase, and Group Personal Pensions (GPP).

Group personal pensions are becoming more popular with employers, these are low cost personal pension plans bought by groups of employees under the auspices of their employer. (See section on Personal Pensions)

Your employer will make a contribution to your occupational pension scheme in addition to deducting any contribution that you are required to make. You may make extra contributions to your occupational scheme to boost your pension provision up to a maximum limit  of 100% of earnings or £3,600 (whichever is the greater) subject to a maximum of £50,000 per annum which is the current annual allowance. Your employers contributions count towards this limit. 


Eligibility

Eligibility to join a company scheme varies from company to company. Some allow their employees to join either straight away or very soon after joining the company, whilst others put in place conditions before an employee can join such as a minimum 2 years of service, or upon reaching a certain age.


The two main types

There are two main types of company scheme, final salary & money purchase . They differ greatly in what they offer and how they work. At present, final salary schemes are the most common in terms of number of members, but many large firms are now switching over to the money purchase type because they are cheaper for the employer to fund .  

A PENSION IS A LONG TERM INVESTMENT THE FUND VALUE MAY FLUCTUATE AND CAN GO DOWN. YOUR EVENTUAL INCOME MAY DEPEND ON THE SIZE OF THE FUND AT RETIREMENT, FUTURE INTEREST RATES, AND TAX LEGISLATION

 

KEEPING YOU AHEAD OF CHANGE

Not only the Olympics are happening in 2012.

The Government is planning to bring in s new system for Pension Saving in April 2012 called 'Personal Accounts'

The fine details are not yet known, but the facts so far are as follows :

  • All Employees have to be enrolled into either a 'good' pension scheme or a Personal Account if they are between the ages of 22 and State Pension Age and earn more than £5,035 per annum.  A 'good' pension scheme is one which has at least the same contribution levels as personal accounts.
  • Employees younger than 22 or older than State Pension Age can opt-in.
  • Employers will be required to make a minimum contribution level of 3% of pay, and Employees will also have to pay 3% of pay and 1% from the Government in the form of tax relief.

Personal Accounts will offer a basic retirement solution, but they may not be right for you as they are unlikely to have the same range of features and benefits that a good quality pension scheme can provide, including the range of Investment choices and Retirement Options.

WE SPECIALISE IN THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF GOOD QUALITY PENSION SCHEMES - TALK TO US AND SEE WHAT WE CAN DO FOR YOU.

 

 

 

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