Occupational workplace pensions

Most employers are obliged to have an occupational pension scheme for their employees

There are two main types of occupational workplace pension schemes:

Defined-contribution schemes
A defined-contribution (DC) or money-purchase pension scheme is one that invests the money you pay into it, together with any employer’s contribution, and gives you an accumulated sum on retirement, with which you can secure a pension income, either by buying an annuity or using income drawdown.

Occupational pension schemes are increasingly a DC, rather than defined benefit (DB), where the pension you receive is linked to salary and the number of years worked. As an alternative to a company pension scheme, some employers offer their workforce access to a Group Personal Pension (GPP) or stakeholder pension scheme.

External provider 
In either case, this is run by an external pension provider (typically an insurance firm) and joined by members on an individual basis. It’s just like taking out a personal pension, although your employer may negotiate reduced management fees. They may also make a contribution on your behalf. GPPs are run on a DC basis, with each member building up an individual pension ‘pot’.

The amount you receive depends on the performance of the funds in which the money has been invested and what charges have been deducted.

Investment choice
Although your total pension pot usually increases each year you continue to pay into the scheme, there’s no way of accurately predicting what the final total will be and how much pension income this will provide. Unlike those who belong to a DB pension scheme, members of DC pension schemes have a degree of choice as to where their pension contributions are invested.

Many opt to put their money in the scheme’s ‘default fund’, but some will want to be more cautious, investing in cash funds and corporate bonds, while others may prefer a more ‘adventurous’ mix, with equity and overseas growth funds. GPPs also offer investment choice, often between funds run by the pension provider.

Personal fund
Defined contribution pension schemes allow you to build up a personal fund, which is then used to provide a pension income during your retirement. The usual way of doing this is to buy a lifetime annuity. The alternative is to leave your pension pot invested and draw a regular income from it each year.

Lifetime annuities are essentially a form of insurance, which removes individual risk by paying out a set amount each year for the rest of your life. How much you get depends on your age, your health and the prevailing annuity rates at the time you come to convert your fund.

Open market option
A workplace fund will usually negotiate a rate on your behalf, but you’re not obliged to take this and can opt instead to shop around, comparing rates from other providers, by exercising the open market option. For those with poor health, it can be particularly advantageous.

Drawdown schemes are less predictable. They continue to depend on investment performance to maintain your pension pot. If the investments do badly, or you deplete your capital too early, there’s a risk of your income declining significantly before you die.

Before buying an annuity, you can currently on retirement take up to 25% of your pension savings as a tax-free lump sum. This reduces the pension income you can secure by buying an annuity, but may be worthwhile if you need the money (to pay off outstanding debts, for example) or decide to invest it independently.

The earliest you can draw a pension or take a lump sum is from the age of 55. However, retirees can now gain greater access to their pension pots since 27 March this year, as the first in a series of radical reforms announced in the Chancellor’s 2014 Budget were introduced.

From 6 April 2015, all restrictions on access to your pension pot will also be removed, with the tax on withdrawing a pension fund cut to your personal rate. This will make it easier to use your entire pot
as you wish.

Defined-benefit schemes
A defined benefit (DB) pension scheme is one that promises to pay out a certain sum each year once you reach retirement age. This is normally based on the number of years you have paid into the scheme and your salary either when you leave or retire from the scheme (final salary), or an average of your salary while you were a member (career average). The amount you get depends on the scheme’s accrual rate. This is a fraction of your salary, multiplied by the number of years you were a contributing member.

Typically, these schemes have an accrual rate of 1/60th or 1/80th. In a 1/60th scheme, this means that if your salary was £30,000, and you worked at the firm for
30 years, your annual pension would be £15,000 (30 x 1/60th x £30,000 = £15,000).

Your pay at retirement
How your salary is defined depends on the type of scheme. In a final salary scheme, it is defined as your pay at retirement, or when you leave (if earlier). In a career average scheme, it is the average salary you’ve been paid for a certain number of years.

Final salary and career-average schemes offer the option of taking a tax-free lump sum when you begin drawing your pension. This is restricted to a maximum 25% of the value of the benefits to which you are entitled. The limit is based on receiving a pension for 20 years – so for someone entitled to £15,000 a year, the maximum lump sum might be £75,000 (25% x £15,000 x 20= £75,000).

Scheme’s ‘commutation factor’
Taking a lump sum at the outset may reduce the amount of pension you get each year. The amount you give up is determined by the scheme’s ‘commutation factor’. This dictates how much cash you receive for each £1 of pension you surrender. If it is 12, for example, and you take a £12,000 lump sum, your annual income will fall by £1,000.

As well as providing pension income, most defined-benefit company schemes also offer additional benefits to their members.

These include as follows:

• death in service payments to a spouse, registered civil partner or other nominated individual if you die before reaching pensionable age and/or a continuing partner’s pension if you predecease them after reaching pensionable age

• a full pension if you’re forced to retire early due to ill health
• a reduced pension if you retire early through choice. It normally cannot be paid before age 55, and it may be considerably reduced by the scheme’s ‘actuarial reduction’ rules. An actuarial reduction is a cut in the yearly pension (to take into account that it will have to be paid out for more years). It is common to surrender 6% for each year below normal retirement age that you retire. The pension will also be lower, because the number of years on which it is based will be fewer than would have been the case if you’d worked a full term

Closed to new members
Most private sector schemes have now been closed to new members and replaced by defined contribution schemes. A large number remain open to existing members who are still employees, however, or those who have left the firm but built up contributions while they were there and retain the right to a ‘preserved pension’ when they reach retirement age.

Many public sector pensions are still defined-benefit schemes, underwritten by central government. This has caused them to be called ‘gold-plated’, as they offer a certainty that few private sector schemes can now match. But, even in the public sector, pension promises are being cut back with a shift from final salary to career average and increases in the normal pension age.

Expensive to run
Because they’re so expensive to run, final salary schemes have been closed to new members since the 1990s. This means that new employees cannot join them, but are covered by defined contribution money purchase schemes instead.

Until recently, closed schemes continued to remain open to existing members, who carried on making contributions each year and accruing additional years’ pensionable service. Some schemes found this too much of a drain, however, and have opted to close to existing members too.

Pension is ‘preserved’
When this happens, employees at a firm can no longer pay into the final salary scheme, even though they continue to work for the same employer. Their defined benefit pension is ‘preserved’ in the same way as someone who has left the firm, and they are typically invited to pay into a defined contribution (money-purchase) scheme for the rest of their career.

This leaves them with two separate pension incomes – one from the old defined benefit scheme,
based on the number of years’ service and salary at the time of closure, and another from the new defined contribution scheme, based on the contributions they have paid into it. This is not guaranteed, but depends instead on the scheme’s underlying investment performance (net of charges) and annuity rates at the time the member wants the pension to start.

It can be reassuring to take a long-term perspective

As wealth grows, so too can the complexity of its management. Our approach is to cut through complexity and offer you clear guidance to achieve your goals. Today’s challenging economic and global conditions, coupled with uncertainty in Europe, North America and China, have combined to create a degree of cautiousness among many investors. A long-term investment strategy will provide you with a clear advantage during uncertain times.

 

When stock markets are going through one of their inevitable periods of turmoil, it can be reassuring to take a long-term perspective and remember that you are investing for years, rather than days or months. This may remind you that there is plenty of time for the markets to recover from any temporary setbacks.

Another benefit of taking a long-term perspective is the way it helps us see that the general trend in stock markets has been positive, even though there have been many times when share prices have fallen sharply. When you are devising a long-term strategy for your investments, it is important to tailor it to your specific needs. The most important aspect of the decision is likely to be the length of time you are investing for.

A highly successful investor
Warren Buffett is one of the world’s richest people and is a highly successful investor. He’s achieved this partly by identifying companies that he believed were worth more than their market value, investing in them and, crucially, holding that investment for the long term. It sounds remarkably simple, but given the ups and downs of the global markets, it takes a high level of discipline, nerve and conviction in your decisions.

Keep focused on your end goals
It’s important to have in place a sound investment strategy to keep you focused on your end goals and not to let market noise sway you. If appropriate, consider investing at regular intervals over the long term. Keep on investing through market lows when share prices are undervalued, so that you gain more wealth when markets rise again. This can help smooth some of the stock market ups and downs, and you avoid investing all of your money when the market is at a peak.

Your attitude towards investment risk
Understand your time horizon and your attitude towards risk. They affect how you invest. We’re all different, and our personal risk attitude can change with our circumstances and age. The nearer you approach retirement, the more cautious you’re likely to become and the keener you’re likely to be to protect the fund you have already built. Note that the value of your fund may fluctuate and you may not get back your original investment.

Spread risk through diversification
Diversify your portfolio so that when one part of the market does not perform it is balanced out by another part of the market that does. View your investment portfolio as a whole. Asset allocation is the process of dividing your investment among different assets, such as cash, bonds, equities (shares in companies) and property. The idea behind allocating your money among different assets is to spread risk through diversification – the concept of not putting all your eggs in one basket.

Assets that behave differently
Balance your portfolio and maintain a sensible balance between different types of investments. To benefit from diversification, you need to invest in assets that behave differently from each other. Each asset type has a relationship with others – some have very little or no relation to each other (known as a ‘low correlation’), whereas others are inversely connected, meaning that they move in opposite ways to each other (called a ‘negative correlation’).

Mirroring the performance of a particular share index
There will always be times when one asset class outperforms another. Generally, cash and bonds provide stability while shares and property provide growth. Funds are either actively managed, where managers make decisions about the investments, or passively managed (typically called a ‘tracker’), where the fund is set up to mirror the performance of a particular share index rather than beat it.

Benefit from compound growth
Think long term. It is time in the market that counts – not timing the market. The longer you are invested in the market, the greater the likelihood of making up for any losses. What’s more, the sooner you start investing, the more you will benefit from compound growth.

Investing as tax-efficiently as possible
Different investments have different tax treatments. Tax is consequential to many wealth management decisions. Our understanding and experience can help you manage and protect your wealth, whatever form it takes. We can advise you about the tax treatment of your current investments, and of any investments you are considering, to ensure that you are investing tax-efficiently. It’s important to remember that your requirements are unique to you. What’s a good investment for one individual is not automatically a good investment choice for you, so don’t follow the latest investment trends unless they fit with your plan.

Review your portfolio
As the years go by, it is important to review your portfolio regularly to make sure that it still suits your long-term strategy. If an investment has done particularly well, you may find that it now accounts for a disproportionate share of your overall portfolio and you need to do some rebalancing.

In addition, you will probably need to adjust the weightings of your investments from time to time – for example, to reduce the amount of risk you are exposed to as you get nearer to retirement.

UK Trusts, passing assets to beneficiaries

You may decide to use a trust to pass assets to beneficiaries, particularly those who aren’t immediately able to look after their own affairs. If you do use a trust to give something away, this removes it from your estate provided you don’t use it or get any benefit from it. But bear in mind that gifts into trust may be liable to inheritance tax.
Trusts offer a means of holding and managing money or property for people who may not be ready or able to manage it for themselves. Used in conjunction with a will, they can also help ensure that your assets are passed on in accordance with your wishes after you die. Here we take a look at the main types of UK family trust.

When writing a will, there are several kinds of trust that can be used to help minimise an inheritance tax (IHT) liability. On March 22, 2006 the government changed some of the rules regarding trusts and introduced some transitional rules for trusts set up before this date.

A trust might be created in various circumstances, for example:

– when someone is too young to handle their affairs

– when someone can’t handle their affairs because they’re incapacitated

– to pass on money or property while you’re still alive

– under the terms of a will

– when someone dies without leaving a will (England and Wales only)

What is a trust?
A trust is an obligation binding a person called a trustee to deal with property in a particular way for the benefit of one or more ‘beneficiaries’.

Settlor
The settlor creates the trust and puts property into it at the start, often adding more later. The settlor says in the trust deed how the trust’s property and income should be used.

Trustee
Trustees are the ‘legal owners’ of the trust property and must deal with it in the way set out in the trust deed. They also administer the trust. There can be one or more trustees.

Beneficiary
This is anyone who benefits from the property held in the trust. The trust deed may name the beneficiaries individually or define a class of beneficiary, such as the settlor’s family.

Trust property
This is the property (or ‘capital’) that is put into the trust by the settlor. It can be anything, including:

– land or buildings
– investments
– money
– antiques or other valuable property

The main types of private UK trust

Bare trust
In a bare trust the property is held in the trustee’s name but the beneficiary can take actual possession of both the income and trust property whenever they want. The beneficiaries are named and cannot be changed.

You can gift assets to a child via a bare trust while you are alive, which will be treated as a Potentially Exempt Transfer (PET) until the child reaches age 18, (the age of majority in England and Wales), when the child can legally demand his or her share of the trust fund from the trustees.

All income arising within a bare trust in excess of £100 per annum will be treated as belonging to the parents (assuming that the gift was made by the parents). But providing the settlor survives seven years from the date of placing the assets in the trust, the assets can pass IHT free to a child at age 18.

Life interest or interest in possession trust
In an interest in possession trust the beneficiary has a legal right to all the trust’s income (after tax and expenses), but not to the property of the trust.

These trusts are typically used to leave income arising from a trust to a second surviving spouse for the rest of their life. On their death, the trust property reverts to other beneficiaries, (known as the remaindermen), who are often the children from the first marriage.

You can, for example, set up an interest in possession trust in your will. You might then leave the income from the trust property to your spouse for life and the trust property itself to your children when your spouse dies.

With a life interest trust, the trustees often have a ‘power of appointment’, which means they can appoint capital to the beneficiaries (who can be from within a widely defined class, such as the settlor’s extended family) when they see fit.

Where an interest in possession trust was in existence before March 22, 2006, the underlying capital is treated as belonging to the beneficiary or beneficiaries for IHT purposes, for example, it has to be included as part of their estate.

Transfers into interest in possession trusts after March 22, 2006 are taxable as follows:

20 per cent tax payable based on the amount gifted into the trust at the outset, which is in excess of the prevailing nil rate band

Ten years after the trust was created, and on each subsequent ten-year anniversary, a periodic charge, currently 6 per cent, is applied to the portion of the trust assets that is in excess of the prevailing nil rate band.

The value of the available ‘nil rate band’ on each ten-year anniversary may be reduced, for instance, by the initial amount of any new gifts put into the trust within seven years of its creation.

There is also an exit charge on any distribution of trust assets between each ten-year anniversary.

Discretionary trust
The trustees of a discretionary trust decide how much income or capital, if any, to pay to each of the beneficiaries but none has an automatic right to either. The trust can have a widely defined class of beneficiaries, typically the settlor’s extended family.

Discretionary trusts are a useful way to pass on property while the settlor is still alive and allows the settlor to keep some control over it through the terms of the trust deed.

Discretionary trusts are often used to gift assets to grandchildren, as the flexible nature of these trusts allows the settlor to wait and see how they turn out before making outright gifts.

Discretionary trusts also allow for changes in circumstances, such as divorce, re-marriage and the arrival of children and stepchildren after the establishment of the trust.

When any discretionary trust is wound up, an exit charge is payable of up to 6 per cent of the value of the remaining assets in the trust, subject to the reliefs for business and agricultural property.

Accumulation and maintenance trust
An accumulation and maintenance trust is used to provide money to look after children during the age of minority. Any income that isn’t spent is added to the trust property, all of which later passes to the children.

In England and Wales the beneficiaries become entitled to the trust property when they reach the age of 18. At that point the trust turns into an ‘interest in possession’ trust. The position is different in Scotland, as, once a beneficiary reaches the age of 16, they could require the trustees to hand over the trust property.

Accumulation and maintenance trusts that were already established before 22 March 2006, and where the child is not entitled to access the trust property until an age up to 25, could be liable to an Inheritance Tax charge of up to 4.2 per cent of the value of the trust assets.

It has not been possible to create accumulation and maintenance trusts trust since 22 March 2006 for Inheritance Tax purposes. Instead, they are taxed for Inheritance Tax as discretionary trusts.

Mixed trust
A mixed trust may come about when one beneficiary of an accumulation and maintenance trust reaches 18 and others are still minors. Part of the trust then becomes an interest in possession trust.

Trusts for vulnerable persons 
These are special trusts, often discretionary trusts, arranged for a beneficiary who is mentally or physically disabled.  They do not suffer from the IHT rules applicable to standard discretionary trusts and can be used without affecting entitlement to state benefits; however, strict rules apply.

Tax on income from UK trusts
Trusts are taxed as entities in their own right. The beneficiaries pay tax separately on income they receive from the trust at their usual tax rates, after allowances.

Taxation of property settled on trusts
How a particular type of trust is charged to tax will depend upon the nature of that trust and how it falls within the taxing legislation. For example, a charge to IHT may arise when putting property into some trusts, and on other chargeable occasions – for instance, when further property is added to the trust, on distributions of capital from the trust or on the ten-yearly anniversary of the trust.