Planning now gives you greater control – even after death

In today’s Press & Journal, Carbon’s Richard Wadsworth looks at the challenging topic of leaving your pension pot to loved ones, and exerting some form of control over where your funds go.

As Richard points out, the new rules state that if you die before you reach 75, provided you have a defined contribution pension – for example, a personal pension, stakeholder pension or self-invested pension – your remaining funds can be passed on tax-free to anyone. This sounds fairly straight forward, however there are important things for people of all ages need to consider depending on where they want the pension fund to go after their death.

In his article, Richard provides answers to some of the commonly asked questions around passing your pension fund on when you die. For example, what if you want to pass funds to charity or specific individuals, or what happens if you don’t yet know to whom you want to pass funds? In each case there are solutions, however the overriding message from Richard is the need to plan as early as possible if you want to reduce the size of your taxable estate, minimise the inheritance tax payable, and exert control over your pension fund after you die.

It is a very interesting read that certainly encourages you to investigate your existing pension fund arrangements and perhaps begin the process of determining the best plan to suit your circumstances.

You can read Richard’s full article here.

If you would like to discuss your financial planning options, please contact us with any questions you might have. You can do this by calling our head office on 0131 220 0000, or by emailing us at enquiries@carbonfinancial.co.uk. or you can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

You can view Richard Wadsworth’s profile here.