Self Invested Personal Pensions are ideally suited to:

• Fee earning professionals and self employed business people
• Directors and other high earning employees without access to a SSAS
• Those wishing to consolidate their existing pension arrangements into a single flexible arrangement

Although they are tax efficient arrangements for individuals funding for retirement they are also widely used to provide benefits whilst in retirement. It is, therefore, important to have a number of different investment strategies to meet either a pre funding objective or one that is established post retirement.

With a pre retirement funding strategy the aim is generally to maximise growth until such time as benefits are required. Under the current rules you can access your SIPP anytime between age 50 (increasing to age 55 on 6 th April 2010) and 75.

With any strategy it is important for us to assess your attitude to risk and expectations regarding your income in retirement. We can assist you in identifying any shortfall in funding and provide a suitable investment strategy to match your objectives and level of risk undertaken.

As far as post retirement strategies are concerned it is important to identify the objectives at the point of taking benefits. The flexibility associated with Unsecured Pension (USP), previously referred to as Income drawdown, means you can adjust your strategy from time to time depending on your personal circumstances and market conditions generally. In general terms it is important to maintain the purchasing power of the retirement fund so that the pension is maintained throughout. However, there are no guarantees with this approach so it is important to review matters regularly.

Any post retirement strategy generally seeks to protect the future pension by adopting a more defensive approach when preparing an asset allocation model. The fact that future investment returns can be lower with a more defensive portfolio makes it important to have a clear understanding of what can be achieved.

Our Wealth Management team are experienced in establishing strategies for you to ensure you retirement fund is managed in the most effective way.