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Self employed pensions advice

Bedfordspurs

Bedfordspurs

Terry Naylor
Does anyone work for themselves and now much about pensions?
I have my own PSC and also now work for the government inside IR35
I wanna set up a pension and would appreciate any guidance
I have a couple of ex company ones that is bring into it if possible
 
I own a business which contracts myself and others into public sector work, outside IR35, and I chuck what I can into a bog standard stakeholder pension. What do you want to know?

The likelihood is that any scheme set up by former PAYE employers will have lower charges than whatever you can access as a one man band or personal/stakeholder pension, so consolidation is a bad idea unless you’re close to your dotage.
 
I was self employed before and put 4-5% into pension saving. In addition I started saving in index equity funds. Those are often the safest for long term saving, and have the lowest provision charges. Since I started investing in the index equity fund about 10-12 years ago, I've made 550% profit. Other than that, I don't know enough of English legislation to comment on what is the best way, ie in terms of tax reduction and so on.
 
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The basic rule w/r/t tax is that pensions are more tax efficient than anything else imaginable until you try to put over £40k in within a single year. As long as you’ll stay below that limit, put as much as you can into the pension.
 
ShipOfGoldblum said:
I own a business which contracts myself and others into public sector work, outside IR35, and I chuck what I can into a bog standard stakeholder pension. What do you want to know?

The likelihood is that any scheme set up by former PAYE employers will have lower charges than whatever you can access as a one man band or personal/stakeholder pension, so consolidation is a bad idea unless you’re close to your dotage.
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I’m 43 and looking for a flexible option in case I’m ever out of contract
Other than that ... I’m not fussy, but just want one that will grow sensibly
Did read somewhere that the tax break comes via a self assessment which surprised me as I’d expect it to be taken before tax
 
Anyone else know how you go about checking if you have old workplace pensions from previous employers? I've bounced back and forward between permanent and contract roles over the last 20 years and I need to go back and figure out the perm roles where I was paying into their pension schemes. I have figured out the most recent one or two but the ones going way back are a bit trickier as I can't find the paperwork anymore. Do I need to actually call up the old employer and ask if they can still remember me from 2005-2006 or is there an easier way!?
 
Bedfordspurs said:
Does anyone work for themselves and now much about pensions?
I have my own PSC and also now work for the government inside IR35
I wanna set up a pension and would appreciate any guidance
I have a couple of ex company ones that is bring into it if possible
Click to expand...

My own advice here would be to put your current question on the back burner, at least for a short while. My story, I was in one of the big techs and contacted by a St James Place authorised partner in about 2016. I've worked with them ever since. They will just organise my life with me. I've done everything from pension consolidation, investments, wills/LPOA and property etc. I even setup a trust model in case I die before pensionable age.

The way it works with pre-existing pensions as an example, is that you will sign a couple of proxy forms with your IFA and they will do the due diligence on your old company pensions with the providers. They will then benchmark against the private pension model and advise whether you leave them be, or consolidate. They will also help you find any carry-forward opportunities, if you've missed out on your rolling 3-year tax relief. You're probably too young to have final salary pensions, and my guess is that SJP would out-perform any of the main providers that companies use for the types of pension you have. So would Quilter and the other big guys, as they have the best fund managers in the country. Only last week, I authorised my IFA to change the pension portfolio mix between UK, Europe, US and Asia based on his recommendation to help me grow my pension pot. I just had to send one email to authorise.

With this model, I've also noticed as well that my IFA doesn't try to push his people onto me if I've already got my own. Instead, he makes sure that the people I am using are providing a good service to you. Example, I've used the same mortgage advisor for 25 years and he's a good friend. I just share the work he does for me with my IFA in our annual reviews which are entire portfolio based.

So don't know whether you have an "all in" IFA, but I would recommend the model if you're starting this new adventure.
 
dingdongo said:
Anyone else know how you go about checking if you have old workplace pensions from previous employers? I've bounced back and forward between permanent and contract roles over the last 20 years and I need to go back and figure out the perm roles where I was paying into their pension schemes. I have figured out the most recent one or two but the ones going way back are a bit trickier as I can't find the paperwork anymore. Do I need to actually call up the old employer and ask if they can still remember me from 2005-2006 or is there an easier way!?
Click to expand...

Never used it, but there is this - https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details

Should have mentioned above, I made sure I had my whole life online as part of this process. I consolidated about 5 or 6 pensions and went through the process of getting digital access to all of them.
 
Bedfordspurs said:
Does anyone work for themselves and now much about pensions?
I have my own PSC and also now work for the government inside IR35
I wanna set up a pension and would appreciate any guidance
I have a couple of ex company ones that is bring into it if possible
Click to expand...

Yep. I’m not sure how old you are Bedford but there was a limited advantage to retaining small pots as they didn’t used to count towards the lifetime allowanc - but this advantage has now gone- but I suspect there remain some tax free cash advanteges that might outweigh the potential reduction in charges via consolidating.

As a business owner who has worked in and out of ir35 I try and maximise my employer contribution to reduce cgt and sidestep national insurance.

Bells platform is pretty decent but you can also make single or regular premiums int any existing dc pension- that’s what I have done as I had an group personal pension for an old employer which already had low charges and a decent platform.
 
Muttley said:
My own advice here would be to put your current question on the back burner, at least for a short while. My story, I was in one of the big techs and contacted by a St James Place authorised partner in about 2016. I've worked with them ever since. They will just organise my life with me. I've done everything from pension consolidation, investments, wills/LPOA and property etc. I even setup a trust model in case I die before pensionable age.

The way it works with pre-existing pensions as an example, is that you will sign a couple of proxy forms with your IFA and they will do the due diligence on your old company pensions with the providers. They will then benchmark against the private pension model and advise whether you leave them be, or consolidate. They will also help you find any carry-forward opportunities, if you've missed out on your rolling 3-year tax relief. You're probably too young to have final salary pensions, and my guess is that SJP would out-perform any of the main providers that companies use for the types of pension you have. So would Quilter and the other big guys, as they have the best fund managers in the country. Only last week, I authorised my IFA to change the pension portfolio mix between UK, Europe, US and Asia based on his recommendation to help me grow my pension pot. I just had to send one email to authorise.

With this model, I've also noticed as well that my IFA doesn't try to push his people onto me if I've already got my own. Instead, he makes sure that the people I am using are providing a good service to you. Example, I've used the same mortgage advisor for 25 years and he's a good friend. I just share the work he does for me with my IFA in our annual reviews which are entire portfolio based.

So don't know whether you have an "all in" IFA, but I would recommend the model if you're starting this new adventure.
Click to expand...
The pensions dashboard is coming fairly soon I wouldn’t waste too much energy beyond going through your old paperwork.
 
johnola said:
The pensions dashboard is coming fairly soon I wouldn’t waste too much energy beyond going through your old paperwork.
Click to expand...

I'm assuming that will only show status of existing though, and assume it is held together with your NI number?

It surely won't get into advising people how to optimise their pension portfolios like we were discussing above?

Hadn't seen this before.

One thing I did learn in the last years or so is that they're moving the age where you can take a tax free lump sum out of your pension from 55 to 57 in 2028.
 
Bedfordspurs said:
I’m 48
And literally just left a job so may well be contracting again
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Good stuff thinking about your pension fella.

The other thing is to check where you are with state pension you need so many years of national insurance contributions for the maximum.

I can’t accrue anymore state pension (I am five years older) and you might find you are close to the full stamp- after which there is naff all point taking a regular wage from your company as dividends are so tax efficient.
 
johnola said:
Good stuff thinking about your pension fella.

The other thing is to check where you are with state pension you need so many years of national insurance contributions for the maximum.

I can’t accrue anymore state pension (I am five years older) and you might find you are close to the full stamp- after which there is naff all point taking a regular wage from your company as dividends are so tax efficient.
Click to expand...
Interesting
I need to check that out
 
If you're a man born after 1951

www.citizensadvice.org.uk

State Pension

Check how much State Pension you can get and how many qualifying years you need to get the full amount.
www.citizensadvice.org.uk www.citizensadvice.org.uk

You’ll get the new State Pension, introduced in April 2016. The full basic State Pension you can get is £221.20 per week.

You usually need 35 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions to get the full amount. You’ll still get something if you have at least 10 qualifying years - these can be before or after April 2016.

If you’ve had a workplace, personal or stakeholder pension in the past and been paying reduced National Insurance contributions (known as ‘contracting out’), your starting amount may be less than the full amount. Contracting out has ended under the new system.

You can check how much State Pension you might get on GOV.UK.

Deferring your State Pension​

You don't have to claim your State Pension once you’ve reached State Pension age. If you want, you can put off (defer) your claim and get extra pension when you do claim.

If you’re already claiming State Pension you can still choose to defer it. You can only do this once. This means that when you get your pension again, you won’t be able to defer a second time.

The extra pension will be paid as an increase in your weekly rate of State Pension. For every 9 weeks you defer, you'll get a pension increase of 1%. This works out at about 5.8% for every full year. Your pension won't increase if you defer while you or your partner gets certain benefits, such as Pension Credit.
 
Muttley said:
I'm assuming that will only show status of existing though, and assume it is held together with your NI number?

It surely won't get into advising people how to optimise their pension portfolios like we were discussing above?

Hadn't seen this before.

One thing I did learn in the last years or so is that they're moving the age where you can take a tax free lump sum out of your pension from 55 to 57 in 2028.
Click to expand...

There are pitfalls with nino (some of which have been recycled) but I believe the principle was entirely to trace long since forgotten pots, schemes and contracts for which a person retained some benefit entitlement. That is you check the dashboard and contact the relevant administrator for information.

I used to write and authorise training material for those salesmen who did G60 then AFPC modules a long while ago and have built db pensions calculation and admin claims systems - and but I still don’t claim to be a pensions expert as it’s so damn specific to the specific scheme and time of accrual.
 
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