Planning for Retirement: The Essentials

A well designed retirement plan begins with understanding the various moving parts of your

current situation and how they fit together. Many people already have already started saving via workplace pensions, ISAs, or other investments (such as buy-to-let property) - but with little in the way of a coherent and cohesive strategy.

Our role is to bring these elements together, assess how well they support your goals, maximise tax efficiency and shape them into a coherent, resilient plan for life after work.

How Will You Get There?

Circumstances change significantly over a lifetime. By the time many people reach retirement, mortgages are often repaid and children are financially independent. As a result, outgoings may be lower, meaning the income required in retirement may not need to match current earnings.

Don’t Overlook the State Pension

The full State Pension is currently around £11,973 a year (or £230.25 per week, based on 2025/26 figures). The amount you receive depends on your National Insurance record, and you need at least 10 qualifying years to receive any State Pension under the new system.

You can check your State Pension forecast online to see what you’re on track to receive and when you’ll be eligible.

It is also worth noting that the State Pension age will rise to 67 by 2028 for both men and women. Minimum pension age (the earliest age at which you can take benefits from a pension) is usually ten years prior to your State Pension age, so please do check this too to avoid the nasty surprise of it increasing from 55 to 57 (I had to break this news to my wife…)!

Building Additional Retirement Income

If you want to retire earlier or enjoy a higher income in retirement, additional savings are

likely to be needed. Tax-efficient vehicles such as pensions and ISAs are powerful tools for

building long term wealth.

Pensions offer several key advantages:

• Tax relief on personal contributions at your highest marginal rate (subject to annual allowance rules)

• Employer contributions, often matched up to a certain level

• Corporation tax relief for employer contributions

• Tax free growth within the pension wrapper

• Up to 25% tax free cash available at retirement (subject to a maximum limit)

Modern pension rules also offer flexibility, allowing you to vary your income to suit your needs, so ensuring you have the right policy in place is essential. Alternatively, you can secure a guaranteed income through an annuity if appropriate.

Making Your Retirement Savings Last

One of the biggest challenges in modern retirement planning is longevity. We are living longer than previous generations, which means retirement savings must stretch further. Spending too much too early can create financial pressure later in life, including the risk of running out of money sooner than expected. A thoughtful, well-structured plan helps ensure your resources last throughout your retirement years.

Demonstrating the effect of your spending plans on your accumulated capital via cashflow planning software can be a very powerful tool and we deploy this for all our clients when formulating a future income strategy.

How Much Will You Need?

This is one of the most important conversations we have with clients. To build a realistic picture, we explore questions such as how long you plan to continue working, whether you intend to stop completely or transition gradually, how you want to spend your time in retirement, and what ongoing costs or responsibilities you expect to have.

Common aspirations include spending more time with family and friends, travelling, passing wealth to the next generation, supporting elderly parents and making provision for your own potential care costs in the future.

Once you and your partner have agreed on what you want your retirement to look like, we can calculate the level of income required to support those goals.

The Value of Starting Early

For those still building their retirement savings, time is one of the most powerful assets available. Regular saving — even in modest amounts — can make a significant difference over the long term. The best time to start planning is today. Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

Important information:

The information above is correct at the time of writing. A pension is a long term investment, and your eventual income will depend on the size of your fund at retirement, future interest rates and tax legislation.