Pension Freedom (FEB 2020)

These new freedoms offer savers more flexibility and choice, but also more risks to consider. Far fewer people now buy a guaranteed income (annuity) and far more seem interested in pension income drawdown. Many have chosen to take cash. There is still much work to do in order to ensure that people manage to negotiate the path from accumulation to decumulation successfully. 

People say that they want a regular income in retirement but getting there from a personal pension pot now involves a more difficult choice than getting the right annuity. People now need to pick the right type of product, or product mix, and to manage risks, like the risk of exhausting their retirement personal pension fund, did not exist in a world of near-compulsory annuity purchase.  Pension advice is of paramount importance during the decumulation phase of your retirement capital.