Herald Scotland: Will Osborne have means to deliver on pension vow?

In Saturday’s edition of The Herald, journalist Helen Pridham, who is also author of five books on personal finance, claimed that experienced financial advisers are questioning how the Chancellor will be able to deliver on the pension promise he made in this week’s Budget.

With the promise that a £20 million scheme would ensure that everyone would get free, impartial face-to-face advice on how to make the most of their retirement choices now they will no longer be forced to buy an annuity, Pridham wrote that there is ‘already scepticism about the quality of advice that is likely to be provided’.

One of the advisers interviewed in the article was Carbon Financial Planner, Richard Wadsworth, who said: “I always like my clients to have a certain minimum level of secure income in retirement, so using part of the fund to buy an annuity if they don’t have a final salary pension is an important option.

“Then they can consider how to invest the remainder of their pension, observing the basic principle of not putting all their eggs in one basket.

“This should include higher growth investments, as otherwise they might as well use all the money to buy an annuity.”

You can read the whole article on the Herald Scotland website, and if you want to discuss how the proposed pension changes will impact you, email us at enquiries@carbonfinancial.co.uk or get in touch on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.