Pensions

2 October 2026

At the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool prime minister Andy Burnham announced plans to end the triple lock guarantee to help fund his plans for social care. This commitment, in place for 15 years, has ensured the state pension increases every April by whichever of consumer price inflation (CPI), average wage growth and a flat rate of 2.5% is...

28 September 2026

Tax-free cash withdrawals from pensions have surged over consecutive years, with excess withdrawals of £14 billion around the 2025 Budget, new figures indicate.

Analysis by AJ Bell based on FCA figures show that tax-free cash withdrawals rocketed to a total of £22 billion last year, up 21% from already elevated levels in 2024. Pension tax-free cash...

17 September 2026

Based on the earnings figures for July, the odds are that pensioners will be receiving just shy of £500 extra in their state pension next year.

Although we still need to see September’s inflation figure and any revisions to July’s earnings growth before we know definitively how much it will increase by in 2027, it’s looking very likely that the...

15 September 2026

You might well allow yourself a satisfied grin if you’ve successfully saved into your pension over the decades, but when we talk about a ‘retirement smile’, we’re discussing something very different.

Instead, this is an attempt to describe the shape of your withdrawals from your pension after you enter retirement. The idea being that you might...

14 September 2026

HMRC is finally reaching out to lower earners to correct the net pay anomaly and there has, understandably, been a lot of focus on ensuring the lowest paid aren’t missing out on crucial pension tax perks. But they are not the only pension savers who risk being short-changed if they mistakenly assume pension tax incentives are taken care of...

14 September 2026

Investing for retirement is typically a career-long endeavour. Starting out in your 20s and running all the way through to the point at which you’re ready to give up work.

How you invest in your pension during that time will often change as you adjust not only your contributions but also your risk appetite, with some opting to dial down their...

14 September 2026

From April 2027, unused pension funds, including SIPPs, will count towards the value of your estate for inheritance tax (IHT) purposes. This significant change will push more estates over the threshold to start paying inheritance tax, considerably increasing the tax bill for many. Understandably, this impending change has raised the issue of...

11 September 2026

Changes to the minimum age you can access a pension are due in April 2028, pushing the number up from 55 to 57.

The question of what happens to people born between April 1971 and April 1973, who would previously have had access from a younger age, is still to be confirmed but we’ve now had draft regulations which give an indication of the current...

11 September 2026

With the Budget fast approaching, the rumour mill is, as usual, going into overdrive over whether there will be changes to pensions tax incentives from October.

Those who have built up larger pension pots must feel somewhat caught in the headlights. But trying to make decisions based on policy rumours becomes a guessing game.

Whether and when to...

11 September 2026

Approaching retirement is one of the biggest financial milestones you'll ever face. While many investors focus on growing their wealth during their working years, retirement brings a new set of priorities. Deciding whether to change your portfolio requires careful thought about income, risk and how long your money needs to last.

The focus during...

11 September 2026

One of the greatest challenges in retirement planning is understanding whether your current savings will support the lifestyle you want later in life. When pensions are spread across several providers, it can be difficult to work out what level of retirement income they may generate as well as different investment strategies, levels of performance...

11 September 2026

Andy Burnham has pledged to fix the social care system. It’s clearly a personal mission, driven by his own experiences, but he’s not the first prime minister to make that promise. When my dad first needed care in 2018, it was a year after Theresa May had announced plans for reform, and a year before Boris Johnson promised to solve the issue once...

11 September 2026

Having spent your career building up a pot of money for later in life, the last thing you want to do is run it down quickly in retirement. There is a balancing act between spending enough to enjoy life and not being too excessive.

Withdrawing 4% a year uprated in line with inflation used to be a popular strategy, but that is now up for debate...

11 September 2026

For decades, retirement planning followed a relatively simple formula. Build up a pension, stop working and rely on the income it provides.

But retirements are becoming longer, and fewer people are taking the path of a guaranteed annual income, choosing to manage their own retirement funds instead. This flexibility can allow for freedom in...

10 September 2026

Setting yourself up for retirement is one of life's biggest goals, and one of the hardest to plan for.

It's impossible to put an exact number on how much you’ll need in retirement. Every person will have different standards for what a ‘comfortable’ retirement means, and you can’t anticipate every life event or how inflation might change prices by...

10 September 2026

I recently spoke to a new university graduate, fresh in his first role at an ‘adult job’. He was full of energy from the first month working in a shiny building in London and getting to know the after-work pub culture. He was, however, less wowed when the first pay cheque rolled in, with a big bite taken in tax.

It’s a nearly universal experience...

10 September 2026

Retirement has always involved difficult financial decisions, but the challenge is becoming more complex. Many people now reach retirement with a mix of workplace pensions, personal pensions such as SIPPs, ISAs, investments and cash savings. The question is no longer simply how much income to take, but where to take it from.

This challenge, known...

9 September 2026

Savvy investors will think about how they can maximise the tax efficiency of their pension not just for this tax year, but over their lifetime. The goal for many is to be able to maximise higher rates of relief when building up a pension and earning more, and a lower rate when it comes time to withdraw.

But achieving this balance is becoming...

4 September 2026

Combining different pensions into a single pot is a helpful way to make your path to retirement clear and simple, while possibly saving you money along the way.

Throughout your career, you may have accumulated a collection of workplace pensions that can all help towards your retirement goals. But when these investments aren’t in one place...

28 August 2026

A million pounds may not afford the lavish lifestyle it used to, but amassing a seven-figure sum in your pension could still give you an attractive standard of living in retirement.

How you get to the £1 million depends on your starting point. Some of the main factors will be your age, how much you have already amassed in your pension, the amount...

21 August 2026

In the lead up to recent Budgets, many retirees opted to take tax-free lump sums from their pension after rumours that there would be cuts to the allowance.

But tax-free lump sums have not been changed yet, leaving some in an awkward position of now having a chunk of cash sitting in their accounts, with no need to spend it right away. Even for...

17 August 2026

Self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs) allow plenty of choice when it comes to investment options. This is a perk that many AJ Bell customers have taken advantage of, putting their savings into a variety of stocks, funds, investment trusts and ETFs instead of the cookie cutter pension investment options.

However, choosing investments for your...

13 August 2026

From April 2027, unused pensions will be brought under the umbrella of inheritance tax (IHT), as well as their current tax policy of possibly facing income tax upon withdrawal. Now, HMRC is introducing more details on how this pension inheritance tax would be approached.

Under the plans, inheritance could be subject to a two-tier tax system, where...

6 August 2026

One of the most important things you can do for your pension is set yourself up for success early on. Pensions aren’t going to garner all of your attention in your 20s and 30s, and they don’t have to, but devoting just a bit of time to it is certainly worth it. Ticking off these three items can make the difference of hundreds of thousands of pounds...

5 August 2026

Most people are currently collecting pensions like they’re trying to complete some sort of set. The automatic-enrolment rules mean that as long as you’re aged 22 or over and earning at least £10,000 a year, you’ll be automatically enrolled into the pension when you start a new job. When you leave and start somewhere else, you’ll leave the pension...