What will you do with your pension pot?

From 2015, individuals will be broadly be able to do what they like with their pension pot. Some commentators have suggested that, having saved all our money for retirement, we will get to a point where the sight of this money and its availability will go to our heads and we will all be booking one way trips to Vegas and heading for the Ferrari garage.

This is, of course, utter nonsense - the majority of human adults seem to have evolved an ability to take care of themselves over the millennia.

This is not to ignore the fact that certain individuals will fritter away what they have managed to save. They could become reliant on the state, for example being entitled to the state pension and other benefits, as they would be now. However, the reality is that most people get up in the morning, try hard at their job and do their best to take care of themselves and their families. That's not suddenly going to change.

There are though other disadvantages around the changes to pensions. They could well make annuities more expensive as their take up will be reduced.  In my opinion, this is a necessary cost to give people the confidence to invest more for the longer term, knowing that their retirement savings have now become a lot simpler and a great deal more flexible.

Matthew Phillips

Managing Director

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7893 3456

Email: getintouch [@] broadstoneltd.co.uk