A Leicestershire accountant warns that his clients may be “sitting on a ticking time bomb” by not planning carefully enough for their retirement and that of their employees. Carter & Co. of Enderby urges everyone to consider how they will live in retirement.
A leading accountant in Leicestershire is concerned that their clients may be “sitting on a ticking time bomb” by not planning carefully enough for their retirement and that of their employees.
Neil Davis, senior partner of Carter and Co. Accountants in the East Midlands town of Enderby says, “The state pension is already woefully inadequate to fund a comfortable lifestyle in retirement but, like it or not, it is inevitable that even this small cushion against retirement poverty will be phased out by future governments.” The recent increase to the state pension age to 68 will never be reversed, and will likely increase to 70 in the near future. Industry experts have suggested that the phasing out of the state pension will happen in due course.
Davis points out that although it has been law for all UK employers to offer a “workplace pension scheme” since October 2012, a high percentage of employees are choosing to ‘opt out’ or are just not eligible for automatic enrolment due to earning below wage thresholds.
“Our experience has shown”, he says, “that even those who do make minimum contributions to a pension scheme often have no idea what that fund will buy them as a pension after retirement.”
As an example, a 65 year old with a pension pot of say £150,000 could retire today and expect to receive an income of no more than seven and a half thousand pounds a year. With a possible life expectancy of a further twenty or thirty years even modest inflation would reduce that value severely in time to come.
“The reliance on buy to let properties for many clients to supplement pension income is clear for all to see”, says Davis, “but with the changes to the mortgage interest relief that came in to effect from 6th April 2017, combined with the second home stamp duty supplement in April 2016, this option is becoming less attractive.”
People are therefore going to have to reconsider how to fund their retirement. It is more important than ever to consider options, and look at spreading risk across multiple sources of future income, whether that be classical pensions, flexible drawdowns, buy to let properties or other financial options.
Everybody should be devising a plan for their future retirement in light of the writing on the wall and take advice from independent professionals wherever possible.
More information about workplace pensions and alternatives can be found at Carter & Co.’s web site www.carteraccountants.co.uk
