A married lady of 52, with an 11 year old son contacted Ellis Bates to explore a way in which she could retire early, as the thought of working up until her state pension age (67) filled her with dread. She worked for many years as a HR Manager for a large FTSE 100 company, but recently changed employer to reduce her working hours as the stress of raising a young son and working in a high-powered job was taking its toll on family life.
We conducted a full fact-find and obtained plan information. We found she had two small defined contribution pensions and a defined benefit pension, but this one would not pay full retirement benefits until age 62.
We put together a blueprint for retirement and arranged a second meeting to present the recommendations. We proposed she restructure her existing investment and put in place a disciplined saving plan for retirement taking maximum advantage of her annual pension allowance.
We were able to give her the opportunity to bring her retirement age down to 58. She was so happy she burst into tears, looked at her husband and said, “this is the second happiest day of my life”. Her husband turned to her and said, “and the first?” and she replied, “Andy’s first visit ”.
A couple approached us having reviewed their finances as they were trying to find out when they would be able to retire.
The wife was very unhappy and stressed at work and had 18 months left until she would receive her state pension. Although both of their state pensions together would be more than enough to meet their expenditure, they didn’t think that the husbands’ personal pension would be enough to give them the income they needed for the next 18 months.
We conducted a full review and found another final salary pension which they believe could only be taken at age 65. We reviewed it and found it could be taken from the age of 60 and so she could in fact retire early.