There are very few investment recommendations that financial advisers can make to clients that are a gold-plated opportunity to guarantee them income for life in retirement from an A-rated guarantor for a minimal outlay.
However, the option to buy a UK State Pension currently exists for anyone who has worked in the UK for 3 years or more. To qualify for the minimum UK state pension entitlement you must have 10 years on your national insurance record. This is the UK equivalent of our PRSI contributions.
Crucially if you haven’t worked the required amount of time to reach the minimum 10 years on your UK National Insurance record, you have the option to make voluntary contributions to increase your record to either bring you up the minimum requirement or to increase your record to bring you closer to the 35 years required for the full state pension. You need to have three years’ contributions to qualify to be allowed to top up your contribution level.
To buy an income for life equivalent to UK Pension would cost circa £235,000 on current annuity rates.
If you qualify this will have an impact on your financial planning. Your adviser will need to update projections and cashflow models to account for this and this could have an impact on your current investment allocations as you may be able to de-risk some of your portfolio once you know you have this income locked in. As always you should seek advice from a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNING™ professional if you have questions on this.
Here at Moore Wealth Management, we keep our fingers firmly on the pulse of the financial industry to ensure we continually deliver the very best advice and products for our clients. Follow us on LinkedIn and don’t hesitate to start a conversation if you have any queries.
