Why should you use us
for a pension review

• Any pension review is completely free of charge
• Potential for a better pension as a result
• You could benefit from reduced costs

Hill Grafford specialists can provide you with unrivalled advice on retirement income, whether it be company or private pensions, or perhaps getting more value from your existing pension scheme.

Don’t delay, it pays to take independent financial advice from people who care – contact Hill Grafford today on 0116 2756585 or email us at mail@hillgrafford.co.uk

The wealth of experience

It's time to get smart and efficient
about planning for your retirement.

Everyone approaches retirement from a different point of view. To most, it represents a major change in lifestyle, free from the stress and pressures of work, and a new all-important asset – time. Time to do all the things we wanted to do, before our career and starting a family meant they had to be put on hold.

There was a time when we all thought that our pensions would look after us and give us the retirement that we had worked so hard for. Today, the reality is very different. The truth is that, as we enter old age, we will have to look after ourselves. But with many of us choosing to live for the moment, we are more likely to be pre-occupied with paying off loan debt than planning for our future.

So what can we do? At first glance, it would seem that recent changes to the pension rules have simplified things, offering greater flexibility and choice. Not exactly. Increasingly, the problem is finding a solution that's right for our own unique personal circumstances. Some of us are likely to spend as many years in retirement as we did in employment. For others, the trend for living longer and changes to equality legislation will see them working for longer, retiring in their 70s and beyond. That means that even when they reach the age of 35, retirement is still potentially some 40 years off.

As a result, just like in many other aspects of modern living, a ‘one size fits all’ approach to pensions planning is no longer practical. Now, more than ever, we all have different requirements. “Whether you are planning retirement well ahead, taking early retirement, about to retire, or already retired, the advice is the same &endash; the earlier you take action the better,” says Phil Chapman, director of Hill Grafford, a Leicestershire firm of Independent Financial Advisors.

But few of us are financial DIY experts and pre and at-retirement planning can still be a complicated business. Should I be upping my contributions? Do I need to push back my planned retirement age? Could I be taking advantage of higher-rate tax relief? And then there are other investment opportunities to consider too.

“In many cases, the issue is simply one of encouraging more people to think about their retirement,” says Chapman. “There is a lot of advice available to help people meet their financial objectives. Reviewing arrangements with an independent financial advisor costs nothing except some time and could potentially be very rewarding.”

A pensions calculator is a useful tool to help you get a realistic idea of what your retirement income could be. “However, it's important to remember to look at all your assets, not just your pension fund, to ensure that you can realise your personal as well as financial aspirations,” says Chapman.

Throughout our lives we have to make many important financial decisions. Whilst the future will always remain uncertain, saving for our retirement remains one of the most critical decisions of all.