Compare UK Pension Services
Compare pension services for self invested pensions (SIPPs) where you can pull your existing pension plans into one place.
Lost track of old pension plans? Service for tracking down plans from previous employments.
Annuity service if you are looking to buy a guaranteed income from your pension pot.
Looking To Retire At Age 55? FREE Guide
FREE Guide – Retiring Early!
8 tips for an earlier, wealthier retirement
Transforming that dream into a reality doesn’t come cheap, how could you afford it? Once you have paid off debts, like it or not, the answer is likely to depend on your pension.
Straightforward guide provides eight tips that could help you to retire earlier than you thought, including:
- The simple formula for how much you should consider investing each month
- How to boost existing pensions
- Understanding the options available at retirement (including the new rules)
This guide is not personal advice. Please remember tax rules can change and the value of the tax benefits will depend on your circumstances. The value of investments can fall as well as rise so you could get back less than you invest. Pensions cannot usually be withdrawn until age 55 (increasing to 57 in 2028).
Self Invested Pension
Take Control of your pension!
A self-invested personal pension (SIPP) is different to a traditional pension. Instead of limiting your investment options, a SIPP opens the doors, giving you more choice in how you invest your money. Like other pensions, the government will still give you up to 46% tax relief on the amount you pay in. Once your money is in a SIPP, you won’t have to pay tax on any gains or income your investments make.- Low cost award winning pension – Fixed fee plan keeps costs down over long term
- Investment choice – Choose from more than 40,000 investments
- Ready made funds and investment ideas – Making it easy to select investments
- Expertise – Research, ideas, and updates to help you with your investment decisions
Compare Self Invested Pension Providers
A low cost award-winning SIPP that gives you a choice of over 40,000 investments; Selected funds; Ready made portfolios.
Sipp fee: £5.99 pm – assets up to £50,000, £12.99 pm – assets over £50,000
Low-cost personal pension from award-winning provider Bestinvest. Choose from thousands of investments, get inspiration from guides and articles or opt for a Ready-made Portfolio
Sipp fee: up to 0.4% pa
A wide choice of investments, including over 2,000 funds, shares from 25 markets, ETFs, investment trusts and more
£0 – £250k: 0.25%
£250k – £500km: 0.1%
Over £500k: FREE
Over 11,000 investments to choose from including funds, investment trusts, ETFs, company shares, bonds and more.
£0 – £250k: 0.45%
£250k – £1m: 0.25%
£1m – £2m: 0.10%
Over £2m: FREE
Thousands of funds to choose from; Select 50 – Browse a list of expert picks. Pathfinder – Risk profiled fund options. Investment Finder – Search 1000s of investment ideas.
Less than £25,000: 0.35% if you have a regular savings plan or £90 (£7.50 a month) if you don’t
£25,000 or more but less than £250,000: 0.35%
£250,000 or more but less than £1 million: 0.20% – and you will automatically qualify for Fidelity’s Wealth Management Service benefits
£1 million+: 0.20% a year for the first £1 million and no service fee for investments over £1 million
Annuity Services
Pension Finder & Transfer Service
There are no tables for this criteria
Annuity Companies
Buying an annuity is a one-off opportunity – you can’t change provider once you’ve settled on a particular offer – so choosing the right type of annuity and getting the best deal are crucial. There are a wide range of annuity providers available for you to choose from each offering different benefits and types of annuity. The amount you receive depends on how long the annuity provider expects you to live, which gives them an idea of how many years you’ll need to be paid for. Insurance companies calculate this using age, whether you are male or female, the size of your pension fund, and your health and lifestyle factors.
Why shop around for an annuity company?
Your pension company will want you to choose its annuity offering, but the law says you don’t have to. You can buy your annuity from the company who you took out your pension fund with. However, you don’t have to buy it from them. You have a legal right, under something called the open market option (OMO), to buy your pension annuity from any provider, regardless of which provider your pension is with.
Therefore, it makes sense to always check what your pension provider is offering and compare it with other providers in case you can get a better deal elsewhere. There are a number of providers competing.
Not only will different annuity providers offer different rates, they’ll also offer different annuity options. Shopping around means you’ll be more likely to find the right type of annuity that suits you. Once you have purchased an annuity, you can’t change it. Therefore, it makes sense to research a wide range of companies before committing to one provider.
To help you decide what type of annuity to choose, it’s best to first think about what your priorities are and what needs you’ll have after you retire. Some of the things to think about include:
- Whether you want an income just for you, or for anyone else
- Whether anyone else who is financially dependent on you may need an income if you die first
- Whether you are in good health, and how long you might live
- Whether you have enough income from other sources such as savings or a part-time job to delay starting your pension
- How flexible you want the pension to be, for example, if you want to increase your income as you get older
- Whether you would like to carry on investing in your pension fund after you retire
- Whether you want to provide an inheritance for someone after your death
The rate you are offered will depend on a variety of factors, such as:
- Your age – If you retire earlier, your pension will need to pay out for longer and so you’ll get less income each year
- Your life expectancy – This is based on what happens in the population as a whole. An annuity insures you against living longer than average
- Your gender – Women are expected to live longer than men. This means your pension fund needs to last longer so you’ll get less each year. This isn’t classed as discrimination
- Your health – You may be offered a higher yearly income than someone else if you’re in poor health or not expected to live long. This is one of the occasions when poor health or your lifestyle, for example if you smoke, can benefit you
- The economy – Annuity rates are underpinned by gilts, which affect general interest rates, and they can go up and down like any other investment
Points to bear in mind when choosing an annuity provider :
- Research the different types of annuity and decide which kind you want – single-life, joint-life, investment-linked, or enhanced
- Find out what deal your pension provider is prepared to offer – this will give you a ‘base rate’ to compare with other deals on the market
- Use our annuity calculator to see if you could get up to 40% more retirement income
- If you are unsure about which annuity option is best for you, it’s a good idea to seek independent financial advice
10 COSTLY PENSION MISTAKES
10 Costly Pension Mistakes Millions of Britons Make
- How to discover if your pension will be enough
- What ‘free money’ most private sector workers miss out on
- How to get a share of £41 billion from the taxman
- How to benefit from the pension freedoms and avoid the traps