Pensions

A Personal Pension is essentially a long-term savings plan which is managed on your behalf by a life assurance company. The contributions you make to your plan are invested with the aim of building up an income for your retirement. You can set up a Personal Pension plan if you are self-employed or if you are not entitled to join a company pension scheme.

You choose a pension provider and an investment fund that fits your financial needs and ambition.

You make regular, usually monthly, contributions to your Pension Plan over a long-term period, typically 20-35 years.

Your money is invested in assets such as equities, bonds, property, alternative assets and cash.

The value of your pension plan when you retire will depend on the amount you contribute, the performance of the fund and the charges you pay.

Upon retirement you can take up to 25% of your fund as a tax-free lump sum, and use the balance to provide a regular income during your retirement.

A Personal Pension Plan is a tax-efficient way for you to save for your retirement – you will avail of generous tax reliefs on the contributions you make to your Pension Plan, typically at the highest rate of income tax you pay.

Any growth in the value of your pension fund is tax-free.

Your money is invested in assets such as equities, bonds, property, alternative assets and cash.

You can take up to 25% of your fund as a tax-free lump sum when you retire.

You will enjoy all the peace of mind that comes with knowing that your financial needs in retirement are taken care of.

An Executive Pension is a company pension plan set up by an employer to provide retirement benefits for directors, senior executives and employees of the company. The employer must pay some or all of the pension contributions on behalf of the director or employee. The director or employee may also contribute to the plan.

Any employer can set up an Executive Pension on behalf of a director or employee, even if there is only one employee in the company. This makes Executive Pensions ideally suited to small businesses and one-person limited companies. It also offers company directors a tax-efficient way of investing some or all of a company’s profits on their behalf.

The employer sets up an Executive Pension in trust on behalf of the employee.

The employer makes regular and/or lump sum contributions to the Executive Pension on behalf of the employee.

The employer can also add benefits such as Income Protection and Life Cover.

The employee can make their own regular and/or lump sum contributions in the form of Additional Voluntary Contributions

Anyone can take out a PRSA: employees, the self-employed, part-time workers and those who are unemployed.

You can use a PRSA as your primary pension plan but if you already have a company pension you can also set up a PRSA and use it to make Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) that are separate to your company pension.

You should set up a PRSA if you do not have access to a company pension scheme or if you are self-employed.

You should set up a PRSA if you are a member of a company pension scheme but want to make separate Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs)

Standard PRSA – this type of plan comes with less freedom of choice in terms of the types of investment funds available but does have the advantage of charges being capped at 5% of contributions and 1% per annum on the asset value.

Non-standard PRSA – this type of plan offers a greater choice of investment funds but has no limit on the amount of charges that can be applied.

Anyone with a defined-contribution pension plan can set up an ARF to manage their pension after they retire.

When you retire you can take up to 25% of your pension as a tax-free lump sum.

You can then use the balance to invest in one or more ARFs.

Your money is invested on your behalf by a fund manager who will take into account your appetite for risk and reward when choosing appropriate investment funds.

When you draw down money from your ARF you become liable to PAYE income tax and levies on the money you take out.

You do not pay tax on the investment growth in your underlying fund.

When you die any remaining value in your ARF is passed on to your next-of-kin.

An AMRF is an investment fund which gives your pension money the opportunity to grow during retirement. However, unlike an ARF you cannot access your money until you reach 75 years of age. Until then you can only draw down any growth in the fund’s value. You will need to have an AMRF before you can take out an ARF.

When leaving an employment, one of the options an employee has is to transfer their pension benefits to a Buy out Bond. Transferring your accumulated pension fund to a Buy-out Bond has a number of benefits:

You have control over your pre-retirement assets.

You can choose where your pension fund is invested.

You can normally access your benefits from age 50 onwards.

Each Life Assurance company has a range of over 40 funds to choose from. You are free to choose one or a combination of these funds and you can also switch between the funds to best suit your needs at any given time. There would also be a choice of Lifestyle Investment Strategies. Lifestyling aims to gradually reduce your exposure to risk as you get closer to retirement. The Life Assurance company will automatically start switching your Buy-out Bond to medium-risk or low-risk funds as you move closer to retirement.

When you retire you will have a number of different choices as to how your pension fund can be used to provide for you and your dependants in retirement. You do not have to make these choices until you reach retirement age. Please note that the options will be based on the prevailing Revenue rules and limits. On retirement, you may have the following options:

Taking a retirement lump sum, all or part may be tax-free.

Buying an annuity.

Investing in an Approved Retirement Fund (ARF) / Approved Minimum Retirement Fund (AMRF).