|
|
|
Taking your pension - your retirement options
 You may have a range of choices at retirement, and we seek to provide whatever further
information and help we can to make it as easy and clear as possible
for you.
If you have a pension policy with us, we will write to you six months before your selected
retirement date giving you general information about your options.
Please help us to give you personalised quotes by sending us any
information we ask for. If you are married and do not give us this
information we can only send you quotes based on your life.
We will write to
you about 10 weeks before your selected retirement date with your
pension quotes.
General information about your choices
| Put back your retirement date |
You can delay taking your pension benefits but must decide how you
will take them by age 75. Not all companies will offer all
of the different choices available. If you are not planning
to retire, then you will need to let us know. You should contact
us again when you want to take your benefits. If we do not
hear from you we will write to you again just before your 75th
birthday.
|
| Start receiving your pension (called a Lifetime Annuity) from Windsor
Life at once |
You can choose to take a pension from Windsor Life. We will send you
figures showing the amount of Lifetime Annuity you might get.
You can also take tax-free cash (called a Pension Commencement
Lump Sum) at the start of your pension.
We offer two types of annuity for our pension policyholders:
Invested Lifetime Annuity (With-Profits Annuity):
This is unique to Windsor Life policyholders - the product is only offered to
existing customers. Your retirement fund
is invested in the Windsor Life With Profits Fund and provides an income
that has the potential to grow. Bonuses may be added annually
by way of an increase to your regular payment, although
the amount may vary from year to year. Your annuity is
guaranteed never to fall. Once added, bonuses cannot be
taken away. It will start at a lower value than a Level
Lifetime Annuity but over time may pay out a higher amount
giving potential for protection against inflation.
Level Lifetime Annuity:
This provides an income that pays the same amount until you die.
Your annuity is guaranteed
never to fall. It will start at a higher value than an
Invested Lifetime Annuity but will give you no protection
against inflation.
To find out more about these products:
- Click here for more details on our Invested Lifetime Annuity (With-Profits
annuity).
- Click here for our Level Lifetime Annuity.
You will also have an opportunity to choose other features:
- Single life or 50% joint life,
- No guarantee period or 5 year guarantee period.
Your overall choices are shown in the following table:
| Single Life |
50% Joint Life |
- Invested Lifetime Annuity, no guarantee period.
- Invested Lifetime Annuity, 5 year guarantee period.
- Level Lifetime Annuity, no guarantee period.
- Level Lifetime Annuity, 5 year guarantee period.
|
- Invested Lifetime Annuity, no guarantee period.
- Invested Lifetime Annuity, 5 year guarantee period.
- Level Lifetime Annuity, no guarantee period.
- Level Lifetime Annuity, 5 year guarantee period.
|
|
| Trivial commutation |
If the value of your funds from all your registered pension arrangements
are less than 1% of the Standard Lifetime Allowance (SLA) (£16,000
in tax year 2007/08) you may be eligible to take your benefits
as a lump sum on the grounds of triviality. You must be between
ages 60 and 75. You can read more about this by clicking here.
|
| Take your pension fund as an Open Market Option to another company
to buy a Lifetime Annuity product from them. |
When you come to retire, the Open Market Option will allow you to take
the value of your policy to buy a Lifetime Annuity from another
company. We will give you an estimate of your fund value no
later than six weeks before your retirement date with details
about your Lifetime Annuity choices. If you choose to do this,
then charges may be taken from your fund, so you will need
to ask for an estimated fund value that takes this into account.
This is known as a transfer value. You may then use this value
to ask for quotes from other companies who provide Lifetime
Annuities. If you wish to take tax-free cash you will need
to do this before going to another company. You may get a better
deal by shopping around.
Remember there are many different types of product to choose between,
and companies offer different rates, which may result in
a higher income being quoted.
If you do get quotes from other companies, you should carefully
compare the illustrations to take into account any differences
between the nature of benefits provided, both at the start
and in the future. There is no one best annuity for all circumstances
or for all times.
|
Retirement options we do not offer
Windsor Life does not offer impaired life annuities, unsecured pensions, alternatively
secured pensions, value protection, RPI linked or fixed rate escalating
annuities. We do not accept incoming Open Market Options.
Further information
If you wish to talk about your personal circumstances before deciding, you should
consider taking independent professional advice. Please note that
this would be at your own expense.
If you have a personal pension policy, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) have
produced two factsheets called 'Retiring soon' and 'Retirement options' which can be downloaded from their Moneymadeclear website by clicking here. 
If you are a member of a money purchase occupational pension scheme, The Pensions Regulator have produced a factsheet, entitled 'Your retirement choices'. This can be downloaded
by visiting the Online Publications section of The Pension Regulator's website.
Back to top |
|
