The holistic approach to retirement planning

‘Good retirement planning’ is about more than just pension planning. While you’re spending your time focusing on having a good pension fund in place, don’t neglect to sort out some of the other important elements of a happy, stress free retirement.

What are these other elements?

Do you know your IHT from your NRB? Knowing where your hard-earned wealth will be going when you pass away is called succession planning.  

Ensuring that your estate is not subject to heavy inheritance tax (IHT) penalties means that your loved ones will have less to worry about once you are gone. 

There is nothing worse than long drawn out probate proceedings, causing stress and upset at an already difficult time. 

A financial planner can help you understand and create an IHT plan that will mitigate your potential IHT bill and ensure that you are utilising your full Nil Rate Band.

You can’t take it with you, so make sure you know where it’s going

Sideways disinheritance. You may not have heard these two words, but they will be of importance if you pass away before your partner and you have children together. 

Sideways disinheritance can occur when the first partner dies and there are children within the marriage. These children might reasonably expect to inherit some of the family estate in due course.

However, if the surviving partner remarries and fails to make provision for their children in a new will, there’s a risk that everything will go to their new spouse. 

This means the inheritance will completely bypass the children who were intended to inherit. It is in situations like this, a will trust can help avoid sideways disinheritance.

Make sure your will is valid!

Did you know that a will can become invalid under circumstances such as remarriage? 

If you pass away with an invalid will, it effectively means you have no will at all and as a result, you will be subject to the rules of intestacy.

Intestacy rules mean that the estate will be divided in a strict order, depending on which relatives you leave behind. You will have no control over this and nor will your surviving loved ones.

With the help of an independent financial planning firm with a holistic approach like True Bearing, you can take care of your retirement planning, succession planning and more. 

Then, the only thing you will need to worry about in retirement is relaxing and enjoying all that free time you’ve been looking forward to.

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