Personal pension plans are tax efficient savings plans designed to provide an income in retirement to supplement any state or occupational pensions you may receive. Personal pension plans are available to the self-employed, employees with or without a company pension and individuals without any earnings, including children.

No set up fees Low 1% pa fund charges Qualified pension specialists

Our personal pension service
If you are looking to save at least £100 per month you will benefit from our free personal pension pre selected service. We do not charge any fees or initial commissions and offer you a choice of four low cost pre selected personal pension plans all with better terms than the government standard stakeholder pension model. Request your quote and information pack now.

Choice of personal pensions
We constantly research the whole of the market to ensure we provide you with four of the best personal pension plans. Our research criteria includes: No penalties for stopping, starting, or varying savings. No penalties for transferring away. No monthly policy charges. No bid / offer spread, no entry charges and no reduced allocation periods. The personal pension plans must also provide access to a range of pension funds with a maximum annual management charge of 1% pa.

Pre selected pension or individual advice
Our pre selected personal pension option is suitable to those individuals wishing to make their own decisions about their retirement planning who require no advice. If you require advice, with an individual recommendation, our private client division provide independent pension planning on a fee only basis.

Choice of quotes
We can provide you with quotations based on a set monthly amount of savings or if you want to know how much you need to save to provide a future annual income we can provide you with a target funding pension quote.

Tax free cash
Up to 25% of the total fund value can be paid as a one off lump sum on retirement. Under current legislation all tax-free cash payments are made tax-free.

Contribution limits
All individuals, including children, without relevant earnings (salary) can pay up to £300 per month. Employed and self-employed individuals with relevant earnings can pay up to £300 per month or 100% of earnings if greater, subject to the overall annual allowance. Employers can make unrestricted contributions provided the total of employee and employer contributions do not exceed the annual allowance. The annual allowance is set at £215,000 for 2006/07. Any contributions in excess of this limit will be subject to taxation. Current contribution limits.

Tax relief
Individuals currently enjoy tax relief on all savings made into personal pension plans. Tax relief is provided at either 22% or 40% depending on an individual's income tax level. This means a basic or non-rate taxpayer would receive a total of £128.20 paid in to their personal pension plan for every £100 saved.

Minimum retirement age
Once a personal pension plan has been set up it cannot be surrendered or cashed in other than on retirement. Currently the minimum retirement age is 50 but this will be increased to 55 for anybody retiring after 6th April 2010.

Pension fund performance
An explanation of the different pension funds and the risk associated with each fund and asset class, together with online past performance data and detailed fund fact sheets for all qualifying UK pension funds can be obtained from our fund performance pages. You can also download our ethical investment questionnaire and provide us with your negative and positive criteria if you are considering investing in an ethical fund.

Review Service
Poor investment performance or high charges can result in underperformance of your pension savings. Our review service is designed to check the charges levied on existing personal pension plans together with the underlying investment performance. As many pension providers and life assurance companies still impose higher charges on older pension plans we compare and analyse the effect of transferring your pension savings to a new and lower charged pension and if your pension funds are underperforming or your funds are out of line with your attitude to investment risk, a revised profile will be provided.

Alternative options
Self invested personal pensions provide a wider scope of investment opportunities including commercial property, individual stocks and shares and full discretionary management.

Stakeholder pensions are a government based savings model available from £20.00 per month with annual management charges of 1.5% for ten years falling to 1% thereafter. Please note we do not provide advice on individual stakeholder pension plans.

If your company offers a non contributory company pension scheme you will normally be better off joining rather than setting up your own personal pension plan.

If you are close to retirement phased retirement and income drawdown plans allow you to structure your retirement income in a different way. These pension plans can provide favourable income tax and inheritance tax benefits and provide the opportunity to defer purchasing a pension annuity but still provide an income.

To request a quote
Complete our online personal pension plan enquiry form or call one of our specialist pension advisers to request your free personal pension quote. As an internet based firm of independent financial advisers we provide advice over the telephone, via email and through the post. Dealing with you in this way allows us to discount our charges and commissions to provide you with the very best personal pension plans.

Help & advice
There are many different options to consider when choosing a personal pension plan and it makes sense to take advice from a qualified specialist who is independent and can offer you products and services from the whole of the market place. Please call one of our independent advisers or contact us to discuss the different options available to you and to request your personal pension quote.