If you are thinking of moving jobs, one of the things you need to take into consideration is the value of the pension benefits that you have accumulated and whether you can taken them with you. So when do your employers pension contributions become yours and what can you do with them? When are you entitled […]
There is a huge difference between how much you can put into a pension depending on whether you are paying into a personal pension/ PRSA or a company paid plan. I will go through the maximum amounts you can make and claim tax relief on the contributions. You can, of course, contribute more and not […]
I previously wrote on how pensions work. In that article, I focused on the common traits of all the different pension plans that are available. One difference with the various pension plans is when you can mature your pension. Different rules apply to different pensions, so it is important that you are aware of these differences. […]
I wrote an article back in April 2014 on pension charges, explaining the relation between allocation rates and the management charge on your contract. That wasn’t the whole of it, there are also trading costs that usually aren’t disclosed that have to be added on. That is why I am going to explain the Total […]
The Finance Bill changed the amount that people had to take from the ARF each year. But something that most ARF holders aren’t aware of, is that there are limits imposed by the life companies on how much they can take from their policy each year. Why are there early exit penalties? When I wrote […]
I was reading Stephen Kinsella’s article last week about the Irish government’s long term planning failure to address pensions. While successive governments are certainly guilty of kicking the can down the road when it comes to pensions, I think the same can be said of ourselves. We all know the government have avoided addressing the pension […]
There was an article in the Sunday Independent last week asking Where’s the best place to invest a spare €100k. I was surprised the some of the advisors interviewed said to invest in Irish property. Is it really that long ago since we saw property values plummet -60%? Or was this some great advice for long term […]
I was at an investment seminar last week. When you fill a room full of advisors and fund managers, it doesn’t take long for people to start talking about the recent market volatility. Some there were saying they were getting phone calls from clients worried about their investments. So how bad was this crash? Well, […]
The Finance Bill was published on Thursday (23 October 2014). It usually throws up a few interesting changes that weren’t big enough to be included in the Budget speech. And sure enough, there were some changes to the treatment of ARF’s and AMRF’s. ARF Changes In 2006, in a measure to combat using ARF’s as tax […]
Last Tuesday, the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, delivered his Budget speech. It wasn’t that an exciting a Budget. Today I have a look at Budget 2015 and what it means to you. The Pensions Levy This is one I have been really keeping my eye on. The Minister said that he will abolish […]