Archive for the 'Retirement' Category

How much can you put into a pension?

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 […]

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When can you mature your pension?

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. […]

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ARF early exit penalties

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 […]

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Are you a speculator or an investor?

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 […]

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The Finance Bill & ARF’s

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 […]

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Reducing an Inheritance tax liability

In 2009, a child could inherit €542,544 from their parents and pay Capital Acquisitions Tax (CAT) of 25% on the remainder. Fast forward to 2014 and a child can inherit €225,000 tax free and pay CAT of 33% on the remainder. In Ireland, where parents still feel the need to leave an inheritance, the inheritance […]

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Retirement Options - How to mature a pension

Retirement Options – How to mature a pension

The world of pensions has become more complex over the years so when it comes to retirement, people don’t know where to start when it comes to maturing their pension plans and starting their retirement. Today, I am going to look at the the retirement options available and how to mature a pension. There are […]

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Annuity

Annuity – to indexed link or not

As a financial advisor, I constantly tell my clients to be aware of inflation. It’s always there and will eat away at the real value of your money. So when it comes to annuities, why do I tell my clients not to protect their pension from inflation? Let’s look why. Let’s take the following scenario: […]

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Aviva’s enhanced annuity offering

Aviva announced last week that they want to shake up the annuity market. How will this be done? By offering higher annuity rates to everyone? No, by enhancing the rates to people who will die early; people with cancer, heart conditions or strokes. They cite the fact that 1 in 4 annuities in the UK […]

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Retirement Options Explained Part 3 of 3 – Taxable Cash

Over the last two weeks we have explored Annuities and Approved Retirement Funds. Today we will talk about the last retirement option available, taxable cash. What exactly is taxable cash? As the name suggests, it is taking a lump sum of cash (above that of your tax-free lump sum) at the point of retirement and […]

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