Pensions, life insurance, private healthcare
Discussion
Hi all
Looking at getting a pension plan for my wife, as well as joint private healthcare and joint life insurance.
Curious to know if others have this, who you got it through, brokers you could recommend, and if there are any combined options out there.....and what sort of cost you've paid for what cover... circa £50 a month seems to get just over £500,000 in level term life insurance using a few online quotes, I guess in an ideal world we'd like to get
Pension Plan - Enough that if I clock it in retirement or prior to that she doesn't go wanting...
Level Term Life Insurance with Critical Illness cover for about circa £500,000
Private Medical Insurance... Don't really know who is good and who isn't, but Bupa Seems pretty reasonable...
Current situation is both lifetime nonsmokers, no children, no mortgage (yet), wife doesn't work due to long term illness (ME/CFS), I work full time for the Govt and love the look of the amendments to my pension (not). Both 27 and live pretty healthy lifestyles.
Looking at getting a pension plan for my wife, as well as joint private healthcare and joint life insurance.
Curious to know if others have this, who you got it through, brokers you could recommend, and if there are any combined options out there.....and what sort of cost you've paid for what cover... circa £50 a month seems to get just over £500,000 in level term life insurance using a few online quotes, I guess in an ideal world we'd like to get
Pension Plan - Enough that if I clock it in retirement or prior to that she doesn't go wanting...
Level Term Life Insurance with Critical Illness cover for about circa £500,000
Private Medical Insurance... Don't really know who is good and who isn't, but Bupa Seems pretty reasonable...
Current situation is both lifetime nonsmokers, no children, no mortgage (yet), wife doesn't work due to long term illness (ME/CFS), I work full time for the Govt and love the look of the amendments to my pension (not). Both 27 and live pretty healthy lifestyles.
Pension only worth it if contributions being made by company, otherwise complete waste of money (IMO). Put money elsewhere.
Health, I get it through work (BIK paid). Would I pay for it personally? I doubt it.
Critical illness etc, absolutely for me and the missus. If I pop it, she'll be well looked after. If either get sick (and importantly sickness is on the list) at least we'll not have to worry about finance for a while
Get a good IFA, hard to come by. There are a lot if bad ones out there, and on here too I'm afraid
Health, I get it through work (BIK paid). Would I pay for it personally? I doubt it.
Critical illness etc, absolutely for me and the missus. If I pop it, she'll be well looked after. If either get sick (and importantly sickness is on the list) at least we'll not have to worry about finance for a while
Get a good IFA, hard to come by. There are a lot if bad ones out there, and on here too I'm afraid
For a start I would suggest you look at using trusts and single life policies for life assurance as you will double up the amount of cover for the same price. As for private healthcare, bupa are the front runner but can be expensive. With pensions, unless your putting away a sizable amount i.e £400 pcm, its not really worth it, you might be better plowing your money into an isa.
Pm me if you would like any more details.
Pm me if you would like any more details.
fandango_c said:
Why?
There are a lot of tax advantages.
1- Money is looked away for a long time, in OPs case at least 30 yrs but more likely 40 before they can touch itThere are a lot of tax advantages.
2- if you die, the money is gone, it's unlikely to be given to wife/child
3- returns are bloody awful
4- fees from the "experts" who manage it are steep. They then keep the money when you die
5- who knows what will happen with the government over time, these breaks may disappear
6- inflexible
Want me to go on?
Kudos said:
1- Money is looked away for a long time, in OPs case at least 30 yrs but more likely 40 before they can touch it
2- if you die, the money is gone, it's unlikely to be given to wife/child
3- returns are bloody awful
4- fees from the "experts" who manage it are steep. They then keep the money when you die
5- who knows what will happen with the government over time, these breaks may disappear
6- inflexible
Want me to go on?
A pension is just a wrapper, not an investment.2- if you die, the money is gone, it's unlikely to be given to wife/child
3- returns are bloody awful
4- fees from the "experts" who manage it are steep. They then keep the money when you die
5- who knows what will happen with the government over time, these breaks may disappear
6- inflexible
Want me to go on?
1. Yes it's locked away for a long time? If you're saving for retirement, this is probably a good thing for a lot of people, but not necessarily for the OP.
2. Wrong. It will be paid to named beneficiarie(s) if you die.
3. A pension is just a wrapper that reduces tax with some limitations (ie not being able to withdraw cash before a specified age). Returns will be as good/bad as another investment except of course the tax benefits you get on investment return with a pension.
4. Fees for any investment can be high. Best to shop around and ensure you know exactly what fees and commission you are paying. As in your second point, if you die, your named beneficiaries get your pension fund.
5. Tax breaks could change over time, they could get better or worse. Given the current need for individuals to save more for environment, you would hope that the government would reduce tax advantages.
6. This seems to be the same as your first point.
Please do go on. Could you first read up a bit more on pensions so that you don't post anything else that's untrue and try not to repeat any of your previous points.
To the OP:
By the sound of it you have a public sector pension scheme which will be very generous even after any potential changes. Have a look at the details of your pension scheme and see what the death benefits are, both pre and post retirement, there should be a spouses/dependants pension pre and post retirement and a lump sum pre retirement.
You pay pension contributions out of gross pay, which is obviously very attractive for a 40% tax payer, BUT you can only take a pension from a specified age, I think it's currently 55. If you do have a decent pension with your job, saving outside of a pension (an isa?) therefore might be an idea? I currently don't pay into a pension scheme, but am instead saving in an a account that offsets my offset mortgage - I get a reasonable risk free return and still have access to my savings, something I would have with a pension.
Probably best to speak to some sort of advisor, a lot of "advice" you get from here won't be very good. If you do go down the advisor route, make sure you're aware of any fees/charges/commission that you're paying. Some advisors charge a fixed fee rather than a % of premiums and/or funds which might be worth thinking about.
Thanks for the further replies. Glad this is promoting some debate !
I don't want this to slide into a huge 'Civil Service Copper Bottomed Pension Scandal' Daily Hate thread, so appreciate if we could try and avoid it. The fact is my Dad recently passed away and seeing the quite frankly shocking provision his Civil Service pension has left for my mum is a HUGE motivator to sort my own additional financial protection for my family out. Luckily he had additional financial options in place.
The last thing I want my wife to deal with is worrying about selling the house/not being able to pay the bills. A situation hugely complicated by her health, something we can hope will improve, but can't guarantee, and certainly not to a point that she could hold down a major income should I drop dead next week.
I'm open to all sorts of suggestions regarding how we can best put our money into something useful for the future. I'm more than happy to lock this money away until retirement, thats the whole point! If it is too easy to get to, we'll just end up waking up one day and going 'ooo we can afford xyzabc' and splashing the cash.
I'm going to try and get in touch with a few IFA's about all this now, I'll report back in this thread for others benefit.
I don't want this to slide into a huge 'Civil Service Copper Bottomed Pension Scandal' Daily Hate thread, so appreciate if we could try and avoid it. The fact is my Dad recently passed away and seeing the quite frankly shocking provision his Civil Service pension has left for my mum is a HUGE motivator to sort my own additional financial protection for my family out. Luckily he had additional financial options in place.
The last thing I want my wife to deal with is worrying about selling the house/not being able to pay the bills. A situation hugely complicated by her health, something we can hope will improve, but can't guarantee, and certainly not to a point that she could hold down a major income should I drop dead next week.
I'm open to all sorts of suggestions regarding how we can best put our money into something useful for the future. I'm more than happy to lock this money away until retirement, thats the whole point! If it is too easy to get to, we'll just end up waking up one day and going 'ooo we can afford xyzabc' and splashing the cash.
I'm going to try and get in touch with a few IFA's about all this now, I'll report back in this thread for others benefit.
Kudos said:
fandango_c said:
And?
I'm really past caring, you appear to have a chip on your shoulder about something and no matter what anyone says they'll be wrongHaving just posted a load of mis-leading drivel, which is of no help to the OP, just accept that you don't know what you're talking about.
If you're going to post things that are inaccurate then you should expect to be corrected.
Unless there are any particular points you would like to challenge.....
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