Credit Suisse Group (UK) Pension Fund

Flexible income or “drawdown”

You could invest your retirement savings into an arrangement allowing “flexi-access drawdown” and take money out as and when you want to. If you want to take up to a quarter of your savings as tax-free cash, you can do this first and invest the rest in drawdown.

Remember

The value of your benefits may increase or decrease, depending on investment performance, and is not guaranteed. You could get back less than the amount you paid in.

Drawdown options

• You would be able to take different amounts out at different times. There is no limit on the amount you could take out at a time. 
• You would pay income tax in the normal way on drawdown income. You would need to be careful about tax, as taking pension income could potentially push you into a higher tax bracket.
• You could use drawdown to take a fixed income for a short period – currently up to five years. This is known as a fixed-term or short-term annuity.
• You would not be ‘locked in’ to drawdown. If you decide in the future that you want to buy an annuity, you can do so.
• You could leave any money still in your income drawdown arrangement to your dependants when you die. Go to the Benefits for dependants page for more information.

A different kind of pension

After transferring out, you could provide a pension for yourself by buying an annuity (a policy that pays an income for the rest of your life) from an insurance company. You would have access to a wide choice of providers and a range of different kinds of pension if you were to transfer out.

These can include:

• a “single life” pension – just for you
• a level pension that starts with a higher amount than an increasing pension, but does not increase in the future
• a “joint life” pension that pays a pension to a dependant if you die before them
• a pension with increases – these can be fixed at a certain level (such as 3% a year) or linked to inflation, with or without an upper limit (such as in line with the rise in the Retail Prices Index, up to a limit of 3% a year).

You also have the option of taking up to a quarter of your savings as tax-free cash and buying a smaller pension with the rest.

If you have DC pensions from other employers, or personal pensions, you could bring them together when you want to convert them into pension and cash. This could give you better terms for your annuity (in other words, a higher pension). 

Cash

You could take the whole of your retirement benefits as immediate cash.

One-quarter of it would be tax-free and the rest would be taxed at your highest rate of income tax. You would need to be careful about tax, as taking a large amount of cash could potentially push you into a higher tax bracket.

Or, you could take some cash out from time to time.

One-quarter of each cash sum would be tax-free and the rest would be taxed at your highest rate for the year.

Mix and match

You may be able to combine two or more of these options. For example, you may take tax-free cash, use drawdown for a while and then buy an annuity at a later date.

Pension scams

If you are transferring your benefits out you will need to beware of pension scams. Scammers’ tactics are constantly evolving and they may pose as legitimate-seeming financial advisers or investment experts. Scams may take the form of a “free review” of your pension followed by an offer to transfer your benefits out, sometimes with a promise of “guaranteed” investment returns.

If you receive an unsolicited offer to do with your pension, you should check it out thoroughly before doing anything. We would recommend taking the following steps. 

• Reject any unexpected offers. 
• Always check who you are dealing with. 
• Don't allow yourself to be rushed or pressured into doing anything. 
• Get impartial information or advice. 
• If you suspect a scam, report it. 

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) keeps a warning list of known scams on its Scamsmart website: www.fca.org.uk/scamsmart, along with a leaflet you can download and other useful information about how to spot and avoid scams.