I’m due to draw my private pension in January. Am I better leaving it where it is re covid?

[CarnageAtTheGardenCentre]

I’m fifty five in January, and was due to draw my private pension, but with the way the market is with COVID, I’m wondering whether to leave it where it is.

My husband is two years younger than me, so I was thinking of drawing mine out when he reached fifty five and then both of us would be drawing our private pensions together. That would mean me leaving mine for another two years.

My pension is with Zurich and I haven’t heard from them anyway yet about what option to take.

Does anybody think this is a sensible idea, or any advice is welcome.
Thank you.

I should have added that the idea to leave it where it is and ride it out while the market hopefully starts to recover.

Do you need the income? If not, then leave it invested as long as possible.

It might be a good idea to get some specialist advice. Pensionwise is free: www.pensionwise.gov.uk

No, I don’t need the income really, as we are both still working and no mortgage.
We are waiting for Zurich to get in touch with the options.
I will have a look again at Pensionwise. Obviously, the last time I looked at that, covid hadn’t happened.
Thanks for your advice @Ouchiehelpneeded.

If you do not need it yet, leave it accumulating until you do.
Any income you draw out would be taxed at your incremental rate ...

Thanks @ListeningQuietly.

They need to write to you with your options 6 months before and then again 6 weeks before. Depending on the product you maybe able to just to leave it where it is and extend your retirement date.

Have a proper think about what your short and longer term life goals are, and then think about how best to use your pension plus your other resources (earnings, etc) to achieve them. Pensions are often considered the pot of last resort in terms of the order in which you should spend your accumulated savings/investments because of both their long term nature and their various tax treatments.

You could crystalise it and take your 25% tax free lump sum if you wanted to, the balance could just be left invested until you retire.
Be aware that if you take a penny more than the 25%, it will trigger the MPAA and you would only be able to pay in a reduced amount. At 55 you should be paying as much as you are able into a pension for the tax relief.
It would be wise to look at your Zurich funds, do you choose your own investments, is it ‘lifestyled’ or is it something else?
It’s a bit concerning that you think you should start drawing a pension at 55 if you are still working.
It sounds like you need advice.
DH will be forced to take a military pension at 60, he’s not planning on retiring till at least 62 so it may well push him into the higher tax bracket so he will pay enough into his Sipp to offset the extra tax as long as they dont change the rules.

55 is the earliest date you can take. If you don’t plan to retire and have enough income then you can leave it as long as you want. A pension fund has to last a long time so don’t take it too early if no need.

I agree with @sunseed, you need to think why you will be accessing your pension, or is it just because you can finally have access to it. A pension pot is there to fund you in later life, you need to think of the resources that you have available to live off in say 10, 20 or 30 years time when you are no longer working. There might be tax implications and having the money sit in a bank account it will lose 'real value' due to inflation.

Please, please get independent advice from a Chartered Financial Planner at a Chartered firm (you can can Chartered advisors at firm without chartered status and vice versa, but to be on the safe side, search for both).
It’s a huge decision and nobody can safely advise you without a detailed fact find, assessment of attitude to risk, and good knowledge.

I’m also surprised that just because you are 55 you are thinking of taking your 25% lump sum. Are you not still contributing to your pension if you’re still working?

I’m the same age as you and I’ve upped my contribution to 50% of my salary for these last few years and whilst it’s a bear market to get as much away as I can before I retire and to give my find a few more years to recover any losses caused by Covid and Brexit.

@Whenwillthisbeover, no, I’m not still thinking of taking my 25% lump sum out at 55.

I’ve since had my paperwork through and have decided to leave it all where it is for the foreseeable.

It’s awful though, isn’t it, that we have to even think about recovering our losses caused by Covid and Brexit.

Looking at it realistically, I could still be working when I’m 60.

I did up my pension a year ago, in fact most of our wages go into our pensions now, which we see as bank accounts with good interest.