Financial advice frequently asked questions

You don’t usually need a financial adviser by law, but making decisions about your pension can be complex, especially when it comes to planning for retirement or choosing when to start taking an income. Getting pension advice from a qualified professional can help you avoid costly mistakes, as some pension decisions can’t be reversed once made. A financial adviser can provide personalised pension financial advice, tailored to your goals, circumstances and long‑term plans, giving you confidence that your retirement savings are working in the right way for you.

Legally, you are required to take regulated advice on pensions if you want to transfer a defined benefit (DB) pension worth over £30,000. While services like MoneyHelper can offer free general guidance, only a qualified adviser can give personalised recommendations based on your situation. 

The cost of pension advice differs between companies and organisations may structure their charges in different ways.  

With us, your first appointment is free to give you the chance to talk through your goals and decide whether pension advice is right for you. 

If you choose to proceed, a pension adviser will outline all fees clearly and upfront before any work starts. 

The amount of pension you need will depend on your circumstances, the lifestyle you want in retirement, and what you consider ‘living comfortably.’ Because everyone’s goals, income needs and retirement planning priorities are different, there’s no single figure that suits everyone.  

If you’ve ever wondered “can I afford to retire?”, using tools like our pension calculator can give you an idea of how your current savings compare to your future income needs. If you feel unsure or want more personalised pension help, speaking to a qualified adviser can also help you understand what’s realistic for your individual situation. 

Yes, you may be able to transfer your pension, but whether you can, and whether it’s the right choice, depends on the type of pension you have. Pension transfers can be straightforward for some defined contribution pensions, but more complex for others, especially if guarantees or special features are involved. If you’re unsure about how to transfer pension safely, it’s important to understand your options and any risks before deciding. Some transfers require pension transfer advice, particularly if you have a defined benefit (DB) pension worth more than £30,000, as regulated advice is mandatory in those cases.

To learn more about how pension transfers work, visit our pension transfer knowledge centre for helpful guides and information.

If you have a defined contribution (DC) pension, you can legally transfer it without a financial adviser unless it's worth over £30,000 and offers a guaranteed annuity rate when you turn your fund into income. However, your adviser can talk you through all the implications of a transfer. For example, some defined contribution pensions come with benefits like promised minimum growth and additional death benefits that you could lose if you transfer.

If you wish to transfer a defined benefit pension you are required by law to get advice.

Currently you can take 25% of most defined contribution (DC) pensions as tax-free cash whenever you choose, once you reach age 55. From April 6th 2028 this will be age 57. 

You can also take tax-free cash when you take benefits from defined benefit (DB) schemes. This is normally up to 25% of the deemed value of your DB pension, and it can mean you give up some of your pension income to raise the lump sum, or be a separate benefit. Although it may be tempting to take the maximum amount as soon as possible, it’s important to consider how this might affect the tax on pension withdrawal for the remaining funds.  

Your adviser can explain the potential drawbacks and suggest some more tax-efficient ways of managing your wealth. You can also use our pension withdrawal tax calculator to get an idea of how much you might have to pay. 

Pension tax relief is a government top‑up that lets you keep more of your earnings by redirecting some of the Income Tax you’d normally pay into your pension instead. This boosts your pot every time you make a contribution. 

If you're a basic rate taxpayer you'll get 20% tax relief automatically. Depending on the type of scheme you're in if you're a higher rate or additional rate taxpayer you may have to claim the extra relief through a Self Assessment tax return.

Learn more about higher-rate tax and how to claim it in our article.

A defined benefit (DB) pension, sometimes called a final salary pension, pays a retirement income based on your salary and how long you have been/were an active member of your employer’s DB scheme. DB pensions are most common in the public sector and older workplace schemes. A tax-free lump sum will usually also be available. In some schemes, you will give up some of your income to pay for a lump sum. 

A defined contribution (DC) pension lets you build up a pension pot that provides a retirement income based on how much you and your employer contribute and how much your pot grows less any charges. Up to 25% of the pot can usually be taken as a tax-free lump sum, though this would reduce the amount available for your retirement income. The value of a pension pot can go down as well as up. 

The pension annual allowance is the total amount you (this includes your employer) can invest in your pension pot before you have to pay tax. The standard annual allowance is currently £60,000, though this can change if you are a high earner or have already taken some forms of pension benefits.

Annual allowance is measured differently for defined benefit (DB)- and defined contribution (DC) pension schemes. For defined benefit pensions, it’s measured according to how much more pension income you become entitled to over the tax year. Your adviser can help you make sure you’re contributing to your pension in the most tax-efficient way. For defined contribution (money purchase) pensions, it’s set at the total of your and your employer’s contributions.

Tax rules can change and any benefits will depend on personal circumstances.

If you have several pensions, there are both upsides and downsides to combining them in a single place. That’s why we’d recommend talking to a financial adviser before you consolidate your pensions. They’ll explain all the possible outcomes of your decision and help you understand whether consolidating is what’s best for you.

Yes, you can start a pension for your children or grandchildren if you’re a person with parental responsibility under the Children Act 1989. Your adviser can guide you through your options, help you set up a pension, and start making contributions. You may also be able to pay into a pension set up for a child or grandchild by a person with parental responsibility, if that person and the provider both allow.

Tax benefits are dependent on your child's or grandchild's circumstances and are subject to change. Remember that they would be awarded the tax relief, none of that would come to you, even though you were paying into the pension.

You can consider early retirement, but you can’t take your pension before 55, and this minimum is rising to 57 from April 2028. This applies to most people unless you have a protected pension age or need to access your pension due to ill health.

Find more information on early retirement in our article. 

There are lots of ways to start investing as a beginner, and the right approach depends on your goals, budget, and comfort with risk. You might choose to start learning the basics, or working with a financial adviser if you want personalised guidance.  

If you’re unsure how to start investing, an adviser can help you understand different options, assess where to invest money, and build a strategy that suits your needs. They can also explain how to invest in a way that aligns with your long-term plans.  

Check out our articles Types of investments and A guide to investment strategies for more information. 

Everyone's financial goals are different, so the right funds for one person may not be right for another. Your adviser will look at your situation and help you decide a suitable option.

You can use a range of tools, such as our investment calculator, to help empower yourself to make personal financial decisions. 

Your investments and pensions are typically invested in company shares (equities) and fixed income assets (government and corporate bonds). In general, company shares are held to provide capital growth in your investments over the longer term. It’s important to note that the performance of company shares is linked to the performance of the stock market which can go through periods of volatility. This can cause the overall value of your funds to drop in the short term.

Fixed income assets include government and corporate bonds, which are loans issued by the government (government bonds) and loans issued by companies (corporate bonds) to raise financing in the financial markets. Bonds carry interest rate risk which means that the price of these assets will fall when interest rates go up. Bonds have traditionally shown lower levels of volatility than company shares.

It’s difficult to predict exactly how much an investment plan will be worth down the line, because future value depends on several factors, including market performance, how long you invest for, the level of risk you take on, and how much you contribute over time. 

However, you can get a helpful estimate by using an investment calculator, which gives an overview based on assumptions like growth rate and contributions. Our investment calculator lets you see how your money could grow over time and compare different scenarios. 

Depending on the type of investment you have you may have to pay Capital Gains Tax (CGT). It varies depending on how much profit (or gain) you make when you sell it, and whether it sits inside a tax-efficient wrapper like an ISA (where gains are tax-free).

If you’d like more information on how much capital gains tax you might pay or how to calculate capital gains tax, you can use our calculator to get a clearer picture. You can also check out our article What is capital gains tax?.

Alternative investment strategies are approaches that go beyond traditional assets like stocks, bonds or cash. They often include different things like property, commodities, hedge-fund style strategies, or diversified multi-asset approaches. These options could help spread risk, smooth out your returns, or target different market opportunities, but they are also more complex and carry different levels of risk compared with traditional investing. Seeking investment advice can help weigh up what investment strategy may be best for you.

An investment portfolio is the collection of assets you choose to invest in, like stocks, bonds, funds, property, or alternative investments. 

Return on investment (ROI) is the profit you make on an investment compared with how much you originally put in. Essentially, it shows how effectively your money has grown and helps you compare the performance of different investments.

An investment trust, in the context of estate planning, is a legal arrangement where you place assets, such as money, investments, or property, into a trust so they can be managed on behalf of your chosen beneficiaries after your death.

Putting your money into a trust can help you control how and when your assets are passed on, protect them for future generations, and potentially support inheritance tax planning. A trustee (or trustees) is appointed to look after the assets and make sure they’re used according to your instructions.

A defined benefit (DB) pension is a type of workplace pension that promises you a guaranteed income in retirement. Instead of your pension depending on investment performance, the amount you receive is based on factors such as your salary (final or career average) and how long you’ve been part of your employer’s scheme. 

DB pensions, often referred to as final salary or career average schemes, provide a predictable income for life, typically increasing each year to help keep pace with inflation. However, these schemes are less commonly offered by employers today.

When comparing defined contribution vs defined benefit pension plans, the key difference is certainty: 

• Defined benefit pensions promise a set income (less flexible but more predictable). 

• Defined contribution pensions offer flexibility but come with investment risk. 

A DB transfer is when your DB pension is transferred to a defined contribution (DC) pension. Transferring means exchanging the guaranteed annual income of a DB pension for the investment potential and flexibility of a DC pension. 

Because the rules are slightly different there are lots of things to consider before transferring.

Remember, the value of investments can go down as well as up, so you could get back less than is transferred. Aviva Financial Advice (AFA) Advisers with their Aviva Financial Advice (AFA) licence cannot give DB transfer advice – but they can with their Succession Wealth Management permissions.

You usually can’t take flexible withdrawals from a defined benefit pension, because it pays a guaranteed income from your scheme’s set retirement age.

Most schemes let you take up to 25% tax‑free as a lump sum when you start your pension, but not before.

If you want flexible pension withdrawal options, you’d need to transfer your DB pension to a defined contribution scheme, but this means losing guaranteed income and taking on investment risk.

Not necessarily. Other options, like transferring part of your pension, might be a better fit if your current scheme offers them. Your adviser will talk through all the possibilities and recommend whatever they think is best for you.

If your adviser recommends against transferring your DB pension because they don’t believe it’s in your interests, the advice fee is still payable. 

Whatever they recommend, your adviser will have gone over your case with the finest-toothed comb. If they recommend you keep your DB pension instead of transferring, we’re confident their advice is well worth your money.