For 7 years now the Government has given you the freedom to access your pension pots when you retire however you may like.
Unfortunately, the pension industry has been slow in making this easy for you.
Currently you are left to figure out;
- How much money to take from your pension pot each year to have the income that you need
- How to avoid paying unnecessary tax,
- And most importantly, how to plan your pension withdrawals to ensure that you don't run out of money later.
Most people find this all very hard and confusing to do alone, so we built Guiide to do all this for you at no cost.
OK that's great, you can build a plan, but how can you make this plan a reality and track it over time to make sure it stays right for you.
Option 1 - Do it with your current providers, filling out their forms and making withdrawal requests as and when needed, work out yourself if its still on track.
Option 2 - Let Guiide do it all for you with a pension provider that pays the plan payments you want and track it for you.
Option 2 is Guiide.auto, our unique collaboration with Penfold, the pension provider
How does it work?
It's simple really. You build your plan with us, put your pots together with Penfold through Guiide, then between us we make your plan happen.
You can put your pots together with them at retirement, or some years before you plan to retire and continue to refine your plan with us if needed.
When you want to start taking some income, you just let us know. We will check that you are happy with your final plan. You let us inform Penfold that you are about to start taking income and what your starting plan is, and it starts to get paid. That's it!
It's that simple. It then continues to just get paid, until either:
- You change your long term plan - You can track your plan based on the update value of your Penfold pot on any day. At the end of each year you can either change your long term plan, or let it continue as it is.
- You run out of money - This is a key risk without planning and review, but as your original plan is designed to last your expected lifetime and our tracking tools will act as a "holding hand" throughout retirement, helping you see if a change is needed, the risk of this happening is minimised.
- You pass away - then any remaining pots will be paid by Penfold to whomever you tell them is your beneficiary
OK that sounds great - but what if?
I want an ad hoc payment one month
No problem, just notify Penfold and this will be paid to you. You can even check to see the effect this will have on your long term plan with Guiide before you take it if wanted.
I want some of my income to be guaranteed, so drawdown isn't as risky.
A few months after launch we will add the ability to exchange some of your pots for some lifetime guaranteed income if you want to. You can model this feature already now in Guiide.
If you choose this option then the guaranteed income will be paid for life into your pension pot each month.
The guaranteed money going into your pot can be used to provide some of the income needed each year, or left invested if it is more than you need.
Either way it will be guaranteed for life and gives you a great mixture of both guaranteed and investment based income.
Further questions on Penfold?
Who are Penfold?
Penfold is a low cost pension provider who provide pension savings and drawdown.
They have around 50,000 pension customers and are growing rapidly.
Are they regulated by the FCA?
Yes, Penfold is the trading name of Penfold Savings Limited and is authorised by the FCA, reference number 826097. You can find them on the FCA register.
Why did you choose Penfold out of all FCA regulated providers?
Penfold are a tech based pension company like Guiide, who also want to modernise pensions (not hard!). They have a proven track record of great customer experience, which is their main focus. You can see their excellent reviews here.
They also have a simple signup process, a great App and a simple to understand range of ready made investment plans.
short, Penfold were a great partner for a new product like Guiide.auto which aims to provide a "do it for me" solution and make pensions simple.
Where will my money be invested?
On day one your money will be placed into the Penfold Lifetime Plan.
This is one of their four Standard Plans which are rated at different risk levels and managed by Blackrock. The risk level of the Standard Plan you are placed in initially depends on your age. The risk level lowers as you grow older.
They have a range of other plans managed by Blackrock, including other Standard Plans if you want to change the default risk level.
also have a Sustainable Plan focused on Eco friendly investments, also managed by Blackrock, and finally a Sharia compliant Plan. The Sharia plan is managed by HSBC and is overseen by a Governing Board to ensure Sharia compliance.
can change to any of these other plans whenever you like, directly with Penfold. When the option to purchase some guaranteed income to your plan also becomes available, you can use a proportion of your Penfold pot to buy this via Guiide.
What age is Guiide.auto suited to?
can be of any age, however as you cannot start to take drawdown until 55, we envisage it will mostly appeal to those over 50. This doesn't stop anyone under 50 using it though to build up savings also.
Do I need a minimum amount of total pension pots to bring together?
No, but as Guiide.auto is designed for long term drawdown, it is likely you will need total pots of at least £50K when you expect to retire, to have a viable long term drawdown plan.
Do I need to fill out lots of forms to signup, or transfer my pots to Penfold?
No, the signup process with Penfold is simple. They will also handle the transfer process from your current pension provider(s).
If you have already entered your current provider details into the Guiide dashboard when available and you are willing to share this information with Penfold it will make this process even simpler.
Will I lose any contributions or guarantees from my old provider?
Penfold will not accept transfers from a pot which your employer is still paying into (as you would lose these contributions).
They will also not accept transfers from a defined benefit scheme (which is fully guaranteed).
Some older pension pots can have some guarantees attached, or high exit penalties. You should check with your old provider this is not the case before transferring. If you are in any doubt you should seek independent advice.
Can I still make my own contributions into Guiide.auto before I retire?
Yes of course
How much will Penfold charge me for Guiide.auto?
Their charges include everything and are completely clear, with no hidden one off admin costs. You can see these here.
For the Lifestyle, Sustainable and all Standard Plans for instance, they charge 0.75% per year on the first £100K invested and 0.4% on every £1 above this. So someone with a total pot of £200K for example would pay 0.575% in that year.
These fees will include all the Guiide.auto plan payment and tracking features, so you have just the one fee.
I am interested, what do I do now?
Just build an initial plan with Guiide. Once built, register with your email on our Finish page to access our Dashboard, Track and Help page.
In the Provider section you will see the details on how you can sign up to Guiide.auto with Penfold and let us help make getting your total retirement income for life simpler.