When can I retire?

You can start taking your benefits from the Plan when you reach age 55 (this will increase to 57 in 2028).

What are my options at retirement?

You can choose to either take a regular income for life (a pension) from the Plan, with or without a tax-free Cash Lump Sum, or you can transfer some or all of your benefits out of the Plan to access additional flexibility.

Receive a regular income for life (a pension) from the Plan

A regular income for life (a pension in other words), that increases in value each year, paid on a regular basis, a bit like a salary. You can take some as tax-free cash in return for a lower regular income (for example if your whole pension is worth £60,000, you take £15,000 tax-free, there will be tax deductions off the remaining £45,000). An income is provided to your spouse (or partner) and/or dependants (up to prescribed age thresholds) if you die.

The Pensions Regulator believes, for most members, it’s likely in their best financial interests to not transfer out of Defined Benefit arrangements. However, it acknowledges, that the flexible options accessed by transferring out may better suit the financial interests of some members in particular circumstances.

Transfer some or all of your pension away from the Plan

You can give up some or all of your pension in exchange for a pot of cash (called a transfer value). You’d need to use this to secure retirement benefits, tailored to your needs, outside of the Plan.

You’ll find an estimate of your current transfer value in your retirement pack. If your transfer value is over £30,000, you cannot transfer out of the Plan without speaking to an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). You can also obtain a transfer quotation by contacting Gallagher.

You may be able to transfer some, or all, of your benefits out of the Plan to another pension arrangement and access the flexibilities available including Income Drawdown.

If you currently have funds in the Aviva DC section of the Dun & Bradstreet Plan or Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) then transferring to this policy may be an option to give you the flexibility of options available under the DC section.

As we already have a structure in place with Aviva, there may be advantages in this option for you over a transfer to another Provider. We suggest you discuss this with an authorised IFA.

Remember that your transfer value reflects the expected cost of providing your pension benefits through the Plan. Factors such as the current economic climate are taken into account to calculate your transfer value. Even if your transfer value is under £30,000, we recommend you take financial advice before making any decisions.

Partial transfers

As mentioned above you have the option of taking some of your pension out of the Plan which you can use to access other flexible options such as buying a tailored income for life (an annuity), taking cash as and when you need it (drawdown) or taking it all as cash lump sum. This is called a partial transfer. You would receive the remaining pension as a standard pension from the Plan, payable until you die.

A partial transfer may be possible if you meet the following requirements:

• You need a minimum Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV) of £150,000 as you need to leave at least £150,000 to generate a pension from the Plan. Your cash equivalent transfer value (CETV) has to be in excess of this to make this option worth considering;
• You can choose to transfer out any amount over and above this amount, provided you transfer out all of your pension built up before 6 April 1997, including your Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP), your transfer out includes all of your pension built up;
• Any Additional Voluntary Contributions you have must be included within the partial transfer;
• A partial transfer is subject to the same checks as a full transfer out of the Plan;
• Any other money purchase benefits (the money you pay into the Plan is invested with the aim of giving you an amount of money when you retire) you have, including those accrued before April 2004 that may be subject to a defined benefit underpin, must be included within the partial transfer; and
• When you take your partial transfer, you must also start taking your pension from the Plan, even if you choose to keep working. Therefore, you need to make sure you understand any tax implications of having both a salary and a pension at the same time.

When you take a partial transfer your:

• Benefits will be split as you have requested them to be, provided the above eligibility requirements are met;
• Partial Plan pension will be put into payment. You have the option to receive this all as a pension or to receive up to 25% as tax-free cash and the rest as a pension; and
• Partial transfer will be put into your chosen separate DC arrangement ready for you to access the flexibility offered by that arrangement (e.g. an annuity, drawdown or as cash – as explained above).

You may think you won’t fall victim for a scam, but fraudsters have become increasingly sophisticated in their approaches, by producing professional looking brochures and websites promoting attractive but hoax offers.

In some cases, these fraudsters will target pension members offering the chance to convert pensions savings to an immediate cash sum before the minimum pension age (currently age 55 but rising to 57 from 6 April 2028). Using a transfer of your benefits to try and take them below normal minimum pension age is usually against the law so that sort of an offer should ring alarm bells with you.

Please read the following information carefully to ensure you don’t let a scammer steal your pension.

Some of the key facts that apply to all of our pension savings include:

• The minimum age you can access your pension savings is currently age 55 (this will be 57 from 6 April 2028);
• All legitimate UK pension schemes must be registered with HMRC and there are checks in place for overseas pension schemes; and
• It is the law to seek financial advice if your transfer value is £30,000 or over.