MERCER JELF FINANCIAL PLANNING Advised Pension Services Ensuring that you can afford the retirement lifestyle you want is one of life s main financial objectives. However, the increasingly complex nature of pensions legislation has left many facing tough decisions. Whilst some may struggle to secure the retirement they want, there are significant rewards for prudent planning. Making important financial decisions can often be a daunting prospect, even for the most experienced of us. Understanding how and when to make these decisions can be even harder. Pension Freedom legislation gives you more choice than ever over how you take your pension benefits. However with that comes complexity. Financial advice from a trusted expert can be invaluable in helping you to make these decisions, ensuring you are not left disappointed by insufficient or unexpected income levels in retirement. Helping clients to achieve their financial goals is something that we at Mercer Jelf Financial Planning (MJFP) are passionate about. Through your employer, you will be able to access a wide range of resources to help you with your key pension decisions. However, these alone will not be enough to secure a suitable outcome for everyone; especially those who have a diverse range of pension assets and/or complex planning needs. We offer a range of advised services designed to help you achieve your retirement planning goals. Through these services we will highlight the key considerations and provide you with recommendations so you can take the most appropriate action. You can then be confident of achieving the retirement you want.
ABOUT MJFP Organising your finances can be complex and time-consuming so it s good to know that trusted expertise is available to help develop a financial plan and make those crucial decisions. We often think of money and wealth as being the primary factor to achieving financial security, but whilst it plays an important role, there is more to being confident about your future financial planning than cold numbers. A Financial Planner can help you by offering support around: Future security, ensuring you have enough income for later life Protection, safeguarding you and your family should the worst happen Saving time, letting us research the market for you Return on investment, investing in line with your objectives and attitude to risk. We passionately believe that everyone should have access to the right support so that they can feel confident about their finances. 2
We all have dreams and aspirations for the future. And we all need a plan to ensure we have the right financial resources in place at the right time, to help turn those dreams into reality. Similarly, we all reach points in our life where we have important decisions to make, such as when to retire and how to access our pension benefits. Grant Hughes, Head of Financial Planning 3
CHARTERED FINANCIAL PLANNING As a firm, Mercer Jelf Financial Planning has been awarded the prestigious Chartered Financial Planners designation by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), an accreditation of which we are immensely proud. Currently held by less than 10% of the industry, Chartered status is the gold standard for firms of financial planners and provides independent testament to our ongoing professionalism. Part of the accreditation process is to ensure that we work in an ethical manner, meaning that our clients interests are always at the heart of any advice we give. Many of our Financial Planners also hold Chartered status in their own right, and we continue to ensure that they build on this expertise, retaining the knowledge and skills required to provide the highest quality of advice to our clients. 4
MEET THE TEAM STUART DONNACHIE Stuart has worked for Mercer for 3 years within the Defined Contribution Pensions Consulting & Individual Wealth practice. He is a member of the personal financial planning team and regularly provides individuals with education on retirement planning and wider financial planning issues. Stuart holds the Diploma in Financial Planning and is also a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute. He holds specialist exams in pensions and investments and has a wide knowledge base which allows him to provide a fully holistic approach to financial planning. JAMES LUPAN James has worked for Mercer for 4 years within the Defined Contribution Pensions Consulting & Individual Wealth practice. He is a Chartered Financial Planner and has achieved Fellow status through the Personal Finance Society. James has over 15 years of experience within the financial services industry and over this time has gained a wealth of knowledge in providing advice to individuals across a whole range of advice areas including retirement planning and protection (for both individuals and businesses). PETE MATTHEWS With more than 30 years in Financial Services Peter has gained a wealth of experience and knowledge. Over the last 10 years he has primarily focused on supporting employers, employees and executives in all aspects of their personal financial planning including retirement planning, pension tax simplification and employee benefit programmes. In his own words he has a peculiar fascination for pensions, and works hard with individuals to demystify the subject. He has found that simplicity, understanding, and enjoyment are key to this. Peter is a Fellow of the Personal Finance Society and Chartered Financial Planner. STUART MILLER Stuart joined Mercer in 2001. He advises clients on all aspects of their personal financial planning including pensions, investments, estate planning and protection. Stuart has worked with many clients delivering topical workshops and communications on areas including pension taxation changes and retirement planning. Stuart is a Fellow of the Personal Finance Society and a Chartered Financial Planner and holds a degree in Business. 5
OUR PENSION SERVICES Pensions are a complicated subject. As a result, many prefer to receive assistance from a professional regarding the challenges they face. This may include consolidating existing arrangements, analysing whether you are on track to hit your retirement goal, considering whether any further provision is required and whether you are, or may be, impacted by changes in pension legislation. Everyone s needs are different, so our advised services have been designed to provide assistance at different times, depending where you are in your retirement journey. These can be split into three levels: Level 1 - Specialised Pension Services These services look at specific areas of pension saving and legislation that might affect you on an ongoing basis. Level 2 - Executive Pension Advisory Service A fuller pension health check, looking at areas such as the tax efficiency of your contribution strategy, the suitability of your investment profile and your income options in retirement. Level 3 - Full Financial Planning Looking beyond your pension arrangements to the broader financial picture, we provide full financial planning and retained wealth management services. 6
PENSION CONSOLIDATION SERVICE We all know that the job for life culture is a thing of the past, and with greater employee mobility the greater the chance that individuals will end up with more than one pension arrangement. This can be cumbersome from a personal administration point of view but also difficult to manage. Consolidating arrangements can simplify these challenges. Our Pension Consolidation Service is a telephone based service where we provide an overview and analysis of your existing pension arrangements and outline whether it is suitable to consolidate these into your existing employers pension arrangement or not. We will supply you with a recommendation report which will outline any guarantees or penalties that would be applied to your existing schemes, which will then be factored into our overall advice. Where we do recommend your pensions should be consolidated, we will provide you with the necessary paperwork to action this. The fee for this service is 1,000 plus VAT. This service is designed to cover Defined Contribution pension consolidation only. It does not include advice on Defined Benefit pensions, which is available separately. ANNUAL & LIFETIME ALLOWANCE ANALYSIS There have been many changes to pension legislation in recent years. In particular, the amounts that can be contributed to a pension each year and the total funds that can be accrued without penalty have been significantly reduced. Whilst pensions offer a tax efficient way of saving, breaching these limits can heavily reduce this efficiency. The current Annual Allowance is 40,000 (2018/19 tax year) however further restrictions apply if you have drawn benefits flexibly (Money Purchase Annual Allowance) or if you are a high earner (Tapered Annual Allowance). It can therefore be difficult to understand how to maximise contributions into your pension. Our Annual Allowance analysis will outline whether or not you are impacted by either of these, whether any penalties are likely to apply and the options that are available to you. The Lifetime Allowance is currently 1,030,000 and will increase in line with inflation each April. The penalty for drawing funds over and above this limit can be significant. Our Lifetime Allowance analysis will review your current pension provision and any ongoing contributions to ascertain whether you are likely to exceed the Lifetime Allowance and when this may occur. We will then outline what actions you could consider. The fees for these services individually are 1,500 plus VAT. 7
When I retired some years ago I had various pensions and investments I had acquired over the years. I d used MJFP s services for quite some time and was confident about their expertise, so together we prioritised my requirements, which were: to rationalise, and take an income from my investments as tax efficiently as possible, whilst at the same time trying to grow that investment. Together we decided on a portfolio split across a number of different types of investments using a single wrap. To ensure I stay on track with my requirements I meet each year with my Financial Planner, and have been extremely satisfied with the performance of my Mercer Jelf portfolio, and particularly with my Financial Planner who is always on hand to discuss any requirements I may have. Alan McCarthy, Retained Wealth Management client 8
EXECUTIVE PENSION ADVISORY SERVICE This service provides you with a pension health check, providing detailed analysis and advice on all the major planning areas that may affect your pension arrangements. Under this service, we cover the following: Analysis of your retirement income objectives Planning in respect of current and future pension contribution levels Risk profiling and attitude to risk analysis Where applicable, Annual Allowance and Lifetime Allowance analysis Pension consolidation After an initial fact finding meeting with one of our Financial Planners, where we would obtain details of your personal circumstances and objectives, we conduct a full analysis of your existing pension provision. Once this review process is complete we then provide you with a comprehensive report at a follow up meeting, outlining our findings and any recommendations we deem appropriate. Once agreed we then help you to implement these recommendations. The service aims to provide you with a clear understanding of your current pension position and to outline a suitable strategy with the aim of helping you to achieve your goals. The fee for this is 2,000 plus VAT. However, if additional complex advice is required i.e. defined benefit transfer, then this fee will increase accordingly. We will always discuss any additional fees with you before conducting any work. 9
FULL FINANCIAL PLANNING Whilst the services outlined on the previous The additional services we can provide under a pages will meet your requirements in respect of Full Financial Planning service include: pensions and retirement planning, there are often other financial issues where assistance including ongoing Investment may be required which is beyond the scope of these services. In this instance, we would recommend that you speak to one of our Financial Planners, specifically if you have issues or questions management and strategy Inheritance Tax planning, including death benefits and trust arrangements Advice on complex Occupational Pensions around final salary pension transfers or the options available to you in retirement and how to At and after retirement planning advice, Protection planning and implementation build a long term retirement plan. The fees for these services are dependent on the advice you require and will be outlined to you during your initial meeting with one of our Financial Planners. 10
INVESTMENT EXPERTISE Being part of Mercer means we are able to draw on the extensive resources of one of the world s leading investment managers and researchers. Mercer has a depth of experience and intellectual capital gained from advising a broad range of clients and has been dedicated to meeting the needs of clients for more than 40 years, working with individuals, wealth managers, Pension funds, insurance companies, foundations, banks and financial advisers in over 20 countries. It creates value by applying its extensive knowledge to solving investment challenges on behalf of its clients with more than $11 trillion in assets under advice and $227 billion under management 1. Mercer leverages its scale to secure exceptional fee arrangements for clients, and in particular to ensure that investment management fees remain highly competitive. Mercer manages the Mercer Jelf Managed Portfolio Service, an investment solution available exclusively to our clients. The Mercer Jelf Managed Portfolio Service strikes a sensible balance between targeting growth and managing risk, that we believe our clients appreciate and value. The portfolios have been created to provide realistic Investment returns over the medium to long term, whilst monitoring and controlling risk and cost. If you would like more information about these portfolios please request a brochure from us. INVESTMENT GOVERNANCE We know that advising our clients where to invest their money is crucially important to them achieving their future aspirations, and it is a responsibility that we take very seriously. We therefore have in place an Investment Steering Committee to manage and monitor the range of investment solutions we recommend for our clients. The Committee is made up of professionals with extensive investment expertise and experience. It reviews aspects like performance, charges and risk levels, as well as fund managers business structure, investment process and investment philosophy. 11 1 Asset information as at 31st December 2017
This brochure outlines the scope of the main advisory services we offer employees. In addition, Mercer Jelf Financial Planning are able to provide additional specialised advice outside of financial planning to meet your wider objectives from Financial Planners based across the country. CONTACT US If you would like to find out more about our services and how we can help, please feel free to get in touch: Telephone: 0333 400 1106 Email: thomsonsadvice@mercer.com Visit: www.uk.mercer.com/mercer-jelf 12 MJFP18/049