Issues

Choosing the right ingredients and blending them at the right time to bake a retirement income cooked to perfection is a tricky dish to get right

15 April 2015

	As people approach retirement, selecting the most appropriate mix of income options to their displosal is a daunting  prospect. Understanding one's options is an education in its own right.
With questions over what to do with one of the most important decisions someone has to make, is one of the biggest challenges you can be faced with.

+ What is my ideal retirement age?
+ Should I withdraw money from my fund in one go or take small amounts each year?
+ How much of my pension fund is it advisable to withdraw straight away?
+ If I don’t purchase an annuity what are the other options to generate an income?
+ How much of my pension fund should I take as a tax-free lump sum?
+ How much of my pension fund will I have left after tax?
+ How much tax will I pay on my pension fund?

Choosing what is right and works best is one challenge. Blending them together so that they support each other to create the best desired outcome is work of art!

Dunstan Thomas have created Imago Self Direct to help consumers and advisers alike to understand choices available in saving and planning for retirement. 

Tools, such as Imago Self Direct,  play a significant part in helping to educate and build up a consumer’s understanding of some of the choices and consequences of the flexibility with pensions and other income to ensure better outcomes in retirement.


Imago Self Direct users will be able to input total retirement income targets and explore decumulation options including taking of Tax Free Cash, cash lump sums, Drawdown or buying an annuity. They can set planned dates for starting drawdown or purchasing an annuity. They can also explore hybrid decumulation options in which several choices are explored alongside each other.

Imago Self Direct is deployed using the tried and tested Imago Self Direct calculation engine that is widely used throughout the market providing illustrations across many product providers and platforms. Products that  Imago Self Direct illustrates are configured with the Imago Self DirectAdministration Tool to provide charging and fee structures that meet the unique and personalised needs of product providers, platforms and advisers for the pensions and savings market.