You & Your Retirement

Thinking about retirement can feel daunting, but starting early can help you feel more in control when it’s time to access your DC pension pot.

Take a look at information about your Target Retirement Age, your options for taking your money, and how retiring earlier or later could affect you.

You & Your Target Retirement Age

Target Retirement Age (TRA), for most people, is either age 65 or your State Pension Age if that’s later.

You can check what your TRA is by logging in to L&G’s secure online member portal – Manage Your Account.

L&G Manage Your Account

Check your State Pension Age

Can I change my Target Retirement Age?

Yes, you can access your pension benefits at any time from the National Minimum Pension age of 55 (increasing to age 57 from April 2028). If you’ve decided to take your pension before or after your TRA, please update this by logging in to L&G’s secure online member portal – Manage Your Account. Click on ‘Manage my pension’ then choose ‘Change retirement age’.

You’ll still be able to take your pension pot at a different time if your circumstances change.

Why it’s important to let L&G know if your TRA changes

If you’re in the default investment fund, the way your pension pot is invested changes depending how close you are to your retirement age.
If you’ve chosen another fund, you might also want to check it’s still the right level of risk for you.
If you’ve moved your TRA earlier and are in riskier funds, they will have less time to recover from market volatility.

Find out about how the investment funds work:

Your Investments

How will my pension pot be impacted if I retire early or late?

If you take your pension pot early, you may have a lower pot value because you’ll have had less time to pay contributions, and it won’t be invested for as long.

If you take your pension pot later, it may mean you could receive a higher amount because your investments have longer to grow.

However, this will depend on how much you’ve paid in and how well your investments perform.

You’ll need to think about whether you’ll have enough income for your retirement and consider any other pensions or savings you have too.

Am I saving enough?

You & Your Options at Retirement

Deciding how to take your DC Pension pot is a big decision, but it can also be an exciting one! There’s lots to consider, and plenty of help and information available to support you.

When the time comes for you to take your pension pot, you can:

Take it all in one go as a cash lump sum

25% of the lump sum is usually tax free but the remaining amount is taxable as income.
Remember to think about whether you’ll have other sources of income to support you.

Buy a guaranteed income – this is called an annuity

You can still take 25% of your pot tax-free if you want.
The rest can be used to buy a guaranteed income, either for a fixed period or for the rest of your life.
Each payment you receive is taxable as income.
You can choose different features when you buy your guaranteed income and it’s important to choose one that is right for you. For example, you may choose to have a dependant’s pension if you die.

Leave your money invested

If you decide not to take your pension pot at your Target Retirement Age it will remain invested.
Your pension pot will have more time to grow.
If you don’t get in touch, Legal & General will automatically extend your retirement age by five years. However, you can still take your pension pot at any time.

Transfer to a different pension arrangement and take a series of cash withdrawals – this is called drawdown

25% is usually tax free but the rest is taxable as income.
You can stop or change the amount you’re taking at any time.
You’ll need to choose an investment approach for the money that remains invested.

You can find more information about all of these options on Legal & General’s website.