Legal & General Member Education Webinars

To get a clearer picture of how much income you might need in retirement take a look at the Retirement Living Standards research. This will help you understand how much money you’ll need to support the lifestyle you want.

Our ‘Retirement Living Standards’ tool helps you understand how much you’ll need to live on in retirement. Based on the retirement living standards from the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA), it helps you work out what your retirement might cost based on three lifestyles and allows you to tailor your living costs to your own needs.

If you’re approaching retirement and want to find out more about planning your own retirement, there’s lots of useful information on our financial wellbeing hub.

Once you’ve got an idea of how much you might need in retirement, our retirement planner can help you to work out If you are on track to reach your goals. 

You can enter details of any other retirement savings you might have. You can also change the amount you’re currently paying in to see how increasing your contributions, even if it’s only a little bit more, might boost your retirement savings and help you afford the lifestyle you want in retirement.

And because things can change over time, you can come back to the retirement planner, make any changes and run the numbers again to help you see whether you’re on target to achieve your retirement saving goals.

You’ll find our retirement planning tools in Manage Your Account. 

How much you save will always come down to what you can afford, but this should give you an idea of what to aim for.

Remember: the amount going into your pension isn’t just from you - it could also include a contribution from your employer and the tax relief you receive from the government. Which means that your contribution goals are easier to reach than you might think!

You should aim to start saving for your retirement as soon as you can, and your workplace pension gives you a great opportunity to do this.

The earlier you start making regular contributions, the more time your retirement savings have to grow and the better chance you have of reaching your retirement goals.

To change the amount you pay in, please contact your employer.

If you’re thinking of changing the amount you contribute, you should bear in mind that there is a limit on how much you can pay before incurring a tax charge.

You can potentially pay in the equivalent of your entire annual salary each year (or up to £3,600 if you earn less than that) and get tax relief on your contributions, as long as this amount is less than the annual allowance.

This amount, which has been set by the government at £60,000 for the 2023/24 tax year, includes any money that you or an employer pays in on your behalf, to this or any other pension plans you may have. If these contributions exceed the annual allowance in the current tax year you will pay tax on any amount above £60,000. This amount may be less if you earn more than £200,000 a year or if you’ve already accessed your pot in certain ways.  The lowest allowance is £10,000 a year.

The annual allowance may change. Our Tax Year Rates and Allowances booklet will keep you up to date on what this and any other allowances are, that might affect you. More detailed information on the annual allowance is available on the HMRC website.

You can start to take your workplace pension savings any time after age 55, whether you’ve stopped working or not. This will increase to 57 from April 2028.

You may be able to access them earlier than this if your original scheme had a protected retirement age, or if you’re in ill health.

If you get close to your chosen retirement age and decide you don’t want to take your money yet, you can simply delay taking your money until you’re ready.

Legal & General or your scheme trustees will decide who gets the value of your pension. If you don’t tell us who you’d like your money to go to, it might be paid to your estate or to someone you don’t want to receive it.

It’s important, therefore, to confirm who you'd like your benefits paid to if you die, by completing a nomination of beneficiary form and keeping it updated as your circumstances change. 

You can complete a nomination of beneficiary form in Manage Your Account.

In Manage Your Account you can:

• check the value of your pension pot and see how it’s performing
• monitor the contributions and transactions
• see your online pension benefit statements and request an up-to-date statement at any time
• update your contact details and preferences
• change where your money is invested
• access our My Future Now pension transfer service
• plan for your future by using our planning tools to calculate how much your pension pot could be worth when you retire
• complete your Nomination of beneficiary form
• change your selected retirement date

Please note some features may not be available for your plan.

If you haven't already, you'll need to register for Manage Your Account. It's quick and easy, all you need is your customer reference number.

You can find this in your welcome pack or email or in any letters you’ve received from us, relating to your Legal & General pension.

You can transfer your retirement savings to a new employer’s pension scheme or another pension scheme of your choice.

Or you can leave it with Legal & General. Your savings will still be invested, and charges will still apply.

You may have an option to continue making contributions, depending on the type of pension scheme.

Once we receive your last contribution, we’ll send you a pack that explains your options in more detail.

Research shows that the difference in pension pot sizes between men and women begins at the start of our working lives, with an initial gap of 16%. This is likely to double by the time women reach their 40s and, by the time women reach retirement their retirement savings could be 55% smaller on average.

This gap exists because women:

• are on average still paid less than men
• are less likely to be in senior leadership roles (meaning lower pay and lower pension contributions)
• are more likely to take a career break (for childcare and unpaid carer)
• are more likely to work part time or reduced hours
• often retire early due to the menopause

To find out more go to the Gender Pension Gap page on the Legal & General website.

You can find out more information about the fund you are invested in and the other investment options available within the investments section of Manage Your Account.

You can change the way your savings are invested in Manage Your Account.

Please note Legal & General cannot provide financial advice. If you want help to make your own investment choices, you should speak to a financial adviser. You can find one in your local area at unbiased.co.uk. Financial advisers usually charge a fee for their services, but the advice will be personal to you and your circumstances.

Subject to meeting certain criteria and depending on whether it’s available to members of the scheme you’re in, you may also be able to access to Legal & General Financial Advice (LGFA).

To find out more about the help that’s available go to legalandgeneral.com/lgfa

You can find out more at legalandgeneral.com/workplace/esg.

Most people will be entitled to a State Pension. This entitlement is built up over time by paying your National Insurance contributions while you’re working. You’ll then start to receive it from the government when you reach your State Pension age (unless you choose to defer it). 

The State Pension is an important part of planning and budgeting for your retirement. However, you shouldn’t rely on it as your only source of income when you stop work because it’s unlikely to be enough for anything other than the bare essentials.

We’ve included some helpful government links below to give you information on:

• What the State Pension is and how it’s funded
• How to find out what your State Pension age will be (it won't always be the same as the selected retirement age on your employer's scheme)
• How much your State Pension could be

When you reach your State Pension age, you can start to receive the payments from the government, or you can choose to defer it if you can afford to do so. Deferring it for a few years will increase the amount you get when you do choose to start receiving it, so could be something to consider as part of your planning.

Yes. As you start to think about your future plans you should consider whether you still intend - or can afford - to take your money when you had originally planned? 

If your selected retirement age no longer reflects your circumstances or your plans, you may want to change it. Please be aware that changing your retirement age may have an impact on how your retirement savings are invested if, for example, they are invested in a lifestyle profile.

If you still intend to take your money at your selected retirement age, you should check that it’s invested in a way that reflects how you plan to take the money from your retirement savings pot.

You can always change your selected retirement age as your future plans become clearer. You can do this by logging into Manage Your Account and completing the secure e-form.

You have a range of options when it comes to taking money from your retirement savings pot - Learn about accessing your pension pot.

It’s worth pointing out that the options available from a scheme will vary and you may not be able to access all of the options directly from your scheme. If you cannot access all the options directly you may need to transfer your retirement savings to be able to take your money in the way that you want.

Where this is the case, you may have the option to transfer your savings to the Legal & General Mastertrust Pension Access Scheme. You can also transfer your savings in your scheme to another provider, should you prefer.

It’s important, particularly if you’re less than 10 years away from retirement, to ensure that your pension savings are invested in a way that reflects your circumstances and the way you want to take your money at your selected retirement age. To find out about the investment options available for your scheme go to Manage Your Account

It’s important you shop around to find the option that best reflects your personal circumstances and income goals.

It’s a big decision, so it’s worth comparing what different providers can offer. You don’t have to stay with Legal & General and might get better options elsewhere.

Pension Wise is a free and impartial service backed by the government who will help you shop around and ensure that you have the information needed to make an informed decision. You can book an appointment once you are aged 50 or over.

You can also choose to receive personalised advice from a financial adviser. You can find one in your local area at unbiased.co.uk.

Legal & General also provides a personalised retirement advice service called Legal & General Financial Advice (LGFA).

Providing this is available to members of your scheme, the LGFA team can help you decide on the type of advice or guidance that might fit your needs and let you know more about fees and charges. To be able to use this service you must live in the UK and have a total pension pot of £20,000 or more

To find out more about the help that’s available go to our LGFA website.

Advisers usually charge for their services. You may be able to pay for financial advice directly from your retirement savings pot. To find out if you can, please contact our Helpline on 0800 070 8686. Call charges will vary and the calls may be monitored or recorded.

You don’t just have to choose one option or provider. You can mix your options for each retirement savings pot, if you have more than one. You can transfer all or some of your retirement savings to another provider and have your benefits paid by them. However, you may lose your entitlement to any benefits that were protected, such as the ability to combine your defined benefit and defined contributions pots, the ability to access your pot before age 55 or take a tax-free cash sum greater than 25% of your pot. Please check this before transferring.

The law, tax rates and any allowances may change in the future. These changes could affect the value of your savings, how much you can pay in, or the age at which you’re able to access your money.

How tax works for you will depend on your individual circumstances.

If you’ve started taking pension benefits, the amount you can pay into your pension without having to pay a tax charge may be limited to £10,000 a year. This is called the money purchase annual allowance. You would also lose the right to carry forward any unused allowance.

H.M. Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has an annual allowance calculator that can help you to check if you would have to pay tax on your pension savings, or whether you have any unused annual allowances that could be carried forward.

For more information on annual allowances please visit Gov.uk

How long do you think you’ll spend in retirement?

Research carried out by the Office for National Statistics shows that people are still likely to live for longer than they might expect. Between 2018 and 2020, a man aged 65 years in the UK can now expect to live, on average, to 83 and a woman of the same age to 86.

This means that your savings may need to last longer than you think. Use the Office for National Statistics tool to see what this might mean for you.

Go&Live is our financial wellbeing hub. Our retirement planning support is split into two different sections, reflecting how close you are to retirement, as your planning needs could be different depending on where you are on your retirement journey.

Go&Save

If you're more than 10 years away from retiring we've got some useful information, tools and simple 'jobs to do', to help you make your savings work for you.

Go&Retire

If you're less than 10 years from retiring we've got some useful information, tools and activities so you can firm up your plans and enjoy a colourful retirement.

Prefer to listen? Check out our new award-winning podcast.

In our new series of Rewirement, Angelica Bell talks to a range of studio guests who get their questions about money and saving answered by some financial experts.

Legal & General, in conjunction with the Open University, have also created a couple of free 4-hour courses designed to help you plan for later life.

The Midlife MOT is aimed at people in their 40s and 50s who lead busy lives and who just need a bit of guidance to help them focus on their own financial and physical wellbeing.

Retirement planning made easy sets out a series of stepping-stones that will help you to build a sound financial plan with the aim of enabling you to have the quality of life in retirement that you aspire to.

Depending on the type of pension you have, this may be possible.

First of all though, it’s important to consider:

• if there are any charges or penalties for transferring out of your previous pension scheme
• the level of annual management and fund management charges in both schemes and what represents the best deal for you
• investment performance and whether there are particular funds you would like to select
• whether you would lose any benefits or guarantees
• The options available for accessing your retirement savings

If you’re looking to transfer a defined benefit pension with a value of more than £30,000, you’ll need to seek financial advice. Advisers usually charge a fee for their services. You can find one in your local area by visiting unbiased.co.uk.

You can use the government’s pension tracing service at gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details to find any previous pensions that you might have lost track of.

You can also use this service to locate a pension for someone else if you have their permission.

Please note that the government service won’t tell you whether you have a pension, or what its value is. You also need the name of an employer or a pension provider to use the service.

My Future Now is a pension transfer service that you can access, if it’s available to your scheme, through your online account in Manage Your Account. It’s a simple way to combine all your pension pots in one place.

Here’s our step-by-step guide to transferring other pensions to Legal & General using My Future Now:

1. Read our guide to pension transfers, to consider whether it’s right for you, before making a decision to transfer

You might want to make it easier to manage your retirement savings (by having them all in one place), reduce your charges or improve your investment choices and the options that are available when you want to take your money.  But it’s also important to ensure that there aren’t any penalties for transferring out or that you wouldn’t lose any guarantees or special features.

2. Check that we can accept your transfer

You’ll need to check the type of pension that you want to transfer, as there are some types of pensions that we can’t accept and others where you’ll be required to take financial advice.

3. Go to Manage Your Account, register for My Future Now and submit your request

You’ll need your National Insurance number, the name of the pension provider and the policy number, if you have it.

Assuming we can accept the transfer, we’ll provide you with a summary checklist and ask you to sign a declaration that authorises Legal & General to make the transfer on your behalf.

4. If you provide the name of your pension provider and policy number

My Future Now will proceed with your transfer request.

5. If you only provide the name of your pension provider

My Future Now will trace your pension.  Once it’s been found, you’ll be notified and will then have 5 working days to opt out before it’s transferred automatically.

Follow the ‘Transfer in a pension’ link in Manage Your Account, to access My Future Now, where you’ll find more information about this free service, including the guide to pension transfers.

We would always recommend taking financial advice to make sure that transferring is the right thing for you. You can find an adviser in your local area at unbiased.co.uk. Financial advisers usually charge a fee for their services, but the advice will be personal to you and your circumstances.

We will only accept a transfer payment from a pension scheme that has safeguarded benefits or is invested in a With Profits Fund, if you have received financial advice that recommends you make the transfer.

Safeguarded benefits include some sort of guarantee about the rate of secure pension income that you, or your survivors, might receive. Examples include:

• Defined Benefit scheme (referred to as final salary schemes)
• Has a Guaranteed Annuity Rate
• Has a Guaranteed Minimum Pension

You may be able to transfer from a defined benefit pension scheme without advice if the value of your transfer is under £30,000. You should be aware of the risks of transferring from a defined benefit pension scheme and understand the consequences of doing so. Please contact our helpline on 0345 070 8686 for further information. Call charges will vary and we may record and monitor calls.

We also cannot accept a transfer from a plan that is in income drawdown or flexi-access drawdown. You can check if any of these apply to you on your most recent pension statement from your previous provider.