Your annual pensions newsletter

You can manage your pension savings online at Manage Your Account (MYA).

Use this to:

• See where your pension is invested and the funds available to you
• Make changes to your investments
• Update your nominated beneficiary
• Update your email address
• Access your personalised retirement planner tool
• View your pension benefit statement and other important documents
• Update your contact preferences

You can access our online service My Future Now to help you transfer your other pension pots into your Legal & General Workplace pension plan. Find your personalised link in Manage Your Account.

• Your pension pot will remain invested until you choose to take benefits. Usual charges such as fund management charges will continue to be taken.
• You can still pay into your pension but the amounts you can contribute and the tax you pay will depend on your specific circumstances. Please contact Legal & General for further details if you want to know more, but be aware they will not be able to provide financial advice.
• For pension benefits paid to members outside of the UK, payments can be made to overseas bank accounts, but the statement must be translated into English. Legal & General will always pay in sterling, and this can take longer than usual payments to be received. UK tax rules will apply but you may also have to pay local income taxes for where you are living outside of the UK.
• Please keep your contact details up to date. When updating your address details, Manage Your Account cannot facilitate addresses with non-UK postcodes. Please contact Legal & General by phone, email or secure message to update your address.

If you die before you take your retirement benefits, you can nominate the person or people that you’d like to receive the money you have saved. The Trustees aren’t bound by your choice of beneficiary, but they will use your completed form as a guide. This means that the benefits paid this way do not form part of the estate and therefore are not normally assessable for inheritance tax. 

If you die with dependants under 18 at the time of your death, the Trustees may make payment to the legal representative on their behalf. They could also choose to pay the benefits into a trust fund which your dependants can only access when they turn 18. Similarly, the Trustees may choose to use all or part of your pension pot to secure a guaranteed income for your dependants. This decision would be made if the Trustees felt a regular income was more appropriate for your dependants than a one-off lump sum. 

To let the Trustees know who you would like to receive these benefits, please log into Manage Your Account and complete a nomination of beneficiary form.

You can choose as many beneficiaries as you like, and we recommend you review your choices on a regular basis. If your circumstances change you should complete the form again to change your beneficiary.

If you are taking pension benefits when you die, there may be additional payment options for your spouse or beneficiary. These will be explained to them at the time of claiming.

If you haven’t chosen your own funds your money will be automatically invested in the default investment option for your plan. We’re proud that all the standard default funds are invested responsibly, so you are already making a meaningful impact today.

You can find out more about this by visiting Legal & General's ESG Hub.

If you want to make sure that you are making responsible investment choices, our fund guide will help you understand your options.

To give you some help when it comes to looking at how much you might need to save for your retirement, there are two general 'rules of thumb' for saving enough each month to help you achieve the lifestyle you want in retirement:

• If you’re under 30 when you start making contributions, you should aim to pay 15% of your annual salary, including your employer's contributions.
• If you’re over 30 when you start making contributions, you should aim to pay half your age as a percentage of your annual salary, including your employer's contributions.

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.

The Retirement Living Standards from the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) show you practical guidance to help you work out what your retirement might cost based on three lifestyles.

The guidance describes three different standards of living: minimum, moderate and comfortable and provide you with information about the costs in retirement and cover everyday living expenses and lifestyle choices such as your home, food and transport, holidays and leisure and helping others like buying birthday presents.

Use our retirement living standards tool to see how much you need to save to achieve the retirement you want.

If you do decide that you would like to boost your pension savings, you can:

• Contact your employer if you wish to increase your regular contributions.
• Contact Legal & General directly if you want to make a one-off payment, if your scheme allows.
• Transfer in your other pension savings so that you have everything in one place. Many schemes allow you to do this online via Manage Your Account.

Saving into your pension

Annual Allowance (AA) - this is the maximum amount that can be paid into your pension in a tax year before incurring a tax charge. It may be possible to use previous unused years if you are reaching the annual allowance limit. Please see your scheme website for more details in the Higher Earners section and useful links to the HMRC site.

Other allowances which may apply include:

Tapered Annual Allowance - this may apply to high earners with total taxable income of £200,000 or more. The taper can reduce how much can be paid into a pension without incurring a tax charge down to as little as £4,000.  If this applies to you, please see your scheme website for further information.

Taking your pension benefits

The Lifetime Allowance (LTA) is a limit on the amount of pension benefit that can be built up in pension schemes without triggering an additional tax charge. For most people this is £1,073,100 but this might change in future budget announcements. To find out how to calculate the value of your retirement savings see your scheme website and/or The Money Helper website.

The trigger for testing if the Lifetime Allowance should be applied is usually when you begin to use your pension pot by taking a lump sum or an income, or at age 75. It will also be tested if you apply to transfer your pension overseas before age 75.

Money Purchase Annual Allowance (MPAA) - depending on the type of scheme you are accessing the benefits from and how you choose to access them, the MPAA may affect you when you start to receive an income from your pension savings.

It reduces the amount that you or anyone else can carry on paying into your pension without having to pay a tax charge. The limit for the 2022/23 tax year is £4000. This figure includes employer contributions. If you exceed this amount, you may be liable for a tax charge.

The MPAA will not apply if you buy a lifetime annuity, if you only take your tax-free cash or if you take benefits from a defined benefit scheme.

25% tax-free cash - the first 25% of your pension pot can be taken as a tax-free cash lump sum. The remaining 75% is taxed as earned income however you choose to take it.

You can choose to take your pension pot as cash all in one go. Think carefully before you do this. It could result in a large amount of tax being deducted before you are paid.

You can take cash from your pot in smaller sums. The first 25% of each cash withdrawal is tax-free, the rest is taxed as income. This may allow you to access your money more tax efficiently. What remains in your pot is still invested and the value of investments may go down as well as up.

For more information about all the above, please visit the income tax explained page.

If you’re unsure about any aspects of tax and your pension, especially when thinking about taking your pension benefits, you should talk to a financial adviser first. Advisers usually charge a fee for their services.

The earliest you can access your Mastertrust workplace pension pot is at the age of 55. You might be able to access it earlier if you have an illness that means you are unable to work again in the future. If you joined the Mastertrust before 4 November 2021, your minimum retirement age will remain at age 55.  If you joined after this time, it will go up to age 57 in April 2028.

The state pension age is currently age 66 for men and women. This is rising to 67 by 2028. For those born after 5 April 1977, the state pension age is gradually rising to age 68 between 2044 and 2046.

You can check the age you will receive the state pension on GOV.UK’s website.

There are a variety of ways you can choose to take your pension pot.

These are explained on Legal & General's accessing your pension pot page.

If you have a defined contribution (DC) pension and you’re aged 50 or over, you’re entitled to free specialist guidance from the government’s Pension Wise service to help you understand the choices available. 

You’ll receive a 60-minute appointment, which can be carried out over the phone or face to face. The Pension Wise specialist will explain the different ways you can take your pension and how each of the options might be taxed. They’ll also help you to identify what your next steps should be.  

You can make a Pension Wise appointment by completing an online booking form or you can call 0800 138 3944. 

It’s important to understand the difference between helpful guidance and financial advice. 

As well as the guidance provided by Pension Wise, you can also seek financial advice.

Information and help is usually free, like the Pension Wise service. There may be other free support available, but this isn’t usually personalised. Personalised financial advice will normally cost money. 

You can find an independent financial adviser at unbiased.co.uk

Initial advice meetings are often free of charge. But it’s best to check first before making any appointments, just to make sure that there aren’t any unexpected financial surprises! 

Advisers usually charge for their services. Fees will vary depending on what you’ve asked the adviser to do (and how much work that involves) or how you intend to pay. Some advisers charge an hourly rate. Others may charge a set, monthly or on-going fee. 

You may be able to pay for financial advice directly from your pension pot using a facilitated adviser charge. To find out if you can, please contact Legal & General's Helpline on 0345 070 8686. Call charges will vary, and the calls may be monitored or recorded.