Pension advice for Cardiff, from our office in Newport.
Our office is at Cathedral Chambers on Stow Hill in Newport, about twelve minutes from Cardiff Central by train and one junction along the M4. We are not a Cardiff firm and we would rather be straightforward about that. We are independent, we advise across the whole market, and the adviser who writes your plan is the one who reviews it with you every year afterwards.
Much of what makes pension advice useful in Cardiff comes down to knowing the schemes. Many of the city's largest employers are in the public sector, and their pensions are defined benefit arrangements with rules that catch people out. An NHS consultant may be exceeding the annual allowance without realising it. A council employee may be weighing up early retirement without a clear picture of what the reduction costs. A lecturer may hold benefits in three separate sections of the same scheme. A comparison website will not help with any of that.
The first meeting is at our expense and there is no obligation to go any further. If we are not the right firm for you, we will say so at that meeting rather than three months later.
Getting to us from Cardiff
Cathedral Chambers is at 107 Stow Hill, a few minutes' walk up from Newport station. Trains from Cardiff Central run several times an hour and take twelve to fifteen minutes. By car it is junction 24 to junction 29 of the M4, then down into the city centre.
We are open Monday to Friday, nine until five. Call 01633 246246 and we will arrange a time that suits you. Early mornings and evenings are usually possible if the working day is difficult.
Pension schemes our Cardiff clients hold
Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan Pension Fund
Cardiff Council, the Vale of Glamorgan Council, Cardiff Metropolitan University and Cardiff and Vale College, for non-teaching staff
The Local Government Pension Scheme fund administered by Cardiff Council, and one of the eight Welsh funds in the Wales Pension Partnership. Benefits have built up on a career average basis since 2014, with earlier final salary service preserved. The questions we are usually asked concern additional contributions, the 50/50 section, and what taking benefits early really costs.
NHS Pension Scheme
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, including the University Hospital of Wales, Llandough and community services
Most long serving NHS staff hold benefits in more than one section of the scheme, being the 1995, 2008 and 2015 arrangements. Each has its own retirement age and its own rules. For higher earners the annual allowance and the tapered annual allowance are where the most money is at stake, and the pension input amount on a defined benefit scheme is difficult to work out without help.
Civil Service alpha
Companies House on Crown Way, the Welsh Government at Cathays Park, and HMRC's Cardiff offices
Benefits build up on a career average basis, with a normal pension age tied to your State Pension age. Many members also hold preserved benefits in the older classic, premium or nuvos arrangements. Partnership members are in a defined contribution scheme instead, which works quite differently, and the two are often confused.
Universities Superannuation Scheme
Academic and academic related staff at Cardiff University
A hybrid scheme. Benefits build up on a defined benefit basis up to the salary threshold, and on a defined contribution basis above it through the Investment Builder. The Investment Builder pot is the part most members have never made an active decision about, and it is also the part they have most control over.
Teachers' Pension Scheme
Cardiff schools, sixth forms and further education colleges
Final salary and career average benefits, together with the McCloud remedy choice for anyone in service between 2015 and 2022. Faster accrual and buying additional pension are both worth modelling properly before you commit to them.
Police and firefighters' pension schemes
South Wales Police and South Wales Fire and Rescue Service
These schemes are more generous and more complicated than most, and they allow retirement at ages that do not apply anywhere else. Planning around a pension you can draw in your fifties calls for a different approach to planning around one you cannot touch until 67.
Workplace pension schemes
Cardiff's insurance, banking, legal and technology employers
Automatic enrolment has got a great many people saving. It does not tell you whether the default fund suits you, whether your employer would match a higher contribution, or what to do with the pot when you move on. Most people we see have three or four of these from previous jobs.
We are independent and have no connection to any of the schemes or employers named above. They are listed because they are the arrangements people in Cardiff actually hold, and knowing which one you are in is where any useful advice starts.
Questions, answered plainly.
Talk to an adviser about your Cardiff pension.
Your first meeting is free and without obligation. We'll listen, answer your questions, and tell you honestly whether and how we can help.