Independent pension advice in Newport since 1999.
We have advised people in Newport on their pensions for more than twenty five years, from the same building on Stow Hill. A good number of the people we see were sent to us by someone they know.
Newport has its own mix of pension arrangements. There are several large public sector employers, a bigger civil service presence than most people realise, and a generation of households holding deferred final salary benefits from the steelworks. What somebody in Newport needs to know is often not what a national website will tell them.
The first meeting is at our expense and there is no obligation to go any further. If what you need is a short answer rather than an adviser, we will give you the short answer.
Finding us
Cathedral Chambers is at 107 Stow Hill, up the hill from the city centre and a short walk from Newport station, near St Woolos Cathedral.
We are open Monday to Friday, nine until five. Call 01633 246246 to arrange a time.
Pension schemes our Newport clients hold
Greater Gwent (Torfaen) Pension Fund
Newport City Council and four other Gwent authorities, along with around fifty further employers in the region
Newport's Local Government Pension Scheme fund. It is administered on the councils' behalf by Torfaen County Borough Council, which surprises people who expect it to be run from Newport, and it is 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.
NHS Pension Scheme
Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, including the Royal Gwent, the Grange University Hospital and community services
A long NHS career usually spans the 1995, 2008 and 2015 sections of the scheme, each with a different retirement age. The annual allowance is the recurring problem for senior clinical staff, and the pension input amount on a defined benefit scheme is not something you can work out from a payslip.
Civil Service alpha
The Office for National Statistics and the Intellectual Property Office, both on Cardiff Road
Newport is home to the ONS corporate headquarters and to the Intellectual Property Office at Concept House, so the civil service pension is far more common here than the size of the city would suggest. Most members are in alpha and also hold preserved benefits in classic, premium or nuvos.
Deferred steel and heavy industry pensions
Former Llanwern employees and the wider South Wales steel supply chain
A great many Newport households hold deferred benefits from the steel industry, and they are often the largest asset a couple owns after the house. The most useful thing we do with these is establish exactly what is held, what it will pay and when, so the rest of the plan can be built around it. Safeguarded and final salary benefits are usually best left where they are, and advice to give them up is a separate specialist matter requiring a particular FCA permission.
Teachers' Pension Scheme
Newport schools and Coleg Gwent
Final salary and career average benefits, together with the McCloud remedy choice for anyone in service between 2015 and 2022. These are worth modelling properly before you make a decision.
Workplace pension schemes
Newport's manufacturing, logistics, retail and semiconductor employers
Automatic enrolment has got people saving without telling them whether the default fund suits their timescale, whether their employer would match a higher contribution, or what to do with the pot when they change jobs. Most people we see have three or four scattered pots 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 Newport actually hold, and knowing which one you are in is where any useful advice starts.
Questions, answered plainly.
Talk to an adviser about your Newport 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.