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Pensions guidance for NHS professionals

Golding Smith & Partners are experts in providing advice to NHS doctors and other professional staff on their membership of the NHS Pension Scheme, and we work closely with one of the largest chartered financial planning firms in the United Kingdom.

We offer a wide range of services to NHS staff including:

Standard review

A comprehensive review of your NHS Pension and any accompanying personal pension or AVC arrangements.  We can also include other defined benefit arrangements in the review, if applicable.

The report, typically, 20-30 pages long and tailored to your individual requirements, includes (where relevant):

  • Detailed pension projections on a standard and maximum lump sum benefits basis (pre- and post-McCloud)
    • With and without any early retirement reduction
    • With and without NHS Scheme Pays.
  • Detailed income and pensions savings tax projections
    • Threshold Income
    • Adjusted Income
    • Tapered Annual Allowance
    • Taxable Pension Savings
    • Forecast tax liabilities.
  • Commentary on the Annual Allowance and maximum tax-free lump sum.
  • Opting-out and early retirement choices.
  • Potential ways to reduce pension savings tax liabilities.
  • Any issues that need to be addressed
    • Backdated pay not allocated to the correct tax years for pensions savings tax purposes
    • Pensions savings tax liabilities from prior tax years.
  • Commentary on the changes to the NHS pension scheme regulations to introduce new retirement flexibilities, and to align the timing of the CPI inflation rate used to revalue pension benefits with the annual allowance tax calculation.

When you sign up to this service, we issue you with an engagement letter which you should sign and send to us with copies of the relevant documents that we request.

Detailed analysis of strategies

We offer detailed assessments of short-term opt-out strategies and the proposed pension flexibilities.  These assessments allow for any employer pension contributions paid to you.  Key features include:

  • Critical yield calculations.  These will show the return you need to achieve to replace lost pension benefits, so that you can decide whether the strategy is appropriate given your attitude to risk.
  • An assessment of the period that you should opt-out or the proportionate rate of accrual that you should choose.
  • Projections showing the impact on:
    • Threshold and adjusted income.
    • Taxable pension savings and forecast tax liabilities.
    • Your take-home pay.
  • A balance sheet assessment showing the impact allowing for the value of lost pension benefits.

Use of NHS Scheme Pays

We can assist you with NHS Scheme Pays applications, including, where relevant, making backdated applications to cover undisclosed tax liabilities for prior years.

Backdated pay issues

We can work out the impact on your pensions savings tax liabilities of backdated pay and liaise with your employer (e.g. your NHS Trust) to ensure that NHS Pensions are informed.

Pension sharing in divorce

We can provide expert reports in pension sharing cases.

Most services to NHS staff are provided at a fixed cost which we confirm at outset.

© Golding Smith & Partners Limited 2024

An independent actuarial consultancy founded in 2002

GOLDING SMITH & PARTNERS

Actuaries and consultants