Personal Pension Plans

• You are eligible for the Forester Life Personal Pension Plan if you are aged less than 75 and you are a UK resident for tax purposes.
• You do not need to have earnings to contribute to this Plan.
• Our Personal Pension is designed to be set up by individuals, not employees. This means we can only offer pensions to the self-employed or sole traders, or if you are the only employee of your own company.

Yes. Children can have their own Personal Pension Plan. The Plan must be opened by a parent or legal guardian who is responsible for the Plan until the child reaches 16 (18 if in higher education or not working).

You can contribute from as little as £20 as a monthly contribution and/or a single contribution up to the maximum limits allowed by HM Revenue & Customs.

Within these limits your employer can also contribute to your Plan on your behalf.

Single contributions can be made by cheque or Direct Credit.

Monthly contributions, which should be made for at least five years, are collected by Direct Debit or standing order.

You can contribute up to 100% of your annual earnings, and receive tax relief on your contributions, up to a maximum limit known as the Annual Allowance. This allowance is set at £40,000 for the 2018/2019 tax year.

Even if you have no earnings you are allowed to contribute up to £3,600 (inclusive of tax relief) each tax year.

Forester Life will automatically claim basic rate tax relief direct from HM Revenue & Customs and add it to your contributions. You obtain this tax relief even if you are a non-taxpayer.

If you are a higher rate taxpayer you can claim additional tax relief from HM Revenue & Customs as part of your annual tax assessment.

In addition to the tax relief, your contributions benefit from tax-efficient growth. Forester Life invests your contributions and all the profits from these investments, except the dividends from shares, are free from Income Tax, Corporation Tax and Capital Gains Tax.

Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and may be subject to change in the future.

All contributions to your Personal Pension Plan, plus any top-ups within the first 10 years, will be invested in the Foresters Stakeholder (Schroders) Managed 1 Fund.

After 10 years your fund and any subsequent contributions, including top-ups, will be invested in the Foresters Stakeholder (Schroders) Managed 1A Fund, which has an identical investment philosophy but benefits from lower charges.

Unless you choose otherwise we will invest all your contributions according to our Stakeholder Managed Lifestyle Strategy which is designed to lower investment risk as you approach retirement. This means that we will progressively redirect your contributions, and switch units, from the Foresters Stakeholder (Schroders) Managed 1 Fund or Foresters Stakeholder (Schroders) Managed 1A Fund to the lower risk Foresters Stakeholder (Schroders) Protection 1 Fund or Foresters Stakeholder (Schroders) Protection 1A Fund respectively, in your Plan’s later years.

Further information about charges is contained in the 'What are the charges' section below. 

Every year we will send you a statement showing how much has been paid into your Plan, how many units you have, and how much your Plan is worth.
You can check unit prices at any time. Simply visit our Unit Prices page or phone the Unit Price Information Line on 0800 990 011.

You should monitor the value of your Plan, and the level of your contributions, to ensure that it is sufficient to meet your retirement needs.

We will automatically increase the amount of your monthly contributions each year in line with the Retail Price Index to help you keep pace with inflation.
There is a minimum increase of 2.5% each year, which will provide a boost to your Plan when inflation is low.

You can make additional increases to your Plan at any time subject to minimum and maximum contribution limits.

You can stop and re-start your monthly contributions without penalty.

You can reduce the amount you contribute monthly, subject to a minimum ongoing saving of £20.

If you wish to cancel the automatic increases, you should tell us at least 14 days before the increase is due.

You can start taking the benefits of your Plan any time after your 55th birthday. You do not have to retire (stop working) in order to start taking your benefits.

You can also choose to leave your fund untouched when you reach your original intended retirement date if you do not wish to access it at that time.

We will write to inform you of your options prior to your intended retirement date as these could be subject to change, either by Government announcement or by our choice.

You can take up to 25% of the Plan value as a tax-free lump sum and use the balance to buy a policy that gives you a guaranteed income for life (known as a lifetime annuity) from an annuity provider. This is known as the Open Market Option.

We also offer you the option to take the Plan value as a cash lump sum, either in full or in parts.

If you choose to take partial lump sum payments from your pension fund you will also be able to continue paying into it if you want to, up to the Money Purchase Annual Allowance. For details of the current Money Purchase Annual Allowance please refer to the Pension Factsheet.

Both the pension option and cash lump sum payment options will be taxable as earned income.

You also have the option to transfer your entire fund, free of charge, to another pension provider. This may be beneficial if you can obtain better pension rates elsewhere or if you wish to take advantage of the wider range of pension options available in the marketplace.

A full range of the options that can be offered by pension providers can be found on the Government's Pension Wise website. 

The Forester Life Personal Pension Plan is a stakeholder pension scheme and as such meets the Government standard for ‘capped charges’.

There is an annual management charge of 1.5% of the value of the funds you accumulate. If your fund is valued at £500 throughout the year, this means that we charge £7.50 that year. If your fund is valued at £7,500 throughout the year, this means that we charge £112.50 that year. After 10 years these deductions would reduce to £5.00 and £75.00 respectively.

There are no other charges to you.

Stakeholder pensions were introduced to encourage more people to save for their retirement by meeting standards to make sure they offer value for money, flexibility and security.

In order to qualify as stakeholder, a pension scheme must satisfy Government standards including minimum payments from £20, a default investment option, a range of payment methods, and charges of no more than 1.5% pa of fund value (reducing to 1% pa after 10 years).

Scheme investments must be suitable and take into account the need for diversification, with lifestyling to progressively reduce the investment risk in the run up to your retirement.

Unless you choose otherwise we will invest all your contributions according to our Stakeholder Managed Lifestyle Strategy which is designed to lower investment risk as you approach retirement.

This means that we will progressively redirect your contributions, and switch units, from the Foresters Stakeholder (Schroders) Managed 1 Fund or Foresters Stakeholder (Schroders) Managed 1A Fund to the lower risk Foresters Stakeholder (Schroders) Protection 1 Fund or Foresters Stakeholder (Schroders) Protection 1A Fund respectively, in your Plan’s later years.

The Stakeholder Protection Funds aim to achieve medium to long-term capital growth through investment in UK Government bonds (Gilts) and other high quality fixed interest securities.

The aim of this lifestyling strategy is to gradually reduce your exposure to shares, and help to shelter your Plan from stockmarket swings, in the run up to your retirement. Lifestyling will normally commence five years before your intended retirement date. However you can opt out of lifestyling if you wish.

We will write to tell you when lifestyling is due to commence which will normally be five years before your intended retirement date.

At that time you can choose whether you wish your Plan to be lifestyled or to continue to be fully invested in the Stakeholder Managed Funds.

Depending on your personal circumstances your pension from this Plan may affect your eligibility for means tested pension benefits from the Government.

You should tell us if there is any change in your employment circumstances or your tax status as this may affect the amount you can contribute or your eligibility for your Plan.

From 2012 all employers, starting with the largest employers first, enrolled their eligible workers into a workplace pension if they are not already in one.

Normally this will be the case if you are age 22 or over, but have not reached state pension age, and earn more than a specified minimum each year and are contracted to ordinarily work in the UK.

All employers should have completed enrolment by 2018 although many will have done so years before this date.

It’s possible to pay into both a Personal Pension Plan and a workplace pension, or you may choose to contribute to just one of them depending on your circumstances.

However, with your workplace pension you will get a contribution from your employer that you won’t get with your Personal Pension Plan.

Yes, HM Revenue & Customs rules allow you to switch between approved pension providers and Forester Life will not apply a charge to the amount being transferred.

You can transfer the value of registered pension schemes you hold elsewhere to your Forester Life Personal Pension Plan.

For more information about how to transfer into, or from your Plan, please speak to your Financial Adviser or contact Customer Services.

If you die before you start taking the benefits of your pension we will pay the value of your Plan as a lump sum, usually to your nominated beneficiaries.

Any lump sum benefit is normally paid free of Inheritance Tax.