Approaching retirement

If you’re a Legal & General customer, log in to Manage Your Account and use our retirement planner to plan for your retirement. Or learn more about your options.

Overview

You now have even more options when it comes to accessing your pension pot.

Want to know more about your options for taking your money? 

The best place to get information about your options is on your employer’s pension scheme website. If you don’t know where that is, check with your employer. There will usually be a link on your employer’s intranet site.

Accessing your pension pot

You can access the money in your pension pot from age 55 (57 from April 2028) or sometimes earlier if you are in ill health.

Depending on your scheme you may be able to take cash lump sums, a variable income through drawdown (known as flexi-access drawdown), a guaranteed income under an annuity or a combination of these options.

When thinking about your options, it’s a good idea to make an appointment with Pension Wise. It’s a free government guidance service from Money Helper to help people aged 50 or over to understand the options you have for your pension pot.

Buy an annuity

You can use some or all of your pension pot to buy an annuity, taking up to 25% of the amount selected as tax-free cash subject to allowances.

An annuity will provide you with a guaranteed taxable income for life or for a fixed term depending on the type of annuity you buy.

There are different types of annuities:

  • Lifetime Annuity - will pay you a regular income for the rest of your life.
  • Flexible Annuity - will allow you to vary your income perhaps a larger amount now, and a smaller one later on.
  • Fixed Term Annuity - will provide you with a regular income for a fixed period of time only.

Income from an annuity is taxable and the amount you're offered could vary significantly, particularly if you have any health or medical conditions, or relevant lifestyle factors such as smoking, so it’s important to shop around.

When you’re ready to access your pension pot with Legal & General

Even if you haven't decided which option to choose, whenever you're ready to access your workplace pension pot with Legal & General please contact us for your options pack. This will provide you with more information including your right to shop around and the necessary request forms for you to complete to tell us what you want to do. You will automatically be sent an options pack approximately four months before your scheme (or selected) retirement date.

Things to consider

Calculators and tools

Use our calculators and tools to find out what income you might need in retirement and whether you are on track.