Your Friend BOB!

October 25, 2018

BOB: Buy out Bonds

Remember when a Job was for life, you entered employment with the Bank , Semi State or multinational after school or college and you stayed there, some might say institutionalised, until retirement at 60 or 65.

In the last 20 years however we have witnessed a Sea Change in the employment arena as employees change or cease employments for a number of reasons:

  • Individuals actually want to enjoy and be challenged by what they do.
  • Benefit Packages and advancement potential vary greatly between employers
  • Large Scale redundancies during recession and globalisation
  • Taking time out to travel or work abroad
  • Rearing children with prohibitive child care costs

Whatever your reason for changing employment, the average person changes Jobs 10 to 15 times in their lifetime.

Each time you change employment you might have left something valuable behind, part of your retirement picture, a pension!

So If you left a pension(s) behind you are probably:

  • Receiving very little if any information
  • Unaware of what level of Risk you are taking
  • Confused as to how you might access these funds in the future

This is where BOB might help, BOB is not your friendly financial adviser, that’s me, BOB is an acronym for Buy Out bond also know as a Personal Retirement Bond or PRB – the financial industry is full of acronyms.  BOB may even allow you to access tax free cash from age 50, what a guy!

A Retirement Bond essentially transfers the ownership and decision making from the old scheme trustees to you, once the trustees sign off on the transfer you need never interact with the old employer / trustee again regarding your valuable retirement benefits.

Why would you consider moving your old pension benefits into a Personal Retirement Bond:

  • Choice, you decide:
    • Where it’s invested.
    • How It’s invested.
    • Charging Structures
    • Risks
  • Access:
    • Access to information.
    • Access to Trustees now
    • Access to Retirement Options from age 50.

Buyer Beware! It is not always best advice to transfer your previous benefits to a Retirement Bond particularly where you have been a member of a Defined Benefit Pension Arrangement.  Make sure you understand the implications of the transfer and that you are dealing with a Qualified, Experienced and Trustworthy Adviser such as House Of Finance Advisory Services Ltd.

Michael O Connell QFA FLIA APA SIA is the Managing Director of House Of Finance Advisory Services Ltd who are regulated by the Central Bank Of Ireland