I land at Amsterdam and have 45 minutes to get my connecting flight to Paris. I have to go through non-Shengen passengers passport control. I have been told this is tight but doable provided I land in time, disembarking is quick and there are minimal queues at passport control. I feel like I'll be lucky to make it. Any thoughts anyone?
I have been given 3 options by my company pension scheme as part of their efforts, I understand, to de-risk long term exposure to a surge of retirees.
Option 1 - pension of £6581.51 p.a., tax-free lump sum of £19744.89, spouse pension of £5,515 p.a.
Option 2 - pension of £5801.50 p.a., tax free lump sum of £38,677, Spouse pension of £5515 p a.
Option 3 - Transfer of benefits - £393,486.16 (guaranteed for the next 5 months after which it'll be recalculated).
If I request Option 3 I have to go through a consultation exercise which the pension scheme will pay for (a one time only offer). I'm 56 years old and the pension will be payable from 62.
Based on these values I'm minded to go through the consultation process as these numbers seem very generous. £400k invested until 62 at an average increase of around 5% will see that increase to c.£530 to £540k. I would have thought £500k at 62 would easily net me more than the annual pension of options 1 or 2 even if I live to 100.
I have been told that I need to put forward a good case to the consultant so that he/she agrees that I can finish the defined benefit scheme so I'll be working on my story but does anyone think it is not a good idea to take the transfer benefits?