Yes, we DO sell you something – Peace of Mind!
In a world where our financial stability impacts almost every aspect of our daily lives, it is more important than ever to preserve what we have worked so hard to achieve. Unless you're lucky enough to win the lottery, most of us have worked hard and for a very long time to achieve financial security and the lifestyle we want for ourselves and our families in retirement.
We all remember Robert Maxwell and the Mirror Group pension scandal in the early 90s when innocent working people woke up to the horror that their pension contributions had been used to subsidise his failing empire. The same happened when "Sir" Philip Green sold BHS for £1 in 2015, and this confirmed that even some of the biggest household names cannot be trusted with our retirement funds and financial future.
Income or Lump Sum? The Life Plan Conundrum
Effective wealth management is about many things but it can perhaps be boiled down to two essential elements: protection and (or) growth.
Whether you prefer to emphasise protection or growth will depend largely on your circumstances, goals, and attitude to risk. One part of this is determining whether you want your investments to create the security of income or the flexibility and reinvestment potential of a lump sum.
Investors are typically split around 50-50 on this question, which is why it is no surprise to learn of a recent Aegon survey of 1,300 investors which found that 58% preferred insurance plans to pay monthly income rather than a lump sum at maturity.