“Aegon: Living to 100 is no longer a fantasy, but are we prepared?”

Jan 18, 2024 | Pensions

An independent (financial adviser’s) view

Not sure how many of us actually fantasise about living into our hundreds nor the extent to which we can prepare for it. ‘The second 50 years of your life can offer both opportunities and challenges’…well, yes, and how many ‘it all depends’ are there likely to be in any consideration of those? Health, obviously; motivation, and knowing, for some what the heck to do with themselves; and, yes, money. It’s because so many are living so much longer that those now old-fashioned final salary pensions have closed and are fast disappearing as their remaining members gradually shuffle off. Most were geared to pay index-linked pensions for an average of ten years or so, not 30 or 40. So without other savings, those centenarians will need more than just a letter from HM to sustain them. And there’s the rub.

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“Rachel Reeves may be forced to raise taxes”

“Rachel Reeves may be forced to raise taxes”

Why did she/they (in the old sense) think that tinkering around with IHT and CGT would be enough to sort out the NHS; and the potholes; and…and the list goes on. My guess is  that they asked the Treasury for a list of anything not involving income tax that they could get away with lightly, although they should already have learned from the winter fuel stuff that all publicity is not good publicity.