Planning for retirement
Deciding what to do with, and how to take your pension benefits is a big decision.
Whether you’re ready to take your pension from the GE HealthCare Pension Plan (the Plan) or not, knowing what your options are and planning for the future can help you prepare for when the time comes.
When can I take my pension?
Your Normal Retirement Date (NRD) is the 1st of the month following your 65th birthday (unless you have been advised of a different age). However, you can take your pension earlier than this if you want to.
The Normal Minimum Pension Age is currently age 55, however, this is rising to age 57 in 2028. This is the earliest at which you'll be able to take your pension from the Plan and your pension would be reduced to reflect that you are taking it before your NRD.
Protected Pension Age
Some members of the Plan have a Protected Pension Age of 50, which means they can start drawing their pensions from age 50. If you have a Protected Pension Age and you choose to take your pension before Normal Minimum Pension Age, you must leave the employment of GE HealthCare.
If you have a Protected Pension Age, it would have been noted on the leavers statement issued to you when you stopped contributing to the Plan.
What are my retirement options?
When you take your pension from the Plan, you’ll have different options to consider and it’s important that you take the time to think about what is best for you.
You can exchange some of your pension for a one-off cash sum. You can choose a cash sum of any amount up to the maximum allowed under UK pension law, which is broadly equal to 25% of the value of your pension. This is normally paid tax-free. You will then have a reduced annual pension that will be paid to you as an income for the rest of your life.
You can take the full amount of your Plan benefits as an annual pension that will be paid to you as an income for the rest of your life.
You also have the option to transfer your benefits out of the Plan to another UK approved pension arrangement. You can find an estimate of your transfer value by logging into your secure member portal, ePA. WTW can also send you a guaranteed quotation and explain the process of transferring out. Your quotation will be guaranteed for three months. Read more about transferring out of the plan.
If you paid Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs), you are able to choose to use these AVCs to fund your cash sum to avoid reducing your annual pension.
Points to note:
Your annual pension will be taxable in the same way as any other income.
You can request a retirement quotation from WTW, the Plan administrator, which will show how much you could receive. Any quotation you receive will normally show the maximum cash sum you can take along with the appropriately reduced pension. WTW can provide further quotations showing the pension you will receive if you choose to receive a smaller lump sum.
WTW will automatically send you a retirement quotation around six months before your NRD.
If you choose to take a cash sum at retirement, only the pension payable to you will be reduced. Any pension payable to your Dependants following your death will be calculated assuming you had received your full pension and not exchanged any of it for a cash sum.
Where can I find help?
To help you explore your options, there’s a short video on ePA that provides an overview of the choices available to you at retirement. You can watch it in the MyRetirement section of ePA.
Any decision about your pension requires careful thought, and financial advice from an expert can help. If you’re considering transferring out of the Plan and your transfer value is more than £30,000, you are required by law to take advice before you transfer.
To give you a helping hand, the Trustee will pay for eligible members to receive one round of advice from its appointed Financial Adviser, Origen Financial Services. You can find out more about getting financial advice from Origen, including the eligibility criteria, in the Retirement Options section of the website. If you’re more than a year away from your minimum pension age, Origen can still provide financial advice on your retirement options, but this will be at your own cost. The Trustee has negotiated a competitive rate with Origen, which is expected to be significantly lower than finding an adviser independently.
You might want to choose your own Financial Adviser, but you will need to pay for their advice yourself. You should ensure that your adviser is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to give advice on retirement options.
MoneyHelper, a government-backed service, can provide you with free impartial guidance about pension schemes and retirement options. You can visit their website to find out more.