Now, John had recently sold his small but successful engineering business, and needed a long-term financial strategy for his retirement. We attended a joint meeting with John at the accountant’s office, where we were able to fully understand the details of issues such as Entrepreneurial Relief and Capital Gains Tax and quantify the net proceeds that John would receive. Although John had not been overly keen on pensions during his ownership, one thing he had done many years ago was place his business premises into a Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP), and the SIPP had grown with the value of rental payments over the years. The property had grown in value over the years and was not subject to CGT on sale as it was within a SIPP.

So, when formulating a plan for how John would fund his retirement, we were faced with both a substantial capital value and a sizeable pension fund. Having identified the income requirement for John and his wife, the challenge was to structure this most tax-efficiently across the different tax regimes.