19 JUN 2026

IFGL Pensions Customer Newsletter

Edition 2 - June 2026

 

Welcome to the third edition of our customer newsletter.

In this issue, we highlight two important pension developments which may affect how and when you access your pension benefits, and how your pension savings could be treated in the future.

We begin by looking at the forthcoming increase in the normal minimum pension age from 55 to 57, which comes into effect on 6 April 2028. This is a significant change and one we believe customers should be aware of well in advance, particularly if early retirement planning is part of your wider financial plans.

We also cover the upcoming changes to the treatment of discretionary pension schemes for UK Inheritance Tax purposes from 6 April 2027. As these changes may make beneficiary nominations even more important, we explain why keeping your instructions up to date, and providing additional comments where appropriate, can help our trustees understand your wishes and may reduce the potential for future disputes.

As ever, our aim is to help make pensions clearer and to keep you informed about changes which could affect your future plans. If any of the topics covered in this newsletter are relevant to you, we recommend speaking to your financial adviser.

 

And we continue to welcome any suggestions for future content, so please feel free to email us with your feedback.

All the very best,

Rachel

 

Change of minimum pension age to 57 – please be aware and prepared!

There is a significant change on the horizon in the pension world which could have far reaching consequences for anyone born after 5th April 1973, but which has not yet received sufficient national publicity.

Currently, apart from people who are retiring due to ill health, or have a prospective limited life expectancy, most people cannot start drawing from their pensions until they turn 55. From 6th April 2028, this age will increase to 57. 

In recent times the media has been full of coverage about the so-called “WASPI” women. These are women who were affected by the increase in the state pension age from 60 to 65. This change was phased in over a period of 10 years and completed by November 2018, with many women claiming they were not adequately informed of the change and lost significant amounts of money as a result.

 

With the change in the normal pension age for both men and women less than two years away now, we felt it important to highlight it in our current customer newsletter.

In the last few weeks, the Government has clarified the arrangements for those who turn 55 in the two-year period before April 2028 and start taking income drawdown payments before that date. This cohort will not have to stop receiving their income drawdown payments when the retirement age increases to 57, which is good news.

It is important to stress however, that if you turn 55 between now and April 2028 and do not access your pension benefits, if you are not 57 when the change takes place on 6 April 2028, you will have to wait until your 57th birthday to start drawing from your pension.

Whilst most people realistically can’t afford to retire as early as this, we urge any of our readers who are born between now and April 6, 1973, to therefore carefully consider this change and discuss with their financial adviser any action they need to take.

Some pension providers can provide a “protected retirement age of 55” which will allow retirement at 55 even after 6 April 2028. IFGL Pensions does not offer a protected retirement age of 55, but if you are reading this newsletter and have pensions with other pension providers we recommend you ask them whether the protected retirement age applies to those pensions.

 

As ever our advice is to be proactive with your pension and to ensure you are informed and prepared for this significant change which might cut short early retirement plans if not acted upon.

 

 

Pension death benefits and IHT: why your beneficiary nomination matters

From 6 April 2027, all discretionary pension schemes will fall within the remit of UK Inheritance Tax (IHT) for the first time. Discretionary pension schemes are pensions where the trustees of the scheme have the final choice on whom the death benefit is paid to, when one of their members dies. It basically refers to defined contribution schemes such as SIPPs, SSASs, personal pensions, and workplace pensions.

It will therefore be very important for you to ensure that your nominated beneficiaries’ instructions are up to date to help make sure trustees are aware of your intentions. As there will be the potential for a pension plan death benefit value to trigger an IHT charge from April 2027, there is an increased possibility of disputes arising over the choice of beneficiaries.

We have therefore updated our application form and added a new box just at the end of the nominated beneficiaries’ section of the form. This box will allow our members to add comments explaining their choice of beneficiary.

We recommend that this box is used as it will help our trustees with their decision and also hopefully reduce the potential for any unpleasant disputes over the choice of the beneficiaries.

If you want to discuss reviewing your choice of beneficiary, please talk to your financial adviser.