Bringing three pensions into one income calendar
A couple with a Teachers’ Pension, a deferred final-salary scheme, and two personal pots needed a single view of monthly income before Mark left employment.
Challenge
Statements arrived in different formats. One pot had exit charges if moved; the defined benefit scheme could not be transferred. Spending estimates were optimistic against actual grocery and council tax bills.
What we did
We rebuilt a household budget from bank statements, mapped State Pension ages for both, and modelled drawdown from the personal pots only after guaranteed income was placed on the calendar. Tax-free cash was phased rather than taken in a lump sum.
Outcome
They left employment with a twelve-month income schedule, an emergency cash buffer in a cash ISA, and a review date twelve months later. Helen noted the document chase delayed the first meeting by three weeks — a practical lesson we now share with new clients.