Will people cash in their pensions?

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Cashing in your pension sounds better in theory than in practice, says Mike Ferguson of pension provider Barnett Waddingham.

For many years, savers have demanded greater access to the pension funds that they have amassed during their working life and complete utopia now seems to be just around the corner. It has been a long journey, with many twists, but will everyone be eager to jump into a Lamborghini to drive the final stretch? Pension savers were first given some wriggle room when compulsory annuitisation at retirement was allowed to be delayed for up to five years, to avoid the lottery of having to lock in to a long-term investment at a time determined by your retirement plans. In 1994, the rules we...

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