Go offshore to avoid the A-Day effect

One year ago, A-Day brought in major changes to the way pensions saving works. A key change was the introduction of the lifetime allowance, which means that anyone whose total pension pot exceeds this amount (£1.6m for the tax year 2007/2008) will face a tax bill on the excess. For clients who have already exhausted their lifetime allowance - or who are likely to exceed it in the future - investing offshore can enable them to escape these tax penalties. Offshore bonds can work well for flexible retirement saving as money grows virtually tax-free - but the client retains the ability to acce...