Q&A

Wife and I had plans for a comfortable retirement but having been diagnosed with a terminal illness I need to maximise a monthly income for her.

I had planned to work until I was 65 which is at the end of March this year but last month I was diagnosed with brain cancer which is a bit of a bummer and completely turned our original retirement plans on their head. Under the original plan I had three revenue streams, state pensions for myself and my wife, three personal pensions which total between 75 and 80k pounds and a reasonable level of savings (some of it in ISAs) which I had planned keep safe in savings accounts as I just can’t bring myself to invest in the stock market and my wife certainly won’t. I do move the money into the best paying savings accounts on a regular basis but I am sure my wife will not continue that practice after my demise, she is just not interested in any form of finance. I had started talking to the pension companies and was getting ready buy an annuity, using the open market option, but am now in the process of claiming all of it in cash as I have a terminal illness. My quandary is how best to provide for my wife as she will only have her state pension (mine will go with me) plus our savings which will be increased by the 75-80k of pension cash. My wife will be 60 in April. I have read the many informative articles about pensions on this site and the ‘immediate vesting pension’ seems to be a possibility as a means of using the pension cash to buy her a monthly income, which if necessary I could top up to 150k pounds so what is the best thing for me to do remembering that it has to be straightforward once it is all set up, see my previous comment about my wife’s interest in finance. There will be cash left to cope with the unexpected and any capital expenditures so the plan would be to maximise monthly income hopefully with some inflation proofing built in. Thanking everybody in advance with whatever ideas you come up with....