Pension plans

I would love to get to grips with a basic understanding of whether clients should or should not contribute to a pension scheme.

I am not so concerned with the mechanics of the relief and the rates at which this is given but more on the general principle of whether the contributions are actually ‘worth it’.

I am mainly concerned with ‘smaller clients’ unlikely to be troubled by the recent cap on contributions. I guess that an ‘average’ client might be someone running their own business paying tax at the higher rate say with between 10 and 20 years until retirement and able to contribute up to around £1 000 per month. They might or might not be liable to higher rate tax when in retirement.

I am very conscious that I should not stray into the area of giving financial advice but clients often ask...