Your DB benefits | Credit Suisse Group (UK) Pension Fund

About your DB benefits

Your defined benefit or DB pension is worked out based on your years of pensionable service (working, contributing to the Fund and building up benefits) and your salary on the date you left Credit Suisse.

Your pension may increase each year until you retire or transfer your benefits out of the Fund. Different parts of your pension may increase in different ways, depending on when you earned the pension.

Options when you retire – from the Fund

Here is a summary of the retirement options currently available once you have left Credit Suisse.

A pension

Take all your Fund benefits as a pension. It may increase each year in line with the Fund rules.

A smaller pension and tax-free cash

Exchange some of your benefits for tax-free cash and receive a smaller pension.

Normal retirement

Your Normal Retirement Age will be either 60 or 65, depending on what section of the Fund you are a member of.

Early and late retirement

You can usually start taking all your benefits before your Normal Retirement Age as long as you have reached your minimum retirement age (55 for most people). Your pension is likely to be reduced, as it could potentially be paid for a longer time.

Alternatively, you may be able to take your pension later than your Normal Retirement Age. Your pension is likely to be increased, as it could potentially be paid for a shorter time.

How to retire

Take a look at the steps involved.

Step 1 – Five years before . . .

Five years before your Normal Retirement Age, Fidelity will write to you at the address they have on their records and ask you to confirm that your contact details are correct. Once you have done this, Fidelity will send you a retirement illustration showing an estimate of your starting pension and how this changes if you take tax-free cash.

Step 2 – One year to go . . .

One year before your Normal Retirement Age – or earlier, if you ask to take early retirement – Fidelity will write to you again, asking you to confirm that your contact details are correct. Once you have done this they will send you a retirement illustration showing an estimate of your starting pension and how this changes if you take tax-free cash. They will also send you the forms you need to make your retirement choices, and give you access to the retirement modeller that will be available to help you consider the options available to you.

You will need to decide how to take your benefits - for example, whether you want to take any tax-free cash. The Trustees recommend that you take financial advice when considering the options available to you.

Step 3 – Once you've made your mind up . . .

Once you have made your decisions, fill in the forms provided and return them to Fidelity at least two months before your planned retirement date.

Your pension will be paid monthly in advance from your retirement date.

Tax charges

Any lifetime allowance tax charges due will usually be taken off before your benefits are paid. Visit Pensions and tax for more information about the lifetime allowance.

Transferring out

Before you retire, you may be able to take your savings out of the Fund completely and put them into another pension arrangement. You can usually do this up to a year before your Normal Retirement Age. If you are less than a year before Normal Retirement Age or over your Normal Retirement Age, you may still be able to transfer your benefits out but you will need the Trustees to agree you can do this.

Transferring out could give you access to more flexible retirement options that are not available from the Fund. Go to Retirement options outside the Fund for more information. Go to Do it online for details of the online modellers available to help you explore your options.

Also consider . . .

You will also need to take the following things into consideration.

If your transfer value is £30,000 or more, you are legally required to take and pay for financial advice from an adviser qualified as a “pension specialist”. Visit Getting financial advice for details of organisations that can help you with finding financial advice.
Transferring out will change your benefits from DB to DC (a pot of money you use to provide benefits, rather than a defined amount of yearly pension).
The value of DB benefits and DC benefits is worked out in different ways for tax purposes. This means that transferring out could affect how much of your lifetime allowance you use – see Pensions and tax for more information about the lifetime allowance.
Transferring out removes your right to any further benefits from the Fund for you and your dependants. You should discuss this with any dependants you have before you transfer out.
If your minimum early retirement age in the Fund is 50 or you have a protected (enhanced) level of tax-free cash, you will lose these protections if you transfer out.
You will need to check the receiving pension arrangement can accept the transfer.
Beware of pension scams – see Pension scams for more information.

Let's look at an example

Check out the story below.

Let's look at David's story . . .

David has DB benefits in the Fund. If he takes his Fund pension at Normal Retirement Age, he has the following options:

a pension of £24,000 a year, or
£130,000 in tax- free cash and a pension of £19,500 a year.

Or, he could transfer his benefits out of the Fund to access the pension freedoms. His transfer value is over £30,000 so he would need to take financial advice.

Options outside the Fund

Following his transfer, he could immediately take up to a quarter of his benefits as tax-free cash if he wanted to.

He could buy an annuity with the rest, or invest it and use it for drawdown now or in the future. He would also have the option of buying an annuity in the future. Any benefits or payments he receives in future will depend on the amount of money available in his pension pot to provide them.