The Fidelity Master Trust
Helping you take advantage of your flexible retirement income options.
If you’re thinking about how you can take an income from your pension savings, you have a great deal of flexibility these days. You’re usually free to take money from your pension once you are 55 (57 from 2028), and your options include taking lump sums or a regular income. It’s usually possible to take 25% of your pension pot as tax-free cash up to your available lump sum allowance.
However, you may find that an option you are interested in is not available through your plan. In this case, you could consider transferring to a pension arrangement that offers more flexibility. You can choose a pension provider on the open market, and it is also possible to move your savings to the Fidelity Master Trust.
The other option to consider is setting up a guaranteed income for life, or an annuity. This usually involves moving your money to an annuity provider, rather than the Fidelity Master Trust or another pension provider.
Combining your options
It’s worth noting that you don’t have to choose just one option for your pension savings. You can combine two or more options if that is better for you. For example, you might want to set up an annuity with part of your pension pot and take lump sum withdrawals from the rest of it. If you have more than one pension pot you can choose a different option for each.
Your options with the Fidelity Master Trust
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Tax-free cash - You can usually withdraw 25% of your pension savings tax-free up to your available lump sum allowance.
Read more about the lump sum allowance -
Flexible drawdown income - When you’ve taken 25% tax-free cash, the remaining 75% can be moved into a drawdown account so you can withdraw it, as and when you need to, either as a regular income or occasional lump sums.
- Lump sums - You can take your pension savings either as a single lump sum or a series, and 25% of each payment will usually be tax-free up to your available lump sum allowance.
Read more about the lump sum allowance
Once you have an account with the Fidelity Master Trust, it is also possible to transfer pension savings into it from another plan, as long as you have not already moved them into drawdown. This could help you to manage all your pensions in one place.
All the options available to you are monitored by the Fidelity Master Trust Board, whose role is to act in your best interests and to check that your plan offers you value for money. Find out more about the Fidelity Master Trust Board.
Moving into the Fidelity Master Trust
It is a big decision to move a pension so, if you need any help deciding if it is the right choice for you, we recommend that you speak to an authorised financial adviser.
If you have decided to set up an account with the Fidelity Master Trust, and move your current pension into it, you can apply online by logging in to PlanViewer, selecting ‘Planning your retirement’ and then ‘Plan your retirement income’ from the main menu.