NHS Pension Added Years vs Personal Pension – Hot Topics Q&A

Q. I am a Dental Principal aged 44 and am looking to save more money towards my retirement and would prefer to invest in a pension due to the tax relief available. Can you please advise me whether I should invest via a personal pension scheme or via purchasing additional pension (formerly added years) via the [...]

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Dental Profits 2009 – NHS & Private Practice

Specialist accountants Dodd & Co in Cumbria, who serve dentists & medics throughout the UK, have recently released their 2009 profit figures for both NHS and private practice dentists. They covered the findings in their recent newsletter (which I highly recommend you subscribe to, see email link at the end of the article) and have [...]

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Dental Practice Sale – Options on Your Premature Death?

This week we have a guest article from specialist dental solicitor Edwin Ross. Edwin looks at a new twist for the sole practitioner – Who will get the practice if you die before retirement? Take it away Edwin… Are you a sole practitioner?  Have you ever considered what would happen to your practice in the [...]

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NHS Benefits For Partners – Hot Topics Q & A

Q. I am a 45 year old Consultant with 21 years service in the NHS.  I am a bit worried regarding the security of my long term girlfriend if I were to die. We dont intend to marry. How do I ensure any benefits a wife would normally receive are given to her? A. This is [...]

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Life Assurance, Critical Illness Cover etc – Are You Paying For Policies You Don’t Need?

One of the common issues we find when we review a new client’s situation is that over the years they have been sold (or have purchased) many life, critical illness and income protection policies. Now, it’s important of course to state that such cover for, say, a couple with a family and a mortgage, is [...]

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Investing – Cash or Stock Markets? – Hot Topics Q&A

Q. I have just retired from dental surgery after 35 years hard work, and plan to really enjoy my retirement years by travelling a lot to far away places. With my NHS lump sum and cash from selling my practice I have a large sum of money to invest. I want to put money into the [...]

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NHS Pensions Added Years- How To Purchase – Hot Topics Q&A

Q. I’m aware that I’m not going to accrue the full 40 years in the NHS Pension Superannuation Scheme as I did not qualify until I was aged 25. I’ve heard about buying ‘added years’. Can you tell me how to go about this? A. Until April 2008, buying added years was available.  Many people [...]

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NHS Pension Choices – The Key Factors

If you are a member of the NHS pension scheme, you will soon be asked to make a very important decision. That is, should you remain in the current version of the scheme (applies if you were a member pre-April 2008) or should you transfer to the new version (post-April 2008). To help, the NHS [...]

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New NHS Benefits – It’s All Ended In Tiers

There have been many changes in overall pension rules by the government, and we have discussed in Financial Tips how this has affected the NHS Pension Scheme in previous articles such as the Lifetime Allowance. Other NHS rule changes might not be so obvious, but for the unfortunate few who fall ill, have a serious [...]

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NHS Pension Scheme Contribution Percentages – Hot Topics Q & A

Q. I am a Consultant age 57, and have decided to go part time next month. Looking at all the implications am I right to say that although my pay will be greatly reduced, I will still pay NHS Pension contributions based on my Whole Time Equivalent income? A. You have obviously done your homework.  Yes [...]

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