Share Sounds from Women & Money related to Pensions & Retirement - Workplace

If you're close to retirement, or thinking of setting up a pension pot, where do you start when it comes to choosing a private pension? Lorna Blythe, from Royal London, explains to Sarah Pennells what pensions are and how they work; Danisha Chada, a chartered and certified financial planner with Smith and Williamson, looks at how much help could a pension company give to its individual customers, Alan Chan, from IFS Wealth and Pensions, explains what the first steps are when taking out a pension for the first time.

Sarah Pennells is joined in the studio by Jane King, an IFA at Ash-Ridge Private Finance, Adam Lake of Turn2Us, Tom Connor of Drewberry Insurance and over the phone by Alistair McQueen of Aviva, to discuss how to best protect your finances if you're self-employed and don't have the security of working for a large company or organisation. What are the benefits and drawbacks of being self-employed? Do the positives outweigh the negatives?

Sarah Pennells is joined in the studio by Alan Higham, founder of Pensions Champion, and Tina Weeks, founder of Serenity Financial Planning, to discuss the state pension, and look at what you will actually get if you're due to retire. Despite being called a flat rate or single tier pension, not everyone will necessarily get the same amount and far fewer women than men will qualify for the full figure of £155.65 a week. In the programme Sarah will be looking at who is entitled to the new state pension and the differences between the current and the new pension.

Sarah Pennells is joined in the studio by Griselda Williams of TRUST|Pensions and on the phone with Debbie Houghton from the Rowan Organisation and Sarah-Jane Butler from Parental Choice to discuss how to set up a pension if you employee someone for help around the house or with your children such as a nanny, childminder, gardener or cleaner.

Sarah Pennells is joined by two pensions experts from The Pensions Advisory Service and Fidelity to discuss state pensions for women and the introduction of the single tier state pension in 2016.