Drawdown

Drawdown is a flexible way to access your pension. After taking your tax-free lump sum, the rest of your pension is available for you to take an income from as you choose.

If you don’t decide to buy an annuity, your remaining pot will be moved into drawdown as your crystallised funds. In drawdown, you can choose how much income you want to take and when. Since 2016, the drawdown pension option for people accessing their pension for the first time is known as flexi-access drawdown.

When you set up a drawdown pension with us, we’ll offer you Investment Pathways. These can help you invest your pot in a fund designed to broadly match your retirement plans. (Choosing an Investment Pathway is completely optional.)

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Popular terms

Lump sum and death benefit allowance

This is a limit on the total tax-free lump sums that can be paid from your pensions both in your...

Lump sum allowance

When you access your pension, you can usually take up to 25% of the value tax-free. The lump sum allowance...

Ready-made pension

A simple, low-cost pension where you choose from four AJ Bell fund options.

Money paid in is automatically invested...