How Beach helps self-employed people save for retirement

Beach self-employed pension

Beach offers a personal pension, which is great for self-employed people, and which if you’re not familiar with pensions, is a type of private pension, meaning it’s a pension in your name and is all yours, rather than the government pension, called the State Pension.

The word private pension is often used to mean personal pension, in reference to setting up the pension yourself, but technically speaking a pension that your work sets up for you (if you are employed) is also a type of private pension. As self-employed people aren't employees, they would open a personal pension.

Personal pensions are great for self-employed people as you get to save into them tax-free, so your retirement savings can grow much larger over time. And as the money in your pension grows in value over time, the money made is tax-free too. There may be tax to pay when you retire and withdraw from it, it depends on the tax rules at the time, and would apply to all pensions.

This tax-free saving is just the same as saving into a pension if you are employed, but instead of money coming out of your pay packet and into your pension before you pay tax, like with employees, the government will give you the tax you have paid on your self-employed income, or will pay in future, back to you.

Tax-efficient saving

With the Beach pension, you'll get a 25% bonus from the government straight into your pension pot, and Beach will arrange this automatically. The bonus will simply turn up in your pension pot. It usually arrives at the end of the following month.

If you pay 40% or 45% tax, you can claim the difference back from the government (HMRC), which is either an additional 20% or 25% refund, and as you’re self-employed, you’d do this through your self assessment tax return at the end of each tax year. If you have an accountant, they’ll do this for you. All you need to do is add your pension contributions to the form. The amount of overall tax you’d pay would then reduce depending on how much you save into your pension.

Technically speaking, this is called tax relief on your pension contributions. Saving more into your pension is a great way to reduce your overall tax bill.

Easy to use

We might be biased but we think Beach is one of the easiest options for self-employed people, like sole traders, setting up and saving into their own pension. It’s all managed on a mobile app, and only takes a few minutes to set up. There’s no jargon, and everything is explained in an easy to understand way.

Beach pension plan

The pension plan (investments within your pension) are tailored to your current age, so there’s no complicated investment decisions to make, and the pension plan will adjust over time with the aim of growing larger when you are younger (which can have bigger ups and downs) and then gradually reduce these ups and downs each year until you’re ready for retirement, at which point the goal is to provide a regular income.

Technically speaking, it adjusts the risk level, which is the mix between stocks and shares (also called equities) and things like bonds, which are essentially loans to governments and large companies who pay regular interest, and generally seen as safer investments. So if you’re younger, there will be a higher percentage of equities and when you’re older there will be a higher percentage of bonds.

The pension plan is managed by BlackRock, the largest investment company in the world (when measured by assets they manage). They also consider things like reducing climate change, so when saving with Beach your pension could have a more positive impact on the environment and the world in general (compared to pension options without this focus).

Top up when you like, or regularly

With Beach, you can set up a regular top up, for instance adding money each month, or you can add one-off top ups as and when you like, such as if a big customer pays an invoice, and you want to put away a bit into your pension pot.

Each year you can save as much as your total income each tax year, for instance if you earn £20,000 each year, you can save up to £20,000 into your pension each year. 

Note: you’d only have to add £16,000 to get £20,000 into your pension pot because of the 25% bonus added by Beach, which is 20% tax relief from the government.

There is also a legal limit of £60,000 per tax year, even if you pay yourself over this amount as an income. Having said that, you can use the previous 3 years tax year’s allowance if you haven’t used it all in that year, and had a pension open with any provider.

Saving regularly can mean your retirement savings build up steadily over time, and there’s no chance of forgetting to add money, but some self-employed people prefer to add an amount before the end of the tax year, or at the start of the new tax year, you can do either of these easily with Beach.

Adding money is easy to do, and it’s all sorted in a few taps by setting up a Direct Debit, or by sending money instantly via bank transfer directly to your pension pot.

Combine pensions

And with Beach, you can combine old pensions too, so you can have all your retirement savings in one place, ready for when you retire. So if you have any old work pensions from previous jobs you can transfer those across to Beach, who will handle the whole process, you just need to add a few details within the app. There’s no phone calls or complicated paperwork to fill out, Beach is a digital pension provider, so it’s all managed in the app.

In the future, Beach is planning to offer a drawdown feature, so when you retire, you can still manage your pension with Beach. You’ll be able to withdraw money depending on your retirement plans and lifestyle, while your pension continues to grow within your Beach account.

Find lost pensions

Beach can also track down lost pensions, so even if you don’t know the pension provider or policy number, Beach can try and find them and then transfer them across to your Beach pension. Our team of handy pension detectives will get on the case, and give you regular updates as they go.

Excellent customer service

We’re getting great feedback on our customer service, with fast response times, and even offering WhatsApp support so you can chat away with us when you like, fitting customer support around your busy lifestyle and outside of your email inbox (we won’t be offended if you leave us on read!). There is also email support and you can send us a message in-app.

Download and start saving today

Dare we say we’re one of the most modern pension providers in the UK? Find out for yourself by downloading Beach from either the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

By the way, it’s not just for self-employed people, it’s for anyone looking to save more for retirement, combine pensions, find lost pensions and save separately to a pension with an easy access pot suited for general life savings, invested sensibly by experts, and tax-free within an ISA.

Common pain points for self-employed people looking to save for retirement

Key features of the Beach self-employed pension

• Easy to use, all managed through an easy to use mobile app
• No complicated investment options. One pension plan based on your age
• Great mobile app, and jargon-free
• 25% bonus added to your pension pot automatically (20% tax relief)
• Claim 40% or 45% tax back on your pension contributions via your self assessment tax return (if you pay 40% or 45% tax and are eligible)
• Reasonable fees - 0.50% annual account fee, and 0.23% investment fund fee
• No fees to combine or transfer pensions or find lost pensions
• No exit fees if you choose to leave later
• Excellent customer service, with WhatsApp, in-app messaging and email support, with fast response times and friendly experts
• Defined contribution pension, meaning you build up a pension pot that has a cash value, to later use in retirement (like £200,000), or use to purchase an annuity (guaranteed income for life or a set number of years)

When investing with Beach, your money can go up and down in value, so you could get back less. Learn more.