Company closing down, father needs help with preparing his finances.

[LouLouBelle]

My dad found out that the company that he has worked for, for 30 years will close in one year. He has been offered early retirement. He is 59. The company had said that they would be providing assistance to employees to help them organise and prepare their finances for the closing but this turned out to be basically getting a sales pitch from a pension provider. My dad is not great with understanding the finances and I would like to help him but I am also a bit out of my depth. My question is; what should he be doing right now? He has difficulty understanding the documentation that has been provided to him which states what he is being offered. Should the first stop be seeing a financial advisor? He really needs someone who is going to spell out exactly what he is getting. Where the best place is to have the money etc. He has a pension and I understand that it is currently in a medium risk portfolio. Given his age, should this now be moved to a low risk portfolio? I understand that he will also be getting a lump sum from the company...again need to figure out what to do with this...I am basically at a loss as to where to start. He has asked for my help. What questions do I need to be asking and where should be our first port of call?

 

[ClubMan]

My question is; what should he be doing right now?

In my opinion, talking to an independent financial advisor such as an authorised advisor or a good multi-agency intermediary (and certainly not a tied agent).

He has difficulty understanding the documentation that has been provided to him which states what he is being offered.

In basic terms what is he being offered - e.g. lump sum redundancy (statutory or non-statutory), pension topup etc.?

It might also be helpful to post some details about his overall financial circumstances separate from this issue so that people can make some comments.

 

[LouLouBelle]

Hi Clubman, many thanks for your questions. I agree with regard to the financial advisor. My only worry is that my dad really does not understand ANYTHING with regard to his finances. I have advised him that he needs to start educating himself and then see the financial advisor with a list of preprepared questions as I think if he went now, any information given would go a little over his head. I am trying to get some hard facts from him at present.

Married single income family (my mum is 61), one dependent child still at home and in private third level education with three years to go, no mortgage, home worth about 650,000. No debts. I will come back with the pension details asap. Grateful for any advice or any specific questions that I need to ask him regard to the pension and early retirement being offered.

 

[efm]

Hi LouLou, I concur with Clubman and your father needs to talk to someone independent and prefferably someone who has dealt with these situations before.

One question to ask is, is the lump sum you mention a redundancy payment? If it is you need to find out the rate it is being paid, is it statutory only? etc etc Take a look at [broken link removed]. I know from experience that redundancy and early retirement packages can be very complicated and you really need to go through every bit of every document and make sure you understand it all and also the tax implications of whatever decision is made!!

In other early retirement packages that are part of a redundancy I have seen extra being paid for anyone with dependent children or with dependants in 3rd level.