Can You unlock Your Pension Early ?

In June 2016, The Minister for Finance amended the legislation governing occupational pension schemes and extended the access of more flexible retirement options to members & former members of occupational pension schemes. This means the Approved Retirement Fund, more commonly known as the ARF option has been applied to all individuals with Personal Retirement Bonds/Buy out Bonds.

If you have already transferred out of a previous defined benefit pension scheme, or you are currently considering taking a transfer value, you will have increased options on how you can draw down these benefits. You will have both

• the option of taking your benefits based on your years’ service and final salary
• or the new ARF option which allows you to take 25% of the fund as tax free cash and reinvest the balance subject to certain restrictions.

The introduction of these new flexible options means that former members of occupational pension schemes can

• Access their benefits from age 50 onwards (provided the previous scheme rules allowed or were amended to allow this option)
• Take 25% of the value of the accumulated fund as tax free cash (up to a lifetime limit of €200K) & then transfer the residual amount to an Approved Minimum Retirement Fund & Approved Retirement Fund (see AMRF/ARF).