What Is A Deferred Pension

What is a Deferred Pension?

Deferred pensions are an important way for retired people to have a stable source of income after retirement. Learn more about pensions below.

2022-06-11

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7 minutes read

Key takeaways 

  • A deferred pension allows you to postpone your retirement payouts, leading to potentially higher income later in life due to continued growth during the accumulation phase.

  • Deferred pensions work like deferred annuities, where you invest during your working years and start receiving monthly or lump sum payouts at a later date.

  • These plans offer flexibility in payouts, including options like life annuity, joint life annuity, and annuity with return of purchase price, based on your and your family's needs.

  • You can choose from fixed, variable, indexed, or longevity-based deferred pension plans depending on your risk appetite, inflation considerations, and desired income security.

  • The deferred annuity structure consists of two phases: the accumulation phase (investment period) and the vesting phase (payout period).

Meaning of Deferred Pension

A deferred pension is a pension that you delay accessing until later in your retirement. You can get more potential retirement income if you delay taking your pension. Deferring a pension can be a smart strategy if you do not need your retirement income immediately.

A deferred pension is a term that refers to pension investments where the pension does not start immediately. Instead, you can choose to start the pension after a few years. Thus, in real life, you can invest a large lump sum amount in a deferred pension plan while you are still working. You will aim to receive the pension when you retire.

The money will continue to grow until then. However, the growth continues even after the pension starts. But with withdrawal, most of the accrued interest is paid out.

Pension is money paid to you each month after you retire. The amount paid depends on the retirement corpus created during your earning years. You will continue receiving a pension until the end of your life. Your spouse may also receive a pension after your demise, depending on the pension plan that you have opted for.

Deferred pension schemes are similar to deferred annuities. You may opt to get a lump sum on or after a certain date or avail yourself of regular payouts in the form of annuities.

If you are, say, in your thirties, you must work towards building a corpus by investing regularly. Starting early gives you the advantage of allocating your investments to high-growth funds so that you initially build wealth and then move into conservation mode as you approach retirement.

Type of Annuity Plans

An annuity is a term used to refer to this regular income post-retirement. Annuities are designed to mitigate the risk of living beyond what your savings would have supported you. Annuity plans are the investments you can use for drawing your pension, and there are the following two types of annuities:

  • Deferred Annuity
  • Immediate Annuity

The pre-retirement saving phase is called the “accumulation phase,” whereas the post-retirement pay-out phase is termed the “vesting phase.” This type of annuity is called a “deferred annuity.”

If you are already at retirement age and have a lump sum amount, you can buy an “immediate annuity”, wherein the pay-out begins immediately.

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Types of Deferred and Immediate Annuity Plans

Based on other features and benefits, you can subscribe to the following types of deferred and immediate annuity plans:

  1. Life Annuity: You will get an annuity at the opted frequency (monthly/quarterly/yearly) until the demise. The annuity payouts stop thereafter.

  2. Life Annuity with Return of Purchase Price: You will get an annuity in the opted frequency (monthly/quarterly/yearly) until the demise. After the demise, the corpus used to purchase the annuity will be paid to your spouse/nominee.

  3. Annuity for a Guaranteed Period: The annuity is paid for the guaranteed period, even after the insured’s demise. The annuity stops either on the insured's demise or on completion of the guaranteed period, whichever is later.

  4. Joint Life Annuity: Annuities are paid until either you or your spouse is alive.

  5. Joint Life Annuity with Return of Purchase Price: Annuities are paid until you or your spouse is alive. After the demise of both, the nominee will get the original corpus.
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Did You Know?

In India, there are currently around 77 lakh people who are pensioners.

Source: The Hindu

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Types of Deferred Pension Plans

Deferred pensions come in different varieties and are described below:

  1. Fixed Deferred Pension: In a fixed deferred pension, you get a fixed amount each month. The amount depends on the corpus built during the accumulation phase. However, in this case, a minimum amount is guaranteed, and the pension amount will not be below this figure. It can be higher but not lower than the minimum amount.

  2. Variable Deferred Pension: Your contribution, during the accumulation phase, is invested in equity and debt instruments depending on your age and risk appetite. The pension amount will vary depending on these factors.

  3. Indexed Deferred Pension: An indexed pension scheme is linked to the inflation index like CPI (consumer price index). CPI represents the general growth in consumer prices and the plan can increase or decrease your pension accordingly.

  4. Longevity Pension: This pension scheme has a lifetime payment guarantee feature, meaning your other savings will be untouched until the end of your life.

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Why should you invest in Deferred Pension?

Deferred pension schemes allow you to withdraw money from your accumulated corpus. You may either withdraw the full amount or withdraw some portion of it whenever you want. Here are a few more advantages of deferred pension plans:

  1. Multiple Pay-Out Options: You can select the pay-out option that best suits your needs. Check the scheme offered by the insurer and buy your annuity accordingly.

    Learn how an annuity plan is the right option for retirement.

  2. Delayed Pay Out: You can delay the pay-outs; therefore, your pension income will start flowing in each month only when you want them to start. You can even opt to take a lump sum payment at the end of the accumulation phase.

  3. Adding Funds: Before the pension payments start you must invest to build a corpus. This period, called the accumulation phase, is in the earning years when you invest regularly. You may also buy a pension plan by investing a lump sum amount. Let us say, you get a huge kitty from your PPF or PF at the time of retirement. You can choose to invest this in a pension plan and start immediate payouts.

Conclusion

Retirement should be carefully planned so that you can live peacefully and free of worries. To continue leading the lifestyle that you are living now requires systematic investment during your earning years. Build a solid corpus by the time you retire and then earn cash flows post-retirement that can support you and your spouse till the end of your life journeys.

Glossary

  1. Retirement Corpus: This refers to a sum of money that will allow you to live a comfortable life after retirement.
  2. EPFO: Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation administers provident funds, pension schemes, and insurance schemes for the organised workforce in India.
  3. PPF: The Public Provident Fund is a long-term investment scheme backed by the Indian Government. 
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FAQs Related to Deferred Pension

To be eligible for deferred pension, you must be a EPFO or the Employees Provident Fund Organisation member.

A deferred pension is a good idea because you can get pension benefits later while letting your pension investment grow.

You can withdraw funds from a deferred pension plan, but this is entirely based on the terms and conditions of the specific pension plan.

A deferred annuity is taxable in India only if you withdraw, take out a lump sum amount or start getting income from the account.

A deferred pension plan carries risks such as market fluctuations affecting investment returns, potentially resulting in lower retirement savings. Inflation eroding the purchasing power of future pension benefits could also impact the plan's stability and payouts upon retirement.

You can transfer your deferred pension plan to a new insurance provider. But you can only do so if both your current insurer and your new provider can accept the transfer.

Disclaimer - This article is issued in the general public interest and meant for general information purposes only. The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Canara HSBC Life Insurance Company Limited or any affiliated entity. We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability, or availability with respect to the blog or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained in the blog for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk. You should consult with a qualified professional regarding your specific circumstances before taking any action based on the content provided herein.

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