Executive Pensions

Tax efficient retirement savings plans for high earning company executives, business owners and directors.

Corporate Pensions

Executive Pensions

An Executive Pension Plan or EPP, is a pension set by up a Ltd Company, for the directors or shareholders of the business.

It is best suited to high earners, who may wish to use the final salary route for the calculation of their tax-free lumps sum, come retirement.

Executive Pension Illustration

Corporate Pensions

Master Trust - Executive Pension

When setting up your Executive Pension we provide the broadest range of investment choices, at minimum cost, aligned to your investment risk profile and impact investment preferences.

Executive Pension plans are set up on a Master Trust basis and can be insured, or self-directed to include 24/7 online portal access. Annual reviews and yearly benefit statements are also provided as standard.

Corporate Pensions

Bespoke Portfolios

Our traditional insured plans offer multi-asset diversification, with a choice of passive and active management, typically combining varying fund manager strategies, by way of a bespoke portfolio design. This route includes over 23 leading domestic and international fund managers’ options ensuring maximum value. The minimum monthly employer contribution is €500.00 per month.

Our self-directed option allows investment in mutual funds and structured products but also allows you to take control of your own stock market trades albeit in equities, EFTs, Bonds or Currencies, through the use of an appointed stockbroker. The minimum monthly employer contribution is €2,500.00 per month.

Bespoke Investment Portfolios
Retirement Benefits

Corporate Pensions

Executive Pension at Retirement

A company may make whatever contributions are necessary to build up a pension fund, which will provide a director with a pension of 2/3rds of their final pensionable salary – subject to a maximum fund value of €2.15m (for allowable tax-relief).

Come retirement, your options are to take a tax-free lump sum and buy an Annuity or to reinvest the balance in an ARF and take an income from that.

1. Tax Free Cash

You can draw a tax-free lump sum based on your salary and service to a maximum of 1.5 times final remuneration, where you have more than 20 years of company service, or you can take a lump sum based on 25% of the value of your retirement pot.

A limit of €500,000 applies to the tax-free lump, with the first €200,000 tax-free and the balance up to €500,000 taxed at 20%.

2. Annuity Option

An annuity pays a retirement income for the rest of your life in exchange for the balance of your pension pot at retirement.

3. ARF Option

An ARF allows you to retain your pension pot at retirement, subject to minimum withdrawals, and can be passed on to your family on death.

Corporate Pensions

Executive Pension - Key Highlights

Financial advice around retirement planning

Questions & Answers

Executive Pension - FAQ's

Your questions answered on Master Trust - Executive Pension Plans.

An Executive Pension offers a tax-efficient way of extracting cash for your own benefit or for that of company executives from a limited company. It is also held in trust to separate it from the beneficiaries personal assets. 

If you considering a new EPP at this time, you should also weigh up an Executive PRSA alternative. 

With 100% investment allocation, the charges depend on your plan type:

Insured EPP

1.  The annual management charge typically amounts to 1.25% PA, inclusive of ongoing broker support.

2. A monthly policy fee from of circa €3.00 per month, dependent on your choice of provider.

Self-directed

1.  The annual management charge is set at 0.40% PA.

2. Dealing charges amount to 0.25% of the traded amount.

3. The is no policy fee.

4. The broker set-up fee amounts to 5,000 and annual support charge 500.00 per annum.

Yes, all private pension holders are still entitled to the State pension in addition. Currently, the current State Social Welfare Pension is only: €248.30 per week. The contributory pension starts at age 66 and the non-contributory not until age 67. Executive pension plan benefits can be taken from age 50 onwards and will not reduce your State pension benefits.

You can, but you don’t have to. The role of the Trustee can be an onerous one and for many companies that are focused on running their own business an overhead and time constraint that they don’t need.

One Quote Financial Brokers currently arrange free Master Trustee services for all new executive pension plan schemes.

An executive pension plan provides full tax relief on contributions, as well as tax-free fund growth and a tax-free lump payment option come retirement. This means;

  1. Company-funded executive pensions effectively receive 52% PAYE relief, plus corporation tax relief @12.5%!
  2. There is no DIRT or capital gains tax on investment growth.
  3. After taking up to 200,000 tax-free on drawdown, you can choose to reinvest the balance and only have to pay a lower rate tax (currently 20%) on withdrawals.

When it comes to the company making the contribution on your behalf, as is the case with an Executive Pension, there is a range of factors in determining how much can be contributed, which we have listed below. However, the important point is that your company can invest a lot more than you can personally and still benefit from tax relief! Whilst, in addition, the maximum retirement fund that you can build up is 2.15M, and if choosing to take the annuity route over the ARF route the maximum pension you can take is 2/3rds of your final pensionable salary.

  1. Age
  2. Gender
  3. Marital Status
  4. Chosen Retirement Age
  5. Salary
  6. Previous Pensions
  7. Years of service with the current employer

The maximum contributions that can be paid to your EPP by you will depend on your personal circumstances including company service and salary.

Subject to the above, there is no limit to how much you can contribute, but tax relief on personal contributions is restricted. 

Contributions paid by you will be considered for the purposes of determining maximum contribution limits for tax relief purposes, which equate to a % of net relevant earnings (annual salary) and increase with age starting from 15% under age 30.

Employers can pay regular or single contributions to their executive pension. An executive pension can also accept transfers from other executive pensions as well as previous group schemes – these would usually be paid as electronic fund transfers from other institutions.

Employers can pay a single contribution at any time into an executive pension. This can be done instead of, or as well as, paying regular monthly or annual contributions.

Senior employees and non-executive directors can make regular contributions on the same basis as their employer with the combined contributions payable through company payroll. They can also make one-off lump sum payments within Revenue Limits via EFT.

  • Insured Plans – the most popular type of executive pension is an insured plan provided through an insurance company. It allows investment in a choice of pooled funds also called unit-linked or mutual funds and offers the cheapest way of investing in assets which can include equities, bonds, property, commodities, and deposits.
  • Self-directed Plans – these plans offer a hybrid of insured fund options as well as access to your own choice of specific equities or shares, they tend to be more expensive than insured executive pensions.
  • Self-administered Plans – best suited to high-net-worth individuals who wish to select all their own investments, which may include direct property purchases, this is the most expensive option includes set-up fees, trustee charges, actuarial charges, and annual management charges in addition to any transactional costs associated with asset trades.

We compare charges and investment performance of all leading insured and self-directed pension providers. We ensure that the recommended pension plan option, matches your appetite for investment risk and that any charges are fully transparent and kept to a minimum. We also offer you full online access to your pension plan from inception, with regular investment performance reviews.

In the event of death before retirement, 4 times your annual remuneration at the date of death can be paid to your dependents, together with a refund of any personal contributions to the plan.

The balance can be transferred to ARFs for spouse/dependants.

Post-retirement where you have already invested in an ARF, on your death the ARF can be transferred into your spouse’s name free of PAYE or Capital Gains Tax.

You can now retire from age 50 and take 25% of your fund tax-free, under an executive pension.

If you have to stop working due to serious ill-health, you can take your pension benefits earlier than these stated ages!

Once you have taken your 25% tax-free, you can choose to reinvest the balance in an ARF (investing in funds for tax-free growth as before) and make regular and ad hoc withdrawals to provide an income.

We grant 24/7 online access to your EPP account and will also receive annual benefits statement through the post, together with one to one reviews.

testimonials

Our Google Reviews

Our Executive Pension client feedback through reviews.

Cillian Dickson
Superb choice
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Looking after my executive pension plan, One Quote provide superb choice and value with online access and annual reviews to keep track. They represent a solid choice of broker.
Paul Hollins
Recommended
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I have my Executive Pension with One Quote and choose them based on investment fund choice, flexibility, competitive charges and service. Very happy to recommend.
Simon Finnegan
Great Support
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One Quote took the time to understand my needs as a contractor and explained my options in detail. I chose them based on the detail provided, low-cost, service and flexibility.
Christine Coffey
Friendly service
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As a company owner, I have One Quote looking after my pension planning needs. Their service is prompt, friendly and very cost competitive. I have no hesitation in recommending them.

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