You may have built up retirement benefits with several of the employers you have worked for during your working life.

It is important that you keep in touch with all of the pension schemes you have been a member of and, as you approach retirement, contact them to find out what benefits you can expect from them. We've drafted a couple of template letters for you to use to write to your other pension schemes to request information from them, available here.

The options you have will vary from scheme to scheme, but may include the following:

• Do you want to exchange some pension for a tax free cash sum?
• Do you want to sacrifice some of your own pension to give your spouse or dependants a bigger pension after you pass away?
• Do you want to transfer any of your pensions to a different pension arrangement.
• Do you want to take advantage of any of the new pension rules from April 2015.

You are likely to have also built up some State Pension as a result of paying National Insurance contributions. This will be payable from your state pension age. In the run up to your state pension age, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will send you a statement to let you know what pension you will be getting, but before then you can ask for a statement in advance.

Here are some useful links:

• To request a State Pension statement.
• To calculate your State Pension Age.

Of course you have probably also built up benefits in the Unilever UK Pension Fund. You will be provided with a statement of your benefits, setting out your choices as you approach retirement. This will be sent from the Unilever UK Pension administration team, and you can contact them if you have any queries about your benefits in the Scheme. Alternatively if you are close to retirement, you may be able to arrange a 121 session with a pensions expert, during which you can ask any questions that you have on your Unilever pension, or any other of your pension benefits.

You can use the Retirement Planner (above) to help you to summarise all of your different pensions. Remember to note down when each pension is payable from. By way of a reminder, the State Pension is only payable from State Pension Age, and other pensions can generally be brought into payment at any date (after age 55), but the amount you receive may be lower if the pension is paid early.

As you think about and plan for your retirement it’s a good idea to investigate and record what savings and assets you have built up and then think about how they could help you during your retirement.

You may have savings in the following forms:

• Unilever Share schemes
• Stocks & Shares ISAs
• Cash ISAs
• Shares
• Cash in the bank or deposit accounts
• Maturing endowment policies
• Other savings vehicles

If you haven’t already done so, now is a time to put together a list of all the savings and assets you have. You can do this by completing this form for you and your partner. The value of some of your savings and assets may go up and down – e.g. Unilever share schemes, stocks & shares ISAs and shares but you need to get an idea of how much you have, so a recent value will be sufficient.

If you choose to have a 121 session at retirement with a pensions expert, you will be sent an At Retirement Booklet to help you prepare. There is a section in this booklet called “Your savings and assets” which will help you to think about your savings and assets.

After you are retired it is likely that you won’t build up as many savings because your income will probably be lower. Instead the income you get from your savings and assets may form an important part of your total income in retirement, and at some point you may need to sell an asset or use your savings to top up your income, or to meet a particular expense.

You might have some assets where the value of them is less certain, or it is less clear when you will have them, for example:

• Equity in your own home
• The value of / income from other properties
• Potential inheritance

These may be very significant sources of finance but you won’t necessarily know how much they can provide for you in retirement, until you actually receive them.

• Potential inheritance – you do not know when you will get this or how much you will inherit. The costs of long term care can significantly reduce the amount of an inheritance from, perhaps, a family member;
• Equity in your own home – you may feel confident that you know the value of your home but the key point about your own home, is that until you decide to sell, and have found a buyer prepared to pay what you ask, you do not have this money. You will also need to think about where you will live after you have sold your home.

Nonetheless it is still very important to consider what might become yours and available to spend, at some point in the future. Think about the timing and availability of these assets. Many people consider the particularly uncertain assets as a bonus providing for additional extras rather than money they are relying on to live on during retirement.