Suitability reports
Chunkbase drafts the suitability report from the checked facts, in your firm’s letter. Select any words and say what to change. The advice is yours, and nothing goes until you say so.
Claire Fraser & Tom Fraser
Ask ChunkbaseClaire and Tom Fraser
14 Elm Grove
Teddington
24 October 2026
Your retirement plan
Suitability report · Draft for adviser review
Dear Claire and Tom,
Thank you for meeting me on 14 October, and for the call on 21 October. You asked me to look at how you can both stop work in the next few years without changing the way you live. This report sets out what you told me, where you are now, what I recommend and why. Please read it carefully, and tell me if anything in it is not right.
Summary of my recommendation
- Claire raises her pension contributions from 5% to 10% of her salary until she stops work at 60. Her employer keeps adding 3%.
- From Tom’s 62nd birthday, you take an income from Tom’s workplace pension through flexi-access drawdown, starting at £18,000 a year.
- You keep £18,500 in your savings account as a cash reserve.
- You keep paying your mortgage as now. It ends in 2041.
- We review your plan with you every year, and sooner if anything changes.
Our recommendation
From Tom’s 62nd birthday, you take an income of £18,000 a year from Tom’s workplace pension through flexi-access drawdown. Together with your rent, and Claire’s salary until she stops work, this meets the £42,000 a year you told me you need. Based on our cashflow modelling, this level of income will be sustainable until at least age 95.
Raising Claire’s contributions now puts more of her highest earning years into her pension, with tax relief on every pound she pays in. When Claire stops work at 60, she can take her own pension in the same way, and we will review the income you take from both pensions then.
I have not recommended any change to how your pensions are invested. They already match the level of risk you told me you are comfortable with, and moving them would add cost without a clear benefit. We will look at this again at each yearly review.
Your retirement plan · Page 1 of 31What this report covers
This report covers your retirement income, your pension contributions and your savings. It does not cover protection, your wills or inheritance tax. We agreed to look at those separately next year.
What you told me
These are the points from our meeting and our call that matter most for this advice.
Your plans for retirement
Tom would like to stop work at 62, in 2027. Claire would like to stop at 60, in 2028. You want the first ten years to be active, with travel and more time with your family.
The income you need
You told me you need about £42,000 a year after tax to keep living as you do now. We went through your spending together:
| What you spend | Each year |
|---|---|
| Household bills, food and running costs | £18,000 |
| Mortgage payments | £14,880 |
| Travel and holidays | £6,000 |
| Gifts, family and other spending | £3,120 |
| Total | £42,000 |
Your family
Your daughter, Isla, may need help with a house deposit in the next five years. You have not decided how much, and you do not want it to put your plans at risk.
Your attitude to risk
You both completed our risk questionnaire and we talked through the results. You described yourselves as balanced investors. You are comfortable with some ups and downs in the value of your pensions, but you would be worried by a large fall close to the time you stop work.
Your capacity for loss is moderate. If your pensions fell in value by a fifth, you could still meet your essential spending from your other income and your savings, but you would need to travel less for a few years.
Your retirement plan · Page 2 of 31Where you are now
Your income
| Income before tax | Each year |
|---|---|
| Claire’s salary, Eversley Engineering | £64,0001 |
| Tom’s salary, Kingston Council | £41,500 |
| Rent from the flat you let | £6,000 |
| Total | £111,500 |
Your pensions and savings
| What you hold | Value |
|---|---|
| Claire’s workplace pension | £268,000 |
| Tom’s workplace pension | £96,500 |
| Claire’s stocks and shares ISA | £42,000 |
| Savings account, held jointly | £18,500 |
| Total | £425,000 |
Your home and mortgage
Your home is worth about £540,000. You owe £208,500 on your mortgage, and you pay £1,240 a month until 2041.
Your State Pensions
Your forecasts show you are both on course for the full State Pension from age 67.
How the plan works, year by year
| 2026 to 2027 | You both keep working. Claire pays 10% into her pension. |
| 2027 | Tom stops work at 62 and starts taking £18,000 a year. |
| 2028 | Claire stops work at 60. We review the income you take. |
| 2032 | Tom’s State Pension starts. You can take less from his pension. |
| 2041 | Your mortgage ends, and your spending falls by £14,880 a year. |
Why this suits you
You want to stop work at 62 and 60 without changing the way you live. My recommendation lets you do that, and keeps enough flexibility to help Isla if you decide to.
Taking Tom’s pension through drawdown lets you take more in the early years, when you plan to travel, and less later on. You keep control of how the money is invested, and you can change the amount you take each year.
Raising Claire’s contributions now costs less than it seems. Because of tax relief, each £100 she pays in costs her about £60 from her take-home pay, and her employer’s 3% continues on top.
Keeping £18,500 in cash means you will not need to sell investments to pay for a large bill, or when markets have fallen.
The risks you should know about
- Investment risk. The value of your pensions can fall as well as rise. If returns are lower than we assumed, you may need to take less income later on.
- Inflation. Rising prices reduce what your income will buy. Our modelling assumes prices rise by 2.5% a year.
- Living longer. Drawdown does not pay an income for life. If you both live well beyond 95, your pensions may run low.
- Changes to the rules. Pension and tax rules can change, and that can change how much income you keep.
We will review your plan with you every year, and sooner if anything changes in your lives or in the markets.
Alternatives we considered
Buying an annuity with Tom’s pension would give you a fixed income for life. It would be lower than the income you need, and you would lose the flexibility you asked for.
Stopping work later would raise your income in retirement. You told me that stopping at 62 and 60 matters more to you than a higher income.
Paying off the mortgage early with Claire’s ISA would cut your spending. It would also leave you with less cash and less flexibility, and your mortgage rate is lower than the return we expect from your investments.
Your retirement plan · Page 4 of 31Written in your firm’s letter
Chunkbase follows your firm’s letter: your letterhead, your headings and their order. It fills each section from the checked facts and leaves the advice to you.
Select it, say what to change
Select any words in the letter and type a note, the way you would comment on a document. Chunkbase changes the letter at once, and you can see what it changed.
Check a figure in one click
Each figure in the draft keeps a link to where it came from. Open it to read the words before you send anything.
Founding firms
