Ready to Retire?
Thinking about taking your retirement benefits soon? If so, it’s worth getting prepared.
If you’ve decided to retire in the next two years, just follow our simple five-step guide and you’ll be ready to go.
If retirement’s a little further away, you can use the modeller to see what your benefits could be worth at retirement. You can also make sure you’re on track for the retirement you want by visiting our setting your savings target section.
Watch our video for a simple introduction to the retirement process and read our five-step guide for more details.
Things to consider before starting your retirement process:
- If you have any other retirement savings make sure you include them in your planning
- Retiring is a big decision so think about taking financial advice
- If you’d like to carry on working, check if you’re eligible for flexible retirement
Our five-step guide for taking your retirement benefits
1. Request a Retirement Options Pack
Your pack will contain everything you need to start the retirement process. It includes:
- Information on the different ways you can take your benefits,
- Quotes showing how much each option could provide you with
- Details of the support available to help you make the right decision for you.
If you’re less than four months away from your retirement date, we’ll also send you all the forms you’ll need to complete during the process. If you’re more than four months away you can request these when you’re ready.
If you want to take some of your benefits and carry on working, (known as flexible retirement) you can request a Retirement Options Pack with quotes based on this too.
Visit our choosing when to retire page for more information on flexible retirement.
Once you’re ready to request your Retirement Options Pack, contact the Pensions Team and tell them your member number (you can find this in your pension statement) and the date you’re thinking of retiring. Your pack will then be posted to you.
Step 1 to do list:
- Decide if you’d like to take flexible retirement and ask for this to be included in your quote
- Decide when you’d like to retire
- Find your member number in your latest pension statement
2. Discuss your decision with your line manager
Once you’ve received your retirement quote and decided to retire, you’ll need to speak to your line manager to discuss details such as, how much holiday you have left and when your last working day will be. You’ll also need to take into account your notice period.
Not sure how long your notice period is? You can find it in your most recent contract or in your SuccessFactors profile under ‘Job Details’. You can also find out how much holiday you have left on the GLOBE Portal. You’ll need to be connected to the VPN to access both SuccessFactors and the GLOBE portal.
If you want to take flexible retirement, you’ll need your line manager's and HR Business Partner’s approval, so make sure you ask for this when you speak to them.
- Look up your notice period on SuccessFactors
- Find out how much holiday you have left on the GLOBE Portal
- Book some time with your line manager to discuss your decision and the retirement process
3. Inform the company of your decision
After you’ve discussed your retirement with your line manager, you’ll need to formally confirm your decision to retire. You can do this by sending a signed letter or email to your line manager or HR Business Partner stating your notice to leave the company alongside your preferred leave date.
Once you’ve done this, your line manager will start to process your retirement on SuccessFactors. At this point, you can also find lots of useful information on the I'm Leaving Nestlé page on The Nest (VPN connection required).
- Send a letter or email formally notifying your line manager or HR Business Partner of your decision to retire
- Ask your line manager to start the retirement process on SuccessFactors
- Request your retirement forms from the Pensions Team if you don’t already have them
- Read the I'm Leaving Nestlé page on The Nest (VPN connection required)
4. Return your retirement forms to the Pensions Team
Once you’ve informed your line manager of your decision to retire, you’ll need to decide how you’d like to take your benefits.
To help you do this, Nestlé currently offers you the opportunity to access ‘At retirement guidance’ from Origen Financial Services Ltd, an independent financial adviser (IFA), which Nestlé will pay for. To access the service, you will need to contact the team at Origen and make an appointment:
By phone: 0344 209 3918
By email: nestle@origenfs.co.uk
By post: Origen Financial Services, Infor House, 1 Lakeside Road, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 6XP
You will need to provide Origen with a copy of your retirement quotation in advance of your meeting.
If you already have your own IFA and want to use them to provide you with at retirement guidance or advice, Nestlé will meet the first £500 of this cost.
You can read more about this in our At retirement guidance section.
When you’ve made your decision, you’ll need to tell us your choices by completing your retirement forms. When we receive your forms, we’ll make sure we have all the information we need from you and carry out our own internal checks. Once these checks are complete, we’ll contact you to let you know and ask HR to confirm that their leaver process is complete.
If you choose to buy an annuity with your DC savings, your chosen annuity provider will contact you at this point to take you through their own processes.
- Check that your line manager has started the SuccessFactors process
- Book an ‘At retirement guidance’ session with Origen Financial Services Ltd
- Complete your retirement forms and return them to the Pensions Team
5. Receive your benefits
Once your leaver process is complete, we’ll arrange for your benefits to be paid. You’ll receive them after you’ve left the Company.
If you’ve chosen to take a tax-free cash lump sum, this will be paid via payroll’s next BACS payment (which are made twice a week).
If you’ve chosen to take a pension, this will be set up separately and in time for the next available pension payroll run. You can find the pension payment dates in the pensioner section of our website.
If you have defined contribution (DC) savings with us and you’ve chosen to buy an annuity, we’ll transfer the value of your account to your annuity provider and they’ll start to pay your annuity once it’s been processed.
- Check that you’ve received your cash lump sum if you’ve chosen to receive one
- Visit the pensioner section of our website to see when your pension will be paid
- Check that your first pension payment has been made
More information
How long does the whole process take?
Once you have made the decision to retire, you should start the process as soon as possible and allow at least three months from requesting your Retirement Options Pack to receiving your benefits.
The time it takes depends on how quickly you decide which options you’d like to take, how long the SuccessFactors leaver process takes and the type of pension you have. For example, if you have additional voluntary contributions (AVCs) held with an external provider then we’ll need to transfer them into the Fund which will take extra time to process.
What if I don’t want to retire now but I do want to in the next two years?
If you think you’d like to retire within the next two years, you can request a Retirement Options Pack to see what your benefits will be worth.
If you have DC savings, it’s also worth checking that your target retirement age is up to date. If you have savings in DC Core, this is the age you’ve told us you’d like to retire at. If you have savings in DC Start, or if you haven’t chosen a target retirement age, your target retirement age is automatically set at your normal pension age. For most people, this is your state pension age (which may change in line with government legislation).
You can check your target retirement age by logging in to your online account.
If you think you’d like to retire in more than two years, use the modeller to see what your benefits could be worth at retirement.