Informed Decisions Independent Financial Planning & Money Podcast

"There's a pension somewhere in your name that you haven't looked at in five years."
That's a sentence Paddy finds himself saying in client meetings more often than you'd expect. Across a 25-year career, the typical Irish professional works for three or four different employers — and the result, by the time someone reaches their mid-fifties, is often €100,000 to €500,000 spread across multiple dormant pensions that haven't been reviewed in years.
In this episode, Paddy walks through what he calls the forgotten pension problem: the structural feature of Irish pension administration that means employer-funded pensions don't follow you when you change jobs. He explains the 2-year vesting rule, what it means to be a "deferred member" of a scheme, and the four decisions every senior professional faces when leaving a role with a pension: leave it where it is, transfer to your new employer's scheme, transfer to a Personal Retirement Bond, or transfer to a PRSA.
He also covers two structural changes that took effect at the start of 2026. The first is auto-enrolment "My Future Fund", which launched on 1 January 2026 and now automatically enrols workers earning over €20,000 who aren't already in a workplace pension. The second is a new restriction: transfers from group occupational schemes to personal pension structures (PRSA or PRB) are now only permitted before Normal Retirement Age — a planning point for anyone approaching a late-career exit.
The episode closes with the annual pension audit — three questions Paddy walks through with clients each year to address the forgotten pension problem deliberately rather than letting inertia decide.
TIMESTAMPS
(00:00) Introduction to Forgotten Pensions
(01:53) Understanding the Forgotten Pension Problem
(07:32) Options for Managing Your Pension
(18:26) Recent Changes in Pension Regulations
(27:12) Key Considerations for Senior Professionals
(31:15) Strategies to Address the Forgotten Pension Problem
RESOURCES MENTIONED
•  Full blog post (with the four-options framework, 2026 rule changes, and audit checklist):
    https://www.informeddecisions.ie/pension-when-you-change-jobs-ireland/
•  Companion episode — PRSA vs Company Pension / Master Trust:
    https://www.informeddecisions.ie/prsa-vs-company-pension-ireland/
•  All Informed Decisions podcast episodes:
    https://www.informeddecisions.ie/podcast/
ABOUT THE SHOW
The Informed Decisions podcast is hosted by Paddy Delaney QFA RPA APA — independent, fee-only retirement planner in Ireland. The podcast and the blog at informeddecisions.ie are educational resources for Irish professionals, business owners, and high-net-worth individuals navigating retirement, tax efficiency, and investment strategy.
Find Paddy at https://informeddecisions.ie
DISCLAIMER
This podcast is for general educational purposes only. It does not constitute personalised financial advice. Figures and rules referenced reflect the position as at May 2026 and are subject to change. Always speak to a qualified, independent financial advisor about your specific situation.

After the 22 April IORP II deadline, thousands of Irish directors are now in a pension structure they didn't deliberately choose. Most transitioned from an executive pension to a Master Trust or a PRSA under time pressure. Few sat down to ask whether the resulting structure is actually the one that serves them best.
In this episode, Paddy walks through the PRSA versus Executive Pension / Master Trust decision in detail: Funding mechanics, lump sum comparison, death benefit treatment, and the second decision most people never review: the investment mandate inside the structure.
The episode is anchored to an anonymised client story: a company director in his mid-60s who came to Informed Decisions in early 2023 with a €1.4m pension and one question. Less than three years later, with a different structure and a different investment mandate, that pension is worth over €2m. The estimated cost of taking the "safe" advice he was offered elsewhere: approximately €500,000 of growth.
 
WHAT'S COVERED
Why the IORP II deadline forced a structural decision under time pressure
How PRSA contribution rules changed in 2023 and 2025
When the Master Trust's salary-and-service formula beats the PRSA's 100 % cap
How the 1.5× salary lump sum compares to the PRSA's 25 % rule
Why the PRSA's uncapped death benefit can change estate planning
How the Standard Fund Threshold (€2.2m → €2.8m by 2029) affects strategy
Why de-risking at 65 doesn't fit modern Irish retirement timelines
Full written breakdown with comparison table, IORP II timeline, and FAQs: www.informeddecisions.ie/post/prsa-vs-company-pension-ireland
If this episode raised questions about your current contribution strategy is going to get you where you want to go, that's exactly what we work through with clients. Find out more at https://www.informeddecisions.ie 
 
ABOUT
Informed Decisions is an independent, fee-only financial advisory firm in Ireland. Paddy Delaney works with a small number of clients each year, typically business owners and senior professionals approaching retirement, to plan and protect retirement decisions in coordinated, tax-efficient ways.
If today's episode raised questions about your own pension: whether the structure is right, whether the investment mandate has been reviewed, or how to think about both together: visit https://www.informeddecisions.ie to see how we work.
DISCLAIMER
This podcast is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute personalised financial advice. Everyone's situation is different. Always speak to a qualified, independent advisor before making pension or investment decisions. Tax rules and pension regulations change; figures quoted are accurate at time of recording.

Most people approaching retirement believe their job is to reduce risk. Get out of equities. Move into something safe. Ben Carlson disagrees — and he has the research to back it up.
Ben is Director at Ritholtz Wealth Management in the US, author of Risk and Reward (Harriman House, May 2026), and one of the most widely read financial writers working today. He's spent his career studying every major market crash in modern history: the Great Depression, Japan's lost decades, the dot-com bust, 2008 and what they actually mean for long-term investors.
In this episode, Paddy and Ben talk about Ben's new Book:
They cover the yin and yang of Risk and Reward
Why globally diversified investors still came out ahead from financial crises
The three dimensions of risk tolerance (willingness, need, and ability)
How to think about drawdown and bucketing, inflation psychology, and the only benchmark that actually matters for someone approaching retirement.
Ben's new book Risk and Reward is available now in Kindle, paperback, and audiobook (read by Ben himself) from Harriman House.
There's a full written article about this Interview with Ben on the blog at http://www.informeddecisions.ie/post/retirement-risk-and-reward-ireland 
If this episode raised questions about where you sit on the age-related table or whether your current contribution strategy is going to get you where you want to go, that's exactly what we work through with clients. Find out more at https://www.informeddecisions.ie 
DISCLAIMER: This content is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute personalised financial advice. Always speak to a qualified, independent advisor about your own situation.

Most Irish high earners are claiming roughly half the pension tax relief available to them. Not because the rules are complicated, but because the contribution percentage set years ago has simply never been revised.
In this episode, Paddy walks through
the age-related contribution limits (15% to 40%)
the €115,000 earnings cap and what it actually means in practice
and a real worked example of a director, age 56, on €180k — who could be claiming €16,100 in tax relief every year but isn't.
He also covers the year-end October timing window (you can still reduce last year's tax bill with one decision), five common mistakes that quietly cost high earners thousands, and why the personal contribution question and the structural question, PRSA versus company pension, really need to be looked at together.
There's a full written article with the age-related table, the worked example, and year-end timing details on the blog at www.informeddecisions.ie/post/pension-tax-relief-ireland-explained
Free Webinar: Should You Sell Your RSUs? - A Practical Guide for Tech Employees in Ireland, 20th May 2026: https://www.informeddecisions.ie/webinar/webinar-should-you-sell-your-rsus
If this episode raised questions about where you sit on the age-related table or whether your current contribution strategy is going to get you where you want to go, that's exactly what we work through with clients. Find out more at https://www.informeddecisions.ie 
DISCLAIMER: This content is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute personalised financial advice. Always speak to a qualified, independent advisor about your own situation.

Most ARF holders know their fund value. Most know Revenue requires a minimum annual drawdown. Very few have stopped to ask whether meeting that minimum is actually a strategy, or simply the path of least resistance.
In this episode, Paddy explores safe withdrawal rates in an Irish context: the research on real retiree behaviour, why the 4% rule is both useful and misunderstood, and why the sequence of returns in the first five years of retirement carries disproportionate weight on long-term outcomes.
He walks through a concrete sequence-of-return scenario: same starting fund, same average annual return, same withdrawal rate, completely different outcomes and shares a real-life case study of a retired solicitor whose conservative ARF mandate was quietly eroding her fund at a 7% real rate of depletion annually.
Covered in this episode:
The US Health and Retirement Study findings on actual retiree withdrawals
Bill Bengen's 4% rule and its Irish limitations
Sequence of return risk and how a cash buffer changes the equation
Three common ARF drawdown mistakes and three concrete takeaways.
The imputed distribution sets the floor. It doesn't set the strategy.
Read the full blog post at www.informeddecisions.ie/post/safe-withdrawal-strategy-arf-ireland
DISCLAIMER: This content is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute personalised financial advice. Always speak to a qualified, independent advisor about your own situation.