Penny Harnett was born on 25 October 1953. She works as a cleaner for a nearby local private school that opened in September 2006. Her salary is currently £9,500 per annum although she is considering if she should accept a promotion from her employers which would require that she works longer hours. Prior to joining her current employer, Penny had several jobs but did not accumulate any preserved pension benefits other than those offered by the State. She feels that this should be more or less sufficient although she is unsure as to whether she should start making contributions into the employer’s stakeholder pension plan. The school makes no contributions to the scheme. She has taken some breaks from employment, the longest of which were when each of her three children were born.

Penny would ideally like to retire at age 60 although a friend has recently told her that the State pension age for women has changed.

Penny is married to Larry who is already retired at the age of 66. He too relies heavily on state pension benefits although he has accumulated a fund of £120,000 in a single personal pension.

Unfortunately Larry’s brother Dave has just been diagnosed with cancer. Larry has undertaken to act as a lasting power of attorney for his brother. This has also got Larry thinking that he would like to make some provision towards covering the costs of long-term care. Larry has a very limited budget but wants to effect the maximum cover possible.

Dave has a life assurance policy and been in touch with the provider to see if he could make a viatical settlement.