You have over €2m in your ARF? From that point Revenue's imputed distribution in Ireland jumps from 4% to 6%, and it applies to the whole fund, not just the part above €2m. The better your ARF does, the faster Revenue makes you draw it down. This episode is for anyone approaching or in retirement in Ireland with a large pension, especially if you are within touching distance of the line.

In this episode Paddy will go through these topics with you:

• How the ARF imputed distribution works in Ireland: 4%, 5% and the 6% trigger, valued on 30 November and tested per person
• What 6% really costs after tax, with a fictional couple on 2027 rates, and why the extra income can be taxed at roughly 48%
• Why €2m in your pension is not €2m in your ARF, and the quiet ways people end up over the line, from growth to the death of a spouse
• What you can do about it: phasing PRSAs, two names rather than one, minding 30 November and starting drawdown earlier

If you're near the €2m line, on your own or between you, it is worth a look before the next 30 November.

🎙️ Full podcast episode and 📖 Blog: www.informeddecisions.ie/post/arf-2m-cliff-imputed-distribution-ireland

📊 Want to check where you are? Try our free 10-minute Retirement Readiness Scorecard: https://www.informeddecisions.ie/pension-calculator

📅 Find out how we work: https://www.informeddecisions.ie

DISCLAIMER This content 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.

Is EIIS in Ireland a useful investment or not? The Employment Investment Incentive Scheme offers higher-rate taxpayers up to 50% income tax relief for investing in Irish SMEs, and every autumn an awful lot of people are offered it. Paddy Delaney puts the investor's questions to Stephen Tully of BVP.

What Paddy went through in this episode:

• How the EIIS relief tiers work, and why higher relief means higher risk
• How long your money is really tied up, and who EIIS is not suitable for
• Where your money is held, what it costs, and who is paid commission for recommending it
• How gains are taxed, and when the tax relief can be withdrawn

If you are weighing up EIIS before the year end, this episode gives you the questions to ask first.

⚠️ Capital at risk. EIIS investments are high risk and illiquid, and tax relief can be withdrawn. General information only, not personalised financial advice.

🎙️Full podcast episode and 📖 Blog: https://www.informeddecisions.ie/post/eiis-ireland-questions-before-investing

📊 Want to check where you are? Try our free 10-minute Retirement Readiness Scorecard: https://www.informeddecisions.ie/pension-calculator

📅 Find out how we work: https://www.informeddecisions.ie

DISCLAIMER

EIIS investments are high risk. Your capital is at risk and you may lose some or all of it. The shares are illiquid and normally held for at least four years. Tax relief can be withdrawn in certain cases.

This content 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.

Should you buy bonds now? If you are an Irish investor and the bond part of your pension or ARF has disappointed for a few years, the 5% yields in the headlines may sound like good news. They are a dollar number. This episode looks at what bond yields actually mean for someone investing in euro in Ireland.

In this episode, Paddy goes through these points:

• Why the same rise in rates that knocked value off bond funds has improved their future returns
• Why the 5% US Treasury yield is not what a euro investor receives, and what euro yields look like in 2026
• What higher yields mean if you are still contributing, and if you are drawing down an ARF under Revenue's imputed distribution rules
• Why the same bond fund is taxed very differently inside and outside a pension

If you hold bonds in your pension or ARF and want genuine clarity on whether they are doing the job they should, this episode is for you.

📊 Want to check where you are? Try our free 10-minute Retirement Readiness Scorecard: https://www.informeddecisions.ie/pension-calculator

📅 Find out how we work: https://www.informeddecisions.ie

DISCLAIMER This content 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.

US estate tax is not only an American problem. If you are an Irish resident holding shares in US companies, whether through vested RSUs or your own investment account, the IRS can charge estate tax on anything above $60,000 when you die. A US citizen gets $15m.

Paddy tries to shed a bit of light on the matter and goes through it here:

• Why shares in US-incorporated companies count as US assets, even on an Irish platform
• What US estate tax looks like on $750,000 of employer shares in Ireland: a bill of $235,300
• Why "everything to my spouse" can be the expensive route under the Ireland-US estate tax convention
• The two options, reducing your US exposure or planning your estate around it, and what each one costs

If a big part of your wealth is sitting in RSUs or US shares in Ireland, this episode is for you.

The figures are as at the time the records were made.

🎙️ Full YT episode and 📖 Blog: www.informeddecisions.ie/post/us-estate-tax-ireland-rsus-us-shares

📊 Want to check where you are? Try our free 10-minute Retirement Readiness Scorecard: www.informeddecisions.ie/pension-calculator

📅 Find out how we work: www.informeddecisions.ie

DISCLAIMER This content 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.

Budget 2027 in Ireland came with the usual noise about tax bands and credits. If you are within 5 to 10 years of retiring, or already retired, those are rarely the lines that matter. In this Budget special, Paddy Delaney goes through what actually changed for Irish pensions, investments and retirement income.

• The new Investment Account in Ireland: €12,000 a year, the first €50,000 tax-free, 1% a year above that, from 1 July 2027
• Exit tax down from 38% to 35%, capital gains tax down to 31%, and why deemed disposal is still with us
• What the Budget did and did not touch on pensions, including new valuation factors for defined benefit schemes under the Standard Fund Threshold
• And a practical example: €1,000 a month for 8 years, and the difference between €15,400 of exit tax and roughly €2,000 of account charge

If the Budget has you wondering where you actually stand, this episode is for you.

🎓 Free webinar about "Your Money in 2027": Friday 9 October, 12:00, with Alan Purcell: https://www.informeddecisions.ie/webinar

📖 Full Blog: www.informeddecisions.ie/post/budget-2027-ireland-pensions-investing

📊 Want to check where you are? Try our free 10-minute Retirement Readiness Scorecard: https://www.informeddecisions.ie/pension-calculator

📅 Find out how we work: https://www.informeddecisions.ie

DISCLAIMER This content 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.

It's good to know which decisions can never be undone, before you retire in Ireland. Most of a pre-retirement checklist can be changed next year. Four or five items cannot. In this episode Paddy Delaney, independent retirement and investment planner, takes them door by door: the €200,000 lifetime limit on tax-free lump sums, the annuity decision, the tax year you crystallise near the Standard Fund Threshold, the pension tax relief that stops with your last payslip, and the order you do it all in.

This episode is for anyone a year or two from retirement who wants to know which doors close for good.

What you'll learn:

• Why the €200,000 tax-free retirement lump sum in Ireland is a lifetime limit across all your pensions, not per pension
• Why an ARF can become an annuity later, but an annuity can never go back
• How the Standard Fund Threshold rising from €2.2m to €2.8m makes the tax year you crystallise matter, and why growth can erase the saving (fictional case study: Maggie, 61, €2.6m)
• How much pension tax relief you can still use at 55 to 59 and at 60 and over, before your last payslip

If you're approaching retirement with a significant pension and want clarity on which decisions to slow down on, this episode is for you.

🎙️ Access all our podcast episodes and our blog

📊 Want to check where you are? Try our free 10-minute Retirement Readiness Scorecard

📅 Find out how we work

DISCLAIMER: This content 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.

Trust in financial services in Ireland sits at 49%, against a global average of 63%. Paddy Delaney goes through the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer research on financial services, where Ireland ranks, and what sits behind the number.

Edelman surveyed almost 34,000 people across 28 countries and publishes a separate report on financial services. Ireland comes in 23rd of 28, inside the distrust band, below the developed-economy average of 53% and well below the global figure.

In this episode, Paddy goes through the following:

• Where Ireland ranks for trust in financial services, and which countries sit above and below
• Why trust in financial services runs at 73% in developing economies and 53% in developed ones
• Which sub-sectors are trusted least, and why banks score higher than financial advisers
• What the tracker mortgage scandal actually cost, and why it is far more recent than most people remember
• The one question to ask any adviser about how they are paid, and what the answer tells you

If you are weighing up financial advice in Ireland, particularly with significant pension or investment assets behind you, this episode is about how to judge who is worth listening to.

🎙️ Full podcast episode and 📖 Blog: www.informeddecisions.ie/post/trust-financial-advice-ireland

📊 Want to check where you are? Try our free 10-minute Retirement Readiness Scorecard: https://www.informeddecisions.ie/pension-calculator

📅 Find out how we work: https://www.informeddecisions.ie

DISCLAIMER This content 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.

The Prize Bond prize fund rate rose from 1.00% to 1.50% this month, the first State Savings increase in about three years. Almost every write-up has described that 1.5% as a return. It is not one. It is the size of the prize pool spread across the whole €4.4 billion in issue, and what an individual holder receives is decided by a draw.

In this Episode, Paddy works through the NTMA's own published figures and puts a realistic number on what Prize Bonds are actually worth to a normal holding, then lines them up against what the same State will pay for certainty.

What you'll learn:

• Why the 1.5% prize fund rate is not interest, and what it actually describes
• What the odds look like in practice: 0.067% per bond, and a 59% chance of a year with nothing on a €5,000 holding
• The new State Savings rates: 1.96%, 2.29%, 2.33% and 2.66%, all tax-free, and the one product that pays DIRT
• How to compare any bank rate properly by dividing the gross rate by 0.67
• Why the State Savings guarantee has no €100,000 ceiling, and who that actually matters to
• The trap in locking a 10-year rate, and why "eaten bread is soon forgotten" belongs in this decision

If you are holding Prize Bonds, State Savings or cash on deposit in Ireland and want to know what those balances are really doing, this episode is for you.

🎙️ Full podcast episode and 📖 Blog: https://informeddecisions.ie/prize-bonds-ireland-what-the-rate-means/

📊 Want to check where you are? Try our free 10-minute Retirement Readiness Scorecard: https://www.informeddecisions.ie/pension-calculator

📅 Find out how we work: https://www.informeddecisions.ie

DISCLAIMER This content 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.