FJ Hanly & Associates

01/09/2026

Regular financial advice nearly doubles how confident people feel about their money.

Standard Life's 2025 research found that 58% of regularly advised adults feel positive about their finances, compared with just 34% of those without advice.

In Munster, where cost-of-living pressure is the highest in the country, that kind of clarity is worth having.

Read more: https://www.fjhanly.com/retirement-readiness-and-money-worries-in-munster/

19/08/2026

Most people think retirement planning ends with the pension pot. It doesn't.

Here's the part that catches Irish families out:

Your children, not you, pay the tax on what they inherit. It's charged at 33% on anything above €400,000.

On a €550,000 home left to one child, that's a bill of nearly €50,000. Too often, families end up selling the very asset they were meant to inherit, just to pay the tax on it.

A Section 72 plan fixes this. It's a Revenue-approved life policy, and the proceeds used to pay the inheritance tax bill are themselves exempt from tax. Your family keeps what you intended them to have.

Don't leave them to find the money under pressure. Plan for it while you have the choice.

Read more: https://www.fjhanly.com/using-a-section-72-plan-to-protect-what-you-leave-behind

13/08/2026

Most SMEs treat the company pension as a cost. That's a mistake.

The latest national research (Amárach, 2026) found a stark gap between large firms and SMEs:

Pension schemes: 74% vs 50%
Retirement planning programmes: 61% vs just 16%
Access to professional advice: 70% vs 46%

Meanwhile 77% of employers say financial problems reduce productivity, and only 31% think their staff are ready to retire.

Auto-enrolment now means every business contributes something. But it's a floor, not a ceiling. Handled well, your company pension does two jobs:

Retention: a benefit people value is a reason to stay.
Succession: when staff can see their retirement income, they retire on their terms, and you can plan the handover.

For directors, it's also the most tax-efficient way to fund your own exit.

Stop treating your pension as a cost. Start using it as a tool.

Contact F J Hanly & Associates for a review.

https://www.fjhanly.com/smes-and-directors-why-your-company-pension-is-a-retention-and-succession-tool

22/07/2026

Every retirement plan rests on one assumption: that you keep earning right up to the day you choose to stop.

Half of people expect to work past their intended retirement age for income reasons. Working longer by choice is a plan. Working longer by necessity is not.

If illness or injury stopped your income tomorrow, Statutory Sick Pay covers 5 days. State Illness Benefit pays a maximum of around €254 a week, and the self-employed do not qualify at all.

Meanwhile your pension and AVC contributions stop dead, at exactly the point your fund should be growing.

Income protection replaces that income until you recover or retire. Premiums qualify for tax relief at your marginal rate, so a €100 monthly premium can cost around €60 for a higher-rate taxpayer.

Protect the engine and you protect the plan.

Read more: https://www.fjhanly.com/working-longer-by-choice-not-necessity-protecting-your-income-on-the-way-to-retirement

14/07/2026

If you're in your forties or fifties and suspect you're behind on your pension, the most efficient catch-up tool in the Irish system is probably already available to you: the Additional Voluntary Contribution.

Two features make AVCs powerful for late starters:

-Tax relief at your marginal rate. For a higher-rate taxpayer, every €100 contributed costs just €60 after relief.

-Age-related limits that rise as you get older. From age 50 you can claim relief on 30% of earnings (up to €115,000), rising to 35% at 55 and 40% at 60.

A 52-year-old higher-rate taxpayer putting €500 a month into an AVC sees a real cost of around €300 out of take-home pay. The full €500 lands in the fund and grows tax-free until retirement.

The 45 to 55 window is when goals-based planning has the biggest impact. A late start doesn't have to mean a late finish.

Read more: https://www.fjhanly.com/behind-on-retirement-savings-how-avcs-can-close-the-gap-before-you-stop-working/

24/06/2026

Your pension statement shows you one big number. What it almost never tells you is the thing that actually matters: how much will it pay you each month when you stop working?

A new 2026 study found this is now the single biggest barrier to a confident retirement in Ireland. People are saving diligently, yet 79% feel financially unprepared for retirement and 52% worry their money won't last. The issue isn't willingness, it's clarity.

The good news? Turning a pension pot into a clear monthly income figure is an entirely solvable problem. Between your State Pension, an annuity, and an Approved Retirement Fund (ARF), there's a route that fits your life. You just need to know how the pieces work together.

We break it all down, including the 2026 figures, in our latest article.
Read more 👉 https://www.fjhanly.com/what-will-your-pension-actually-pay-you-turning-a-statement-into-a-monthly-income/

17/06/2026

Most people put more thought into planning a two week holiday than into planning a retirement that could last 25 years or more.

That is the idea behind this piece by Jonathan Guthrie, and it is hard to argue with.

Retirement planning has never been more difficult. The certainties our parents had, defined benefit pensions and guaranteed annuity income, have largely gone. The investment risk now sits with the individual, and the unknowns are significant.

Two of his points cross the Irish Sea cleanly:

1)People consistently underestimate how long they will live, and how much they will need to fund it.

2)Treating the minimum contribution as "enough" is one of the most expensive assumptions a saver can make.

The UK has run auto-enrolment for over a decade, and its clearest lesson is that the default minimum was never designed to deliver a comfortable retirement on its own.

That lesson lands at an important moment here. Ireland's auto-enrolment scheme, My Future Fund, went live on 1 January 2026, and an estimated 750,000 workers have had nothing beyond the State Pension to rely on.

Auto-enrolment is a strong start. It is rarely the finish line.

If you want to know whether your own plan is on track for the retirement you actually want, that is the conversation we have with clients every week.

Read the FT article here:

Pension planning is less straightforward than it used to be — data can help when uncertainties abound

03/06/2026

Your credit union savings feel safe. And for short-term, emergency cash, they are. But for long-term savings, that comfort is quietly costing you.

Irish credit union dividend rates typically sit between 0.3% and 0.75%. Apply DIRT at 33% and set that against Irish inflation running at 2.2% in 2025 and 3.6% by March 2026, and the real return on your savings is not just low. It is negative. Your money is buying less every single year.

A €30,000 balance earning a 0.5% dividend generates roughly €100 after DIRT. Against even modest inflation of 2.5%, that same balance needs to grow by €750 just to hold its value. The real shortfall is around €650 per year, silently, with no letter from Revenue and no line on your statement to show it. Over ten years, the cumulative real loss on that balance can exceed €5,000.

This is not a niche problem. Irish households are holding roughly €140 billion in overnight deposit accounts at near-zero rates. The CCPC has flagged it repeatedly. The pattern is clear: Ireland is a country of cash savers, and that preference is costing households real money every year.

The question worth asking is not whether the credit union is good or bad. It is whether the money sitting there is in the right pot for the job it is actually being asked to do.
Read the full post here: https://www.fjhanly.com/the-quiet-cost-of-cash-why-your-irish-credit-union-savings-are-losing-real-value-every-day/

27/05/2026

Most Irish families don't think about Capital Acquisitions Tax until a parent dies. By then, years of entirely free, entirely legal tax planning have already slipped away.

The Small Gift Exemption lets any individual gift up to €3,000 per year to any other individual with no CAT, no Revenue return, and no impact on the recipient's lifetime threshold. It resets every January. It cannot be backdated. Miss a year and that allowance is gone for good.

Two parents gifting to three adult children can move €18,000 per year outside the CAT system completely. Over twenty years, that is €360,000 transferred tax-free. Start ten years late and you have permanently lost €180,000 of transfer capacity.

At the 33% CAT rate, that translates into roughly €59,400 of avoidable tax.

There is no Revenue letter telling you what you missed. The cost only becomes visible at the point of inheritance, when families look back at decades of gifting capacity quietly left on the table.

With Irish estates increasingly breaching the €400,000 Group A threshold, this is a conversation worth having before another calendar year ticks over.

Read the full post here: https://www.fjhanly.com/the-e3000-youre-throwing-away-every-year-why-delaying-the-small-gift-exemption-is-quietly-costing-irish-families-a-fortune/

25/05/2026

An excellent opportunity for an early-career advisor 😁

🚀 WE’RE HIRING – FINANCIAL ADVISOR (QFA)

We are looking for a motivated, client-focused Financial Advisor (QFA qualified) to join our expanding Limerick-based financial planning team at FJ Hanly & Associates 📊

This is an excellent opportunity for an early-career advisor to develop within a supportive, team-based environment while gaining hands-on experience across full financial planning services 🌱

💼 ROLE OVERVIEW
You will support experienced advisors in delivering high-quality financial planning advice, helping clients achieve their long-term financial goals.

Key areas include:
• Assisting with pensions, investments & protection advice 📈
• Supporting client meetings and financial reviews 🤝
• Preparing documentation and recommendations under guidance
• Ensuring strong compliance and regulatory standards 📑
• Building strong, long-term client relationships

🌟 IDEAL CANDIDATE
• QFA qualified 📜
• Experience in Life & Pensions / Wealth / Financial Services (preferred)
• Strong communication and client-focused mindset
• Highly organised with strong attention to detail
• Eager to build a long-term career in financial planning
• Team player with a proactive attitude

🏢 ABOUT US
At Gallivan Financial, we are committed to delivering trusted financial advice with professionalism, integrity, and real client impact 🌍
We pride ourselves on a culture of mentorship, collaboration, and continuous development — helping our people grow into confident, successful financial advisors 🚀

🎁 WHAT WE OFFER
• Competitive salary package
• Employer pension contributions
• Supportive, team-focused environment
• Mentoring from experienced advisors
• Ongoing professional development & career progression 📚

📩 Interested? Send your CV to [email protected]

🧡