Podcasts · Business · Education

Informed Decisions: Ireland's Independent Retirement Planning Podcast

Paddy Delaney, QFA RPA APA | Independent Retirement Planner, Ireland

300 episodes

Informed Decisions is Ireland's award-winning podcast on pensions, retirement planning and financial planning, hosted by Paddy Delaney.

More about the show

Paddy, founder of Informed Decisions, is one of a small number of retirement planners in Ireland who work on a genuinely fee-only basis: no commission from any product provider, no products sold, and nobody but the client paying for the advice.

If you are within ten years of retiring and you have built up a substantial pension, the difficult part is no longer saving. It is knowing what to do with what you have. An awful lot of people arrive at that point with a fund value and no strategy, and no clear sense of whose advice is actually on their side.

That is what this show is for. Every week, Paddy works through the decisions that really make a difference: current issues in the world of finance that affect your pension in Ireland and fundamental questions that every Irish person should ask themselves when planning their retirement, f.e.:

• How much income a pension can realistically sustain in retirement, and for how long • ARF or annuity: what each one actually costs you over twenty years of drawdown • Why the default fund your pension has been sitting in may not be doing what you assume • What Revenue's rules mean in practice: the Standard Fund Threshold, imputed distribution, and the tax on your retirement lump sum • PRSAs, AVCs and company pensions, and which structure suits which situation

ABOUT YOUR HOST Paddy Delaney is one of very few independent, fee-only financial planner in Ireland and the voice behind Informed Decisions. He is a Qualified Financial Adviser (QFA) and Retirement Planning Adviser (RPA), also holding the APA designation, and has been publishing this podcast since 2017. His work centres on Irish retirement income planning: ARF drawdown strategy, pension structuring, and tax-efficient income for people approaching or already in retirement.

New episode every week and more content on YouTube, too.

📊 Check where you stand with Informed Decisions free 10-minute Retirement Readiness Scorecard: https://www.informeddecisions.ie/pension-calculator

📅 See how we work: https://www.informeddecisions.ie

WHO THIS PODCAST IS FOR Business owners, senior professionals and executives across Ireland, typically between 45 and 65, with pension and investment assets built over a career.

DISCLAIMER

Informed Decisions Limited, trading as Informed Decisions Financial Planning, is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.

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.

Episodes page 1 of 6

  1. Up to 50% Tax Relief. What's the Catch?

    · 25 min · S2026 E393

    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…

  2. Should You Buy Bonds Now? Irish Investors and 5% Yields

    · 20 min · S2026 E392

    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…

  3. US Estate Tax in Ireland: The $60,000 Line on Your US Shares

    · 23 min · S2026 E391

    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…

  4. Budget 2027 Ireland: The €50,000 Tax-Free Investment Account

    · 24 min · S2026 E390

    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…

  5. Before You Retire in Ireland: 5 Decisions You Can't Undo

    · 26 min · S2026 E389

    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…

  6. Trust in Financial Advice: Why Ireland Scores 49 Out of 100

    · 19 min · S2026 E388

    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…

  7. Prize Bonds Ireland: What the New 1.5% Rate Actually Pays You

    · 22 min · S2026 E387

    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…

  8. Inheritance Tax in Ireland: Gift Now or Leave It? - with Mairéad Hennessy from Taxkey.ie

    · 44 min · S2026 E386

    Inheritance tax in Ireland is charged at 33% on anything above €400,000 passing from a parent to a child. The question most families never properly work through is whether to move assets during their lifetime or leave…

  9. Should You Retire at a Market All-Time High? Sequence Risk & the Irish ARF

    · 24 min · S2026 E385

    Should you retire with the market at an all-time high? In Ireland, the record level feels dangerous, but it is not the risk that decides your outcome. In this episode, Paddy asks whether retiring at an all-time high…

  10. Planning to 95: Life Expectancy, the Irish ARF and the Real Retirement Lever

    · 27 min · S2026 E384

    Your Irish pension plan probably runs to age 95, but you'll likely live to around 83, and the gap changes your pot far less than you'd expect. In this episode, Paddy digs into the retirement life expactancy in…

  11. 72% - One Country: Is Your Irish Pension Actually Diversified?

    · 31 min · S2026 E383

    If you hold an Irish pension or an ARF invested in a global equity index fund, you have almost certainly been told you are diversified: Thousands of companies, dozens of countries, one fund, job done. And it is true:…

  12. Should You Take Your Pension Lump Sum at 60? A Worked Irish Case Study

    · 23 min · S2026 E384

    Turning 60 with a significant pension pot and nothing forcing your hand? This episode is a worked case study on the pension lump sum decision at 60 in Ireland: Take the tax-free lump sum now, or leave the fund invested…

  13. Private Credit in Ireland: Can You Actually Get Your Money Out?

    · 26 min · S2026 E381

    There is a pitch doing the rounds in Irish advice circles at the moment: private markets have finally been democratised, and private credit and private equity are now open to anyone with a decent pension pot. But is it…

  14. Bucket vs. Total Return - Retirement Withdrawal Strategies for Investors in Ireland

    · 28 min · S2026 E380

    If you've built a pension pot of €1m or more, you've almost certainly thought about how you'll invest it in retirement. What a bunch of people haven't thought through properly is how they'll actually take the money…

  15. Strategic Giving - Philanthropy in Ireland: A Conversation With Community Foundation CEO, Denise Charlton

    · 36 min · S2026 E379

    Most people spend decades building wealth and never quite get to the second question: not how do I protect this, but what do I actually want it to do? On this episode, Paddy Delaney talks to Denise Charlton, CEO of…

  16. Simplicity Is The Ultimate Sophistication (Replay)

    · 15 min · S2026 E378

    This one was recorded a while back (in 2024), but the argument hasn't dated a day, if anything, it holds up better now than when we first put it out. A of complexity in Irish pension and investment advice isn't there…

  17. Sequence of Returns Risk: Same ARF. Same Return. Totally Different Outcome

    · 33 min · S2026 E377

    Two people can retire with the same ARF, the same average return, and the same withdrawal rate and still end up in completely different places. One leaves over €1m to his family. The other runs out of money before he…

  18. Enduring Power of Attorney in Ireland With Áine Flynn: Who Can Act If You Can't?

    · 32 min · S2026 E376

    An Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) is the planning step most Irish adults never get to. Only around 8% have one, against roughly a third who've made a will. Yet if you lost capacity tomorrow, it's the document that…

  19. Should You Reduce Investment Risk Before Retirement?

    · 32 min · Episode 375

    As you get closer to retirement, move your money to safer investments. It sounds reasonable. But what if that one piece of conventional wisdom could cost you €80,000 or more? In this episode, Paddy unpacks one of the…

  20. Pension Drawdown Above €2M: The €243,000 Timing Decision (SFT Ireland)

    · 41 min · Episode 374

    If your pension is approaching or has passed €2 million, the question is no longer just how to grow it, it's how to generate income without handing a significant portion to Revenue unnecessarily. The Standard Fund…

  21. Bonds Aren't Broken. What the 1970s Tell Irish Retirees About Bonds Today

    · 27 min · Episode 373

    A lot of investors have written off bonds after 2022. In this episode, Paddy Delaney explains why that conclusion is based on a misreading of how bonds work — and what the historical data actually shows. The 10-year…

  22. Pension When You Change Jobs in Ireland: The 4 Most Important Decisions for Professionals

    · 36 min · Episode 372

    "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…

  23. PRSA vs Company Pension in Ireland: Which Is Right for You?

    · 26 min · Episode 371

    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…

  24. Risk and Reward in Retirement: What Ben Carlson's Research Means for Irish Investors - Interview

    · 44 min · Episode 370

    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…

  25. The Most Consistently Underclaimed Tax Break for Irish High Earners - Pension Tax Relief Explained

    · 32 min · Episode 369

    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.…

  26. Is your ARF built to last? - Safe Withdrawal Strategies

    · 24 min · Episode 368

    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.…

  27. €2M ARF in Ireland: What You'll Actually Keep — And How to Keep More

    · 33 min · Episode 367

    You've built a €2 million pension. Now here's the question nobody asked you: how much of it will you actually keep? In this episode, Paddy runs the real numbers on what a €2 million ARF looks like in Ireland in 2026:…

  28. How Much Money Do You Need to Retire in Ireland?

    · 25 min · Episode 366

    In this week's episode, Paddy tackles the question he gets asked more than any other: how much do I actually need to retire in Ireland? Well, for an answer to that question, one should make a proper calculation…

  29. Is One Million € Enough to Retire? - Real Income from Savings

    · 32 min · Episode 365

    In this week's podcast, Paddy talks about what a €1 million pension can actually generate in retirement—and why the headline number doesn't always match the reality of income. • The tax-free lump sum explained You can…

  30. Best Deposit Rates in Ireland What to Know in 2026

    · 27 min

    In this week's podcast, Paddy talks about why leaving your cash in a current or low-interest account is quietly costing you. • Your savings could earn more Demand deposit accounts now offer around 2% and fixed-term…

  31. Financial Advisor Commissions in Ireland: What Are You Actually Paying?

    · 31 min

    Most people with significant pension assets have no real idea what their financial advisor earns from their money. Not because the information is illegal to share — it isn't — but because the system is designed in a…

  32. The Silent Thief: What Inflation Is Doing to Your Cash Savings in Ireland

    · 26 min

    In this week's episode, I welcome Aaron to the podcast before diving into a timely topic for Irish savers and investors: how inflation quietly erodes cash savings over time. I look at why holding too much cash can…

  33. Financial Independence, Property, and the Reality of Retirement with Michael Houghton

    · 55 min

    Michael Houghton returns to the Informed Decisions Podcast seven years after his first appearance to share how his thinking on money, work and property has evolved. Michael is a personal finance writer, former software…

  34. Who Looks After Them When You Can't? Trusts & Wills with Elaine Byrne

    · 35 min

    In this week's podcast, Paddy is joined by specialist solicitor Elaine Byrne to demystify trusts and explain why they're one of the most powerful — and underused — tools in Irish estate planning. From discretionary…

  35. Do I need an Enduring Power of Attorney in Ireland?

    · 30 min

    We can spend decades building our wealth, protecting our families, and planning for retirement. But there's one question most people avoid until it's too late: what happens if you can't make decisions for yourself? In…

  36. Irish Landlord Tax & Tenancy Changes 2026: Expert Guide for Property Investors

    · 53 min

    In this week's podcast, Paddy sits down with guest Brendan Allen to unpack the rental market right now, and it is messy. They get into why so many landlords feel stuck between shifting government rules and real world…

  37. What The New Standard Fund Threshold Means for Your Retirement

    · 32 min

    If you're saving for retirement or nearing the end of your career, or eyeing retirement or a 'handier' role :) a significant change is on the horizon that could meaningfully affect how much tax you'll pay on your…

  38. Retirement Planning Ireland: Get Ready for 2026!

    · 25 min

    If you are thinking about retiring in 2026, or even easing back from full time work, this is the year where small decisions start to matter a lot. In this week's episode, I look at how to check if retirement is…

  39. Two Big Pension Changes You Need To Know About For 2026

    · 26 min

    If you have an Executive Pension/SSAS or are a member of an Occupational Pension Scheme approaching retirement, you might want to know about these big changes coming your way! Two major pension updates are colliding;…

  40. Investments in 2025 & 'It Takes A Village'

    · 17 min · Episode 355

    Welcome to the very last, and shortest, Informed Decisions Blog of 2025! We've had a very interesting investment year so far, and I want to share some brief investment observations and comparisons of the year. Also,…

  41. Pre Retirement Checklist Christmas Edition

    · 41 min

    In this week's podcast - Your Essential Pre-Retirement Checklist Retirement starts long before you hand back the laptop or walk out of the office for the last time! The real work happens in the final decade, when you…

  42. Should I Invest In Dividend Stocks To Generate Income?

    · 29 min

    In this week's podcast - The Income Investor's Dilemma in Ireland Many investors in their 50's and 60's want dependable and sustainable incomes from their investment assets, fair enough! You may be wondering should…

  43. Drawing Tax Efficient Income From PRSA or ARF In Your 50's

    · 25 min

    This episode looks at practical ways to pull income from pensions without handing more to Revenue than you need to. You hear how rental income fits into the picture, how a non-earning partner's tax band can save you…

  44. Markets Are High...Should I Jump To Cash, Out Of Equities?

    · 39 min

    Is now the right time to move a chunk of your investment or pension assets out of equities, and into Bonds, Money Market Funds or Cash? It's a question that you may be asking because of a headline you read, an online…

  45. The Financial Freedom of Getting Kids Off The Books!

    · 26 min

    Many Irish parents in their fifties are still financially supporting adult children—and it's quietly delaying their retirement goals. Key takeaways: • Each adult child can cost around €15k–€20k per year in ongoing…

  46. The Real Cost & Value of Financial Advice in Ireland

    · 31 min · Episode 349

    You've probably wondered: what does financial advice actually cost in Ireland, and is it worth it? Indeed, many people are also probably wondering if they are actually paying for advice, who may or may not be getting…

  47. Annuity vs ARF: What's Best for a €1 Million Pension Pot in Ireland?

    · 38 min

    If you're retiring in Ireland with around €1 million in pension savings, one of the biggest questions you'll face is whether to take income from an ARF (Approved Retirement Fund) or to buy an annuity. In this episode,…

  48. How To Invest Your Pension at 50 (Make €1m extra in 10 years!?)

    · 28 min

    In this week's podcast, I talk about investing your pension at 50. Turning 50 is a wake-up call for your pension. It's not about panic - it's about planning smart. Here's what matters most: Key Points: • At 50, your…

  49. Unregulated Investments in Ireland: Fees, Lessons & What to Avoid

    · 31 min

    In this week's podcast, I unpack the growing issue of unregulated investments in Ireland — from headline-grabbing collapses to the hidden risks facing everyday investors. Discover why so many well-intentioned savers…

  50. Don't Be The Magpie, And Achieve Better Investment Returns

    · 27 min

    In this week's podcast, we dive into why so many investors underperform the very funds they invest in. Drawing on Morningstar's Mind the Gap 2025 research, we explore how "magpie behaviour" — chasing shiny new…

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