MENU Warning! This little-known State Pension rule change could halve your retirement income overnight Harvey Jones | Saturday, 29th June, 2019 The content of this article was relevant at the time of publishing. Circumstances change continuously and caution should therefore be exercised when relying upon any content contained within this article. Image source: Getty Images Despite its limitations, the State Pension still forms the bedrock of most people’s retirement planning. The first problem is, it only pays £8,767.20 a year, which is barely a third of the average full-time salary. Beware falling income There’s another problem. If you’re in a couple and your partner dies, their State Pension now dies with them. If you rely entirely on the State Pension, this could immediately slash your household income by half, according to a new warning from insurer Royal London. 5 Stocks For Trying To Build Wealth After 50 Markets around the world are reeling from the coronavirus pandemic… and with so many great companies trading at what look to be ‘discount-bin’ prices, now could be the time for savvy investors to snap up some potential bargains. But whether you’re a newbie investor or a seasoned pro, deciding which stocks to add to your shopping list can be a daunting prospect during such unprecedented times. Fortunately, The Motley Fool UK analyst team have short-listed five companies that they believe STILL boast significant long-term growth prospects despite the global upheaval… We’re sharing the names in a special FREE investing report that you can download today. And if you’re 50 or over, we believe these stocks could be a great fit for any well-diversified portfolio. Click here to claim your free copy now! It wasn’t always this way. Some bereaved spouses could claim an enhanced pension based on their partner’s National Insurance record. But this entitlement was swept away when the new State Pension was introduced in April 2016. Married couples who retire after that date no longer inherit a State Pension when their spouse dies, so the survivor’s household income could plummet. Women are hardest hit, because they typically have fewer company pensions or other savings in their own name. Single life annuity trap They will be hit even harder if their husband bought a single life annuity which stops paying out when he dies. A joint life annuity pays a lower starting income but will continue to give a bereaved spouse 50% of that for life. It’s all horribly complex. But if you are worried, it’s worth checking whether you will inherit your partner’s company and personal pensions should they die. There is one more thing you can do. Reduce your reliance on the State Pension by saving for the future under your own name. Get saving now! If you have access to a company pension, resist the temptation to opt out. Then top it up by saving in a company pension, or Stocks and Shares ISA. The ISA option is so attractive because it allows you to invest in pretty much any stock or fund you wish, and then take all your returns free of income tax and capital gains tax. If you don’t know where to start, you could sign up to a low-cost online investment platform which allows you buy shares from just £25 a month, or lump sums of as little as £100. Once you have done that, you need to start building a balanced portfolio with exposure to a mix of UK shares and funds, and global investments as well. Start investing today Perhaps the simplest way to start is to buy a low-cost exchange traded fund (ETF), such as the iShares Core FTSE 100 UCITS ETF, which simply tracks the performance of the UK benchmark index of top 100 stocks, with a tiny annual fee of just 0.07%. You could then balance this by investing in medium-sized UK companies through another low-cost ETF, HSBC FTSE 250 UCITS ETF, which has a slightly higher ongoing charge of 0.35%. That could give you a bedrock to your portfolio which you could then supplement with individual shares, such as oil major BP and global mining giant Rio Tinto. You might soon discover that investing can be fun, which should encourage you to put even more money away. If you do this, the pain of bereavement won’t be made worse by that subsequent financial shock. Is this little-known company the next ‘Monster’ IPO? Right now, this ‘screaming BUY’ stock is trading at a steep discount from its IPO price, but it looks like the sky is the limit in the years ahead. Because this North American company is the clear leader in its field which is estimated to be worth US$261 BILLION by 2025. The Motley Fool UK analyst team has just published a comprehensive report that shows you exactly why we believe it has so much upside potential. But I warn you, you’ll need to act quickly, given how fast this ‘Monster IPO’ is already moving. Click here to see how you can get a copy of this report for yourself today Harvey Jones has no position in any of the shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has no position in any of the shares mentioned. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. 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