With UK pensions providing a very bleak outlook in the main, other investment vehicles are often looked into by people trying to give themselves a quality of life when they finally leave the working world.

Many financial products impact on personal allowances, which for many defeats the object of investing in a different investment vehicle. The stocks and shares ISA however, changes the game as it has some quite wonderful tax rules. They are:

Dividends are not subject to additional tax

Capital Gains are not taxed

Bonds interest is not taxed

Income, capital gains, or trades are not considered taxable income so they do not have to be reported to HMRC.

As stated before, personal allowances are not affected for people whose income is around £22,900, at least at the moment. Other systems often fail miserably in this regard.

With a stocks and shares ISA, the pension performance though still hugely important, loses its edge slightly. Though it should be noted that as its name suggests, the stocks and shares ISA is still stock market dependent. Most financial professionals however will tell you that not having all the money tied up in one fund are a good idea, especially given the fluctuating nature of the world economy.

The advantages a stocks and shares ISA give an investor, especially when running side by side with a pension, provide the investor with a better chance of a decent quality of life than by having all the money tied up with the pension.

If you are approaching retirement and are concerned about what your current pension or pensions are going to yield, you may want to take a look at a stocks and shares ISA, as it may offer you not so much an alternative, but more of a backup to the pension should it under perform.

Many people enlist the help of banks and financial advisors where financial investments are concerned, and though there is obvious wisdom in doing this, many clients pay for decisions that they could easily make themselves. Many financial choices just need a little thought, and some companies have acknowledged this.

If you are looking to invest in a stocks and shares ISA, then you should use a company that is prepared to take a hands off approach and only step in when financial advice is truly needed.