All my pals who have retired with a company as opposed to a personal pension have maxed out the tax free 25% cash on retirement date and then taken a smaller pension. Their logic was if they fell under a bus the next day, their smaller pension would stop but the 25% was in their pocket wheras if they took no lump sum and a larger pension the bus would have had the lot.



BTW, early retirement is one of the best things that'll ever happen to you - well not the circumstances of it here obviously but the actual retirement itself.