Retirement you can plan for and start cashing out so you're not locked into a pension fund. Also by retirement you would hope to have a few options to choose from. The other shit you can't plan for (hence my desire to hang onto the zombie apocalypse shelter)
Most people i know have retirement sprung on them by virtue of a redundancy package. If your pot is 40% down in peak valuation it wouldn't be a good time to take you 25% tax free lump sum or buy an annuity.
No wonder companies were desperate to get rid of the 'gold plated' pensions.
Retirement you can plan for and start cashing out so you're not locked into a pension fund. Also by retirement you would hope to have a few options to choose from. The other shit you can't plan for (hence my desire to hang onto the zombie apocalypse shelter)