Am starting planning for retirement income and I could use pointers. I'm a dual US-UK citizen, my wife is UK. I have three retirement accounts, all defined contribution - two with one company (an old employer scheme and a traditional IRA) and one with another (another employer scheme). My plan is to use the old employer scheme to purchase annuity - that plus US social security should bring my income up to the higher rate threshold, which together with my wife's pension should be sufficient for comfortable living for us.
The other two accounts I would consider "pots of money". Ideally I'd like to liquidate both - we are considering a move to a larger house and could use chunks of money -, but here I am unsure how much value could be realised after tax. I have been reading about tax-free lump sum payment, but it's not yet clear how that would map to my set-up.
Certainly, for a solid answer specific to my case, I should seek advice of a tax specialist; but I would appreciate a broad picture answer as well as things I should know to tamper my optimism.
Thank you all!