A career as an artist does not come with a pension plan. 
You need to think about how you will cope financially when you need to retire.
This page aims to:
  • allow you to begin thinking about retirement and pension planning;
  • point you in the direction of relevant reading material
  • help you find places where you can get more advice
  • provide a starting point for discussions with expert advisers
Contents (below):
  • Do artists ever retire?
  • Do artists ever make provision for a pension? Includes a POLL and poll results
  • Using art as a pension pot - and The Artists Pension Trust
  • Pensions: self-employment vs.  paid employment
  • Changes to pension planning
  • How much state pension will you get (UK)?
  • Pensions for Artists in Ireland

Artists and retirement - ​Do artists ever retire?
​

Being an artist means no official retirement age.
When you're self-employed you can carry on for as long as you are able.

​Some are tempted to think you'll be able to carry on working as an artist - and selling work - for a lot longer than may in fact be possible.

So there is a need to consider how you can make provision for your retirement.

Do artists retire?
A number of artists work well into old age - and do good work.

Others have eyesight which fails, limbs which seize up and dexterity which eventually becomes poor.
A Wide Range of Perspectives on Retirement

The gallerist Edward Winkleman started an interesting open thread back in 2011 on the topic of Retiring as an Artist | Open Thread. The comments he received suggested a very wide variety of perspectives - which certainly suggests that the traditional notion might be true for some but certainly not everybody:
  • people suggested that artists' later works are often the best they ever produce
  • notions that a creative activity will always continue when it is aligned with an internal impulse to create
  • the traditional identity of "the real artist" can be enormously inhibiting to the notion of being able to give up or slow down
  • a view that being an artist is very tiring. You're under horrendous pressure to produce and sell art
  • some artists who have worked really hard for 50 years would like permission to slow down
  • for some artists retirement means not having to produce art to sell and not having to provide art for exhibitions
  • queries about whether artists can ever afford to retire
  • a wish that some of the artists who have made it big would retire to give others a chance to sell their work!

Do artists ever make provision for a pension?
​

Most artists have no pension plan and are completely reliant on state support - or a spouse who has a pension plan.

Typical reasons why are as follows:
  • affordability - people don't earn enough to contribute to a pension scheme
  • an artist is the only contributor to a private pension scheme - there is no top-up from an employer
  • ignorance of how pensions work
  • they don't understand any of the websites or leaflets about pension planning
  • an assumption that money left by parents will provide a pension (forgetting nursing home fees may swallow the lot!)
  • a belief that ignoring a problem might make it go away!
Picture
Katsushika Hokusai, in an 1839 self-portrait - age 79
Picture
Rembrandt self-portrait - as St. Paul

Artists who died in poverty

There's a lengthy history of artists who were starving during their lifetime - and who weren't too great at planning for their old age and a time when they could no longer make art

Rembrandt (1606-1669) lived beyond his means during his lifetime, became a bankrupt and died in Amsterdam in 1669 as a poor man and was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave

Vermeer (1632-1675) His wife attributed his early death at age 42 to financial stress. He lived on the edge of poverty for most of his life and in the final year became burdened by a large loan taken out after very poor economic conditions stopped his patrons paying for his work.

Hokusai (1760 – 1849) lived to a great age and produced most of his artwork after the age of 60. However in 1839, as his career was beginning to fade a fire destroyed most of the artwork in his studio.

Van Gogh (1853-1890) His paintings might be worth a lot now but he only sold one painting during his lifetime, depended on his brother for funds and died penniless​ age 37.

​Contemporary artists are no better at pension planning

Various surveys reveal that very few artists have made provision for their pension.
Only 16% of artists surveyed paid in to private pensions. Given that 50% of artists are self- employed this presents a significant question as to how professional artists will support themselves once they reach retirement age.
The Big Artist Survey 2011 
Key findings so far include:

  • The Pensions for Artists research commissioned by Arts Council England in 2007 showed that 70% of artists (across all artforms) didn’t have a private pension. (In the UK working population as a whole, 44% don’t have a private pension.)

    It also showed that affordability is the key factor in whether artists save for their pensions, and that artists are twice as likely as the working population as a whole to earn under £10,000 a year.
  • However, given that 50% of artists nowadays are self-employed and hence are the sole contributor to their own savings. This presents a significant challenge in creating an affordable, well-adopted scheme for visual and applied artists.
    A-N | Artists’ pensions research update (December 2012)

​However the situation in some countries is rather better.
A number of countries provide social security measures for artists around pensions and retirement. For example, special pension schemes for artists are available in Germany (via the KSK), Italy (via ENPALS), France, Finland and Austria
The Living and Working Conditions of Artists in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (April 2010)

How to fund a pension if you are an artist
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Self-employment versus Paid Employment

The chances are if you are self-employed you only started to think about pension planning very late in the day. 

The problem is that the later you leave it before you start to think about pensions, the bigger the contributions you have to make to create any sort of pension at all.

Little wonder therefore that a number of artists think there's a lot to be said for having paid employment to support their art practice e.g. a regular job - such as being an art teacher. This then allows you to build up a pension pot in terms of employment related pension planning.

Using art as a pension pot
​

Many artists simply use the proceeds from the sales of saved works to support themselves once they slow down or stop making art altogether.
Alan Bamberger - in the USA advocates reserving artwork and spacing out sales over time. He explains how and why in The Benefits of Saving Art - Someday It'll be Your Retirement Fund...and Maybe More. This highlights how:
  • artists should never get rid of their art
  • art collectors value the work of successful artists - even the early stuff!
  • not everybody wants your latest creations
  • you can't do a retrospective without examples of your artwork from across the years
The Artists Pension Trust

The Artist Pension Trust is a global organisation, owned and managed by Mutual Art as a mutual assurance scheme. It is based on setting aside artworks in a Pension Trust so as to provide a stream of returns over the long term and spread the benefits of a rising reputation. 

These are articles about it:

Changes to pension planning
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There have been a lot of changes in the field of pensions in the last few years.
Even those in jobs which are relatively secure face the prospect of having to work until they are very old to earn a pension which will be worth a lot less than might have been possible in the past for the somebody doing the same sort of job.

The problem is twofold.
  • Too many people have been promised a pension which isn't actually covered by the actual financial provision they have made.
  • At the same time the returns on investment are at an all time low.
Something has to to give and the reality is that the pensions available are now a lot less attractive than in the past.

And that's how it is for people with jobs!
For those who don't have an employer and don't get their pension pot topped up by employers' contributions, there is an even bigger problem.

That's even before you get to the horrendous language and technical concepts you have to get to grips with when trying to make a decision about the best way forward.

How much state pension will you get in the UK?
​

The new State Pension is a regular payment from the government that you can claim if you reach State Pension age on or after 6 April 2016.

If you reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016, you’ll get the State Pension under the old rules instead.
If you have made no additional provision you will be entitled to a state pension if you have made no additional provision - and only then if you have made NI contributions. 

UK Government: This government website explains how your state pension is calculated in principle
The New State Pension: This is a link to the New State Pension
The UK Government's State Pension Calculator is relevant to those who are paying National Insurance in the UK.This tells you two things
  • how much pension you can get from the State when you become eligible.  
  • the date you will become eligible for a State Pension
Gaps in National Insurance: You can check any gaps in National Insurance Contributions you may have. Gaps affect how much state pension you get.

Pensions for Artists in Ireland
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Visual Arts Ireland have a very useful page on Pensions for Artists with recommendations for an option artists can consider.