Skandia believes people should combine both fixed and individual protection to secure a larger pension pot and protect their savings.
Changes this week by HM Revenue and Customs allow people to apply for both types of protection and reduced the lifetime allowance from £1.5m to £1.25m from April 2014.
Fixed protection allows people to protect up to £1.5m but no
further contributions can be made to the scheme.
The only exception is for people in final salary schemes who have the option to stay in the scheme so long as the capital value of any added benefit does not exceed the annual rate of increase in CPI inflation. If it does exceed this rate then the fixed protection will be lost and the client will no longer have a lifetime allowance of £1.5m.
In such circumstances, people could benefit from also choosing individual protection as this would ensure future flexibility.
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People with a pension funds valued between £1.25m and £1.5m are eligible for individual protection.
This could avoid a lifetime allowance tax charge if the fixed protection became void. It would also ensure flexibility if the person wanted to start making pension contributions again which could also void fixed protection.
Adrian Walker, Skandia's pension expert, said: "Anyone making the decision to apply for fixed protection should consider also applying for individual protection if they have between £1.25m and £1.5m in their pension savings by the end of this tax year.
"It will provide a guaranteed underpin to the level of savings that will not be subject to an additional Lifetime Allowance tax charge should something happen to void the fixed protection.
"Individual protection may not provide the equivalent level of protection offered by the fixed protection route but can be a valuable safety net, especially where the value of those savings is well above the £1.25m lower threshold."