January 31st is a calendar date that never fails to focus the minds of the self-employed and their tax advisers: it is the last day on which they must file their income tax returns, and by which they can take advantage of the chance to reduce their tax bill for the year by investing in tax deductible investments like a personal retirement contract.

The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, raised the tempo of the debate about personal pensions - and the merit of taking responsibility for one's own retirement - when he proposed in the last budget to improve the funding regulations (based on age) and finally to abolish the requirements for the compulsory purchase of an annuity for both the self-employed and those in occupational schemes at retirement.

Over the next few weeks, Standard Life and Scottish Provident will both be promoting their range of pensions including new "protection" funds which have been designed for cautious investors or those close to retirement who have been increasingly concerned about the poor annuity rates on offer. The Scottish Provident fund, for example, offers either a 100 per cent or 97 per cent guarantee on any fund growth on a rolling quarterly basis, depending on your risk preference. The Standard Life Annuity Protection Fund, which came out late last November is designed to protect scheme members against the changing cost of buying a pension on retirement by tracking the cost of annuities.

The Minister's proposal on annuity purchase will take some of the pressure off future annuitants, but there will continue to be many people who, for financial or health reasons, will be forced to commit their pension fund to purchasing an annuity earlier rather than later in their retirement.

CGU Life, the British mutual which entered the Irish market for the first time early last year, has also finally launched the first of its pensions this week, just in time for the run-up to the January 31st tax deadline.

The company, which is the second largest life company since Commercial Union and General Accident merged, has more than £110 billion (139.671) under management and is among the top performing life and pensions providers in Britain. It decided to bring out a personal pension that can be purchased with single or regular contributions or both.

For regular contributors, the entry cost is 5 per cent but no bid-offer spread - there are no capital or initial units which can affect the early value of the fund. Set-up charges are spread over the first 10 years of the policy which suggests that anyone who buys into this pension will not be as disadvantaged as someone who takes a standard front-loaded pension contract with full commission.

However, the offer of a loyalty bonus of 0.75 per cent of the fund times the number of years of contributions at retirement, provided the contract has been held for at least 10 years, means that if you wish to benefit from the bonus you will need to be pretty certain that you will still be making regular payments over the longer term. The annual management charge is a fairly standard 0.75 per cent, but is effectively refunded by any loyalty bonus.

People making single contributions have no bid-offer spread to pay but there is a £40 entry charge. The normal allocation for amounts between £3,000£4,999 is 4 per cent (ie. 96 per cent allocation) but this is being reduced to 3 per cent for the launch. Similarly all other allocations are being increased by 1 per cent. Single contributions of more than £10,000 will have 100 per cent allocation to the fund and more than £15,000, 101 per cent allocation.

Comparing this contract to others on the market requires the expertise of an independent financial adviser and has never been more necessary as virtually all the major pension players try to find ways to reduce their charges and improve fund allocations. Aside from projecting the kind of investment value that a pension like this may produce in 10, 15 or 20 years, your adviser will also be able to take a closer look at the underlying investments behind the pension fund - a key element in any pension purchase.