Frozen Pensions prior to emmigration

jimbo076

Hi,
I have these three pensions, all frozen at the moment as I'm not working, awaiting emmigration to Canada in January 09.

Company Pension £11,300
Scottish Widows £30,000
Scottish Life £5,300

My questions are:

Should I consolidate them?
Is it worth making a one-off contribution before I leave the country?

Any advice would most gratefully recieved, thank you in anticipation.

EdInvestor

jimbo076 wrote: »

Company Pension £11,300

Is this a final salary or a money purchase pension? Is this 11.3k a fund value, or what you would expect to get p.a. when you retire?

Scottish Widows £30,000
Scottish Life £5,300

What kind of pensions are these - personal pensions or former group personal pensions, Section 32s?

What fund(s) is the money invested in?

jimbo076

Hi EdInvestor,
Thanks for looking at this post, I appreciate your interest.

The £11.3k is a company money purchase pension and is the current fund value. I have no control over what this money is invested in.

The Scottish Widows £30k is a private pension, invested as follows:

45% All share tracker
25% Property
30% SW Schroder Managed

In April this year the value of this was £41.5k total fund value so it's lost a lot.

The Scottish Life is another company pension invested as follows:

Property 17.5%
Long Corporate Bond 7.5%
SL Global Man Eq Core ( BGI Global Equity 60/40)

I can adjust these funds.

I hope this information helps, thanks again.

EdInvestor

There wouldn't appear to be any reason not to consolidate them and it would be easier to manage them from abroad if the money was all in one place.

If you have additional money earmarked for pensions it might be better to use it pay class 2 voluntary contributions to keep up your right to the state pension. This is the best pension "buy" around, a real bargain.

https://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk

jimbo076

Thanks for this, it really helps and I appreciate the thought you've given this.

Cook_County

It may be sensible to transfer them to an immigrant trust via a QROPS. Do remember these are not tax efficient for Canadian residents.