Left Company, can't freeze or move pension

jamesebaker

Was made redundant from my company after 18 months service. I presumed my pension would be frozen but a month after leaving I received a cheque in the post. I started contributing to the pension after 6 months service (the earliest point at which I could contribute).

I rang the company and they said they could not freeze the pension as it had not been active for a minimum of 2 years, the guy then said that the law is due to be changed and people will be able to freeze pensions with no minumum or at least a reduced minimum period. Is this right?

I can understand losing my company's contributions (although seeing as they made me redundant then maybe this should not happen either) but surely I should be able to freeze or transfer. I really don't want to lose out on my 20% tax relief.

Any help would be greatly received.

dunstonh

I rang the company and they said they could not freeze the pension as it had not been active for a minimum of 2 years, the guy then said that the law is due to be changed and people will be able to freeze pensions with no minumum or at least a reduced minimum period. Is this right?

It is correct.

I can understand losing my company's contributions (although seeing as they made me redundant then maybe this should not happen either) but surely I should be able to freeze or transfer. I really don't want to lose out on my 20% tax relief.

Put the single amount back into a pension and you get your 22% tax relief back again. Sorted.

marylee

My son left his job wth the council aftet 22 months in service to go backpacking. He thought he was going to get a cheque and it has been over a year since he left the council and he has not heard or receive any cheque. I understand syou have to work for them to freeze or move your pension, am I right? He wrote to the Pensions section two weeks ago and has not yet received any reply? Not sure how to chase this and the right person to write to. Thanks

jamesebaker

Any recommendations for a low charging ftse index tracking pension scheme then?

Who would you recommend???

dunstonh

I wouldnt recommend FTSE tracker by itself. FTSE tracker could be ftse100, mid or all share (generally). Each has differences.

For example, over the last 5 years a FTSE100 tracker costing say 0.5% pa. would have given lower returns than a managed UK equity income fund costing 3 times as much. A FTSE 250 fund would have outperformed the UK equity income fund. What is the next 5 years going to do? Nobody knows.

Also, if you use those three different FTSE trackers as examples, they are in different risk profiles, so which is appropriate to you?

If you are looking for cheap, then stakeholder pensions are probably your best bet (although some personal pensions could be cheaper over the long term). Although dont go sticking it all in a FTSE (whatever) tracker. Give it some spread.

Pal

jamesebaker wrote:

Any recommendations for a low charging ftse index tracking pension scheme then?

Who would you recommend???

Sorry James but investment funds of any kind are FSA regulated products. As a result you will not find any recommendations on this site. Suggest you speak to an IFA.

EdInvestor

jamesebaker wrote:

Any recommendations for a low charging ftse index tracking pension scheme then?

Who would you recommend???

To my mind a tracker is a quite unsuitable investment for a pension.

The minimum annual charge you will usually pay on a pension is 1-1.5%, while you can directly invest in a tracker and pay only 0.5%. So it's a waste of money.

Try choosing another type of fund(s) for a pension: commercial property is one type of fund it's always worth checking for at least a part of your pension money. This is because it's difficult to find a good choice of these funds outside a pension, and it's an investment area where the insurers have a lot of experience and seem to know what they are doing

That's not always quite so obvious with other types of investment

Equity Income and corporate bond funds are other areas where there are some good funds at insurers.

Avoid their "Balanced managed" funds.

jamesebaker

Pal, I'm asking for a personal opinion not professional financial advice. People are so uptight about users on this website giving advice based on their own experiences. Just use a disclaimer and be done with it. Those who use these sites are able to make their own judgements.

Pal

I'm afraid not. The danger is that the FSA does not distiguish between people providing advice via a website forum or face to face. Advice is advice. Sorry, but we live in a litigeous world.

Irrespective, anyone's opinions are likely to be based entirely on the past performance (investment, admin or otherwise) of a product that they happened to choose, whether by accident or design. Past performance is completely irrelevant for judging future performance, even when accurately measured, which it wouldn't be on this site anyway because it is not set up for that purpose.

This is a moneysaving site rather than an investment site. If you go to the Motley Fool site you will find lots of people voicing their opinions. You can then come back to this site and figure out the cheapest way of buying the fund that you want to invest in.