Wife unsure as to Pension options?

townfan63

Hi There,
Is anyone able to offer any advice to my wife regarding pension options?
She is not currently paying into a pension as the company she works for does not offer one. She has not paid into a pension since she joined them 3 years ago.
Prior to that she paid into a company pension (now frozen) and prior to that she had a Private Pension with Norwich Union (also frozen).
She now wants to start saving again towards her retirement but is not sure which way to go - should she 'unfreeze' the existing Private Pension or take out a new Stakeholder Pension or perhaps even consider paying into an ISA instead (she currently has an ISA but only pays in about £600 per year).
She only works part-time and we aren't talking about major investment - perhaps £40 - £60 per month!
Any advice greatly appreciated!
Thanks
townfan63

dunstonh

She now wants to start saving again towards her retirement but is not sure which way to go - should she 'unfreeze' the existing Private Pension or take out a new Stakeholder Pension or perhaps even consider paying into an ISA instead (she currently has an ISA but only pays in about £600 per year).

The old NU pension is probably obsolete now and it is unlikely she can restart it. Although its an option to investigate as some do allow recommencement and if its one with guaranteed annuity rates, it could be quite valuable.

If that option isnt valid, then she has the choice of paying into a personal pension, stakeholder pension, SIPP or ISA. I think its fair to eliminate personal pension and SIPP as the contribution is too small. That leaves stakeholder or equity ISA. Both of these have pros and cons depending on your goals and views and there have been a couple of pension vs ISA threads recently which you could look at and decide for yourself.

townfan63

Thanks for your response.
One further question:

I think the NU pension is still 'alive' as she has recently received a letter advising of what the effect of 'A' day will make to her plan, and that seems to indicate that the plan is still active and that she can still pay in to it (she was, until fairly recently having 'contracted out' payments paid into it).
It's a With-Profits Plan but I'm not sure if it's got guaranteed annuity rates.

If she can start paying into this plan again is it likely to be a better option than a new Stakeholder as she will not have any arrangement fees etc to pay as it already exists?

EdInvestor

Could be possible.

Write and ask what are the charges and what are the alternative fund options.If there are no guarantees attached she would probably be better to switch to other funds which might perform better in the long term.

If the charges are high and they won't do a deal to reduce them,and fund options are poor, she may be better to transfer the money.

You can see check the funds' ratings here. The inhouse NU ones will be under "ABI funds" and any external ones under "AMI funds".