Help! What's the best way to deal with zombies?

MacsReturns

After a few years' head-in-sand non-planning with my pensions, I'm wondering what's the best way to proceed?

The salient points:

Two zombie pension funds - Friends Provident 'Stewardship' PPP. Transfer value £1300;
Phoenix POP TV £8500
I'm 46, opted back into S2P a couple of years ago.

Waiting on a State Pension forecast... though I should make the 30 years' contributions before retirement age.

Neither pension policy appears to be 'performing', so the question is really what's the best to do:

1) Just forget about them til I'm 55 and take the lump sum(s)?
2) Find another policy and transfer them both into it?
3) Admit it's a minefield, they're a mess, and call an IFA?
4) Any other suggestions?

I've tried garnering ideas from the forums, but now my head's spinning and my eyes are bleeding. And searching for 'zombies' brings up some wierd threads

bendix

MacsReturns wrote: »

After a few years' head-in-sand non-planning with my pensions, I'm wondering what's the best way to proceed?

The salient points:

Two zombie pension funds - Friends Provident 'Stewardship' PPP. Transfer value £1300;
Phoenix POP TV £8500
I'm 46, opted back into S2P a couple of years ago.

Waiting on a State Pension forecast... though I should make the 30 years' contributions before retirement age.

Neither pension policy appears to be 'performing', so the question is really what's the best to do:

1) Just forget about them til I'm 55 and take the lump sum(s)?
2) Find another policy and transfer them both into it?
3) Admit it's a minefield, they're a mess, and call an IFA?
4) Any other suggestions?

I've tried garnering ideas from the forums, but now my head's spinning and my eyes are bleeding. And searching for 'zombies' brings up some wierd threads

They're hardly a mess. So far as I can see you have two funds worth nearly £10k - what's the problem? You know they exist and you can choose to do whatever you want with them.

There is no right or wrong thing to do - what do you WANT to do?

Either way, if this is all you have by way of pension, then you seriously need to look at boosting them pretty damn quick.

If it was me, I'd be consolidating them into a new fund and making some pretty serious monthly contributions. You've only got 20 years to accrue a decent sum.

What are you able to save for your pension each month?

dunstonh

Two zombie pension funds - Friends Provident 'Stewardship' PPP. Transfer value £1300;

Friends Prov stewardship fund is not a zombie fund. You could call their with profits fund a zombie fund but not the unit linked funds. the fact you have the stewardship fund available means you should have the rest of their internal fund range available and possibly an external fund range as well depending on the version of pension you have.

Neither pension policy appears to be 'performing',

Compared to what?

A lot of the phoenix plans have guarantees on them. Although in some cases the guarantees are useless as they have terms you are never going to use (e.g. income annually in arrears with no guarantee period). So, before you do anything you need to find out if there are guarantees and how they are paid.

All pensions should be reviewed periodically. Products change, pricing changes, investments change. An analysis of the existing plans compared to modern alternatives could find its worth changing or better off staying put. Persoanlly, if they are the only two funds you have then I would want to make changes.

westy23

I find shooting them in the head works.
but depends on what game

MacsReturns

Thanks for the replies (and the lols westy )

Some good counter-questions raised, I'll definitely have a look at the question of guarantees...

As to what I want... hmmm. Perhaps a bit more background - I'm not very confident regarding the long-term stability of the financial sector. Looking on a twenty-year horizon IMO there are going to be more ructions that could make the last couple of years look tame, and I don't buy 'green shoots' talk, I'm in the 'W' camp.

By instinct and inclination I prefer mutuals to PLCs. That's why I was with FP originally. All my banking, mortgage and life assurance is with mutuals, and those institutions have fared quite well the last couple of years. I don't like seeing my fund-holders bought out every other year, especially by bodies whose prime responsibility is to share-holders rather than policy holders or members. May or may not be rational and I accept it's a value judgement on my part.

I'd like more control over how the funds are invested.

My priority right now is getting mortgage-free, and I'm putting most of my savings budget into overpayments, but also ISA and some tangible assets. Mortgage should be gone next year assuming I live long enough for my life assurance to mature, in which case I'll free up ~£300 pcm, and maybe have bit of a lump sum left, too, but as that is dependent on final bonus I can't sensibly put a figure on that yet. If I let the mortgage run, it's another 9 years on the treadmill, but I would have the entire LA payout.

An analysis of the existing plans compared to modern alternatives could find its worth changing or better off staying put.

So, basically the devil is in the detail. Better get looking at details I guess.

They are the only pension funds I have, beyond state basic and S2P. Caught between the devil of investment risk and the deep blue sea of legislation risk.

Thanks for the input.

dunstonh

I'm not very confident regarding the long-term stability of the financial sector. Looking on a twenty-year horizon IMO there are going to be more ructions that could make the last couple of years look tame, and I don't buy 'green shoots' talk, I'm in the 'W' camp.

None of which has any impact on the pensions as such. The pension is just a tax wrapper. A container for your investments. You can hold basically what you like in a pension now.

By instinct and inclination I prefer mutuals to PLCs.

Hardly any left in the insurance sector and the PLCs offer better products. Mutual or PLC has nothing to do with investment returns in unit linked funds.

I'd like more control over how the funds are invested.

How much more? Stakeholder level, personal pension level or SIPP level?

MacsReturns

How much more? Stakeholder level, personal pension level or SIPP level?

I really don't know what the pros & cons are on those three, what does each have to offer? I'm sure you've probably explained it thousands of times for others, so I won't be offended if you just link a thread and say "read this"