Transfer or leave

goingonholiday_2

Hoping someone can make things a bit clearer! I have a pension from a previous employer, I contributed and the employer contributed and it was a personal pension that the employers FA arranged. I contributed for around 3 or 4 years and stopped when I left the company about 7 years ago. The plans are with Skandia and there are 2. The first one has a value of around £3k and the second a value of around £12k. I think the only reason there are 2 is because the FA switched me to the second one because the charges were less.

The company I moved to about 7 years ago have a final salary scheme and I don't plan to add anything to these 2 old plans. My final salary scheme won't accept transfers in. Both plans are contracted out and if it means anything the references from Skandia begin PP4 and PP5.

I don't like the lack of information from Skandia and want to have a choice of funds. I realise the amounts are small but is it worthwhile transferring and I guess I need to know costs / charges to know whether it's worth transferring but don't know what to ask Skandia - they don't seem geared up to speak to the public only FA's.

Any help to make things clearer would be really useful, thanks in advance.

dunstonh

I don't like the lack of information from Skandia and want to have a choice of funds.

The PP4 and PP5 contracts are not the best Skandia pensions currently available. I used to have the PP5 and at the time it was best on the market. However, I internally transferred it to Skandias collective retirement account (CRA).

However, the PP4 and PP5 have over 400 funds available (the CRA is a fund supermarket and has over 1000 unit trust funds). Surely that is enough funds for you?

- they don't seem geared up to speak to the public only FA's.

the PP4 and PP5 are geared for IFAs. The CRA still needs an IFA to set it up but does allow online switching and valuations by the account holder. So after that you dont need the IFA.

If you dont want to use an IFA then you will have to look at the DIY options.

EdInvestor

Ask Skandia for a current value and a transfer value (to see if there are any exit penalties).Also ask what annnual and other charges you are paying.

If you want yto manage the money yourself and invest in funds, compare the charges at the Skandia offering ( the CRA plan may be worth checking) with those at a discount SIPP provider like https://www.h-l.co.uk. They will offer much the same fund choice, so the charges will probably be the decider along with the transfer of control to you (which makes a big difference in fact).

dunstonh

For reference, the CRA can undercut the HL SIPP if you have an IFA willing to do it. A fee based IFA would but with the fund being only 15k, its probably not cost effective unless you plan to add to it. Older PP4/5 contracts have access to internal funds and external. The internal funds can be under 0.75% amc equivalent. Plus, there is 5 year bonus on the PP5 of 1%.

goingonholiday_2

Thanks for the replies. I'll give Skandia a ring. I would prefer to take charge of this myself and didn't think an FA would be interested because it was a small amount. I've emailed a couple of questions to HL (looked at them previously) so will probably end up transferring. Thanks