Pension Help

sallywill

hi, can anyone help me? i have had a pension sat still for approx. 15 years and need to start it up again. what is the best route to find out how much i need to be paying into it etc. i am 40 next year and my husband is 43 and both in the same boat. i have just given the company who we have the pensions with for some advice and was told i needed to contact an independant financial advisor as they are not able to give me any advice. they will only give me information about my pension. any comments would be appreciated. thanks

dunstonh

what is the best route to find out how much i need to be paying into it etc.

advice on how and what you should be paying can only come from you working it out yourself or financial advisers.

i have just given the company who we have the pensions with for some advice and was told i needed to contact an independant financial advisor as they are not able to give me any advice. they will only give me information about my pension. any comments would be appreciated. thanks

That is the correct response. It is to stop unqualified people giving opinions which could be taken as advice in error. You were referred to an IFA rather than a tied agent due to the higher standard IFA operate under.

Chances are that a 15 year old pension wouldnt be suitable for you for new contributions. That assumes that they even allow you to restart it. You need a review of that pension as well as a review of you retirement planning.

You can find an IFA in your area by going to www.unbiased.co.uk and do a post code search. Do not filter by qualification as that is rather flawed and only serves in removing people who are perfectly able to do the job required. Avoid the reponsese with 0845/0870 telephone numbers of an contact address that isnt local as these tend to indicate salesforces and you should never get advice from a salesforce regardless of its IFA/tied status.

EdInvestor

If you want more info here, post some info about the pensions: this is what you need to know before doing anything anyway:

Company name
current value
transfer value
annual charges payable
fund(s) the money is invested in, what other choices available
any guarantees applicable ( guaranteed annuity, GMP, GIR)