can husband and wife combine pension pots

roaming_2

My husband is convinced that it is possible to combine my pension pot and his ...built up as FAVCs ....to get a more favourable annuity rate. This isn`t a huge worry because we both have occupational pensions but would possibly have made a difference of about a couple of thousand pounds per year . I set up my annuity last year and took a lump sum of 25% and he has now decided to do the same but is cross with me because he is convinced we should have combined them and is also convinced that I was told this was the case .( I`m equally sure I wasn`t told this ! ) Can anyone settle this marital dispute ? I know a person can combine their own pension pots to get a more favourable rate but is it really true that husband and wife can combine theirs ? I would really appreciate some definitive answer to this before I am driven mad . I might add in my defence that when I set up my annuity he decided that he couldn`t be bothered to do his at the time ....so all the annoyance is in hindsight !

jem16

roaming wrote: »

is it really true that husband and wife can combine theirs ?

No it is not true.

Only time a pension could transfer from one to another is during a divorce.

hugheskevi

Your husband may be getting confused about single-annuities (when you die, the payments cease) and joint-annuities (when you die, a surviving spouse continues to be paid some or all of the annuity until they die).

Either way, as jem16 says, you cannot combine pots to purchase an annuity. The survivor benefits are just a feature of the annuity you purchase with your own pension fund.

lvader

Get divorced and then re-marry.

roaming_2

Thanks everyone.....I was right for the first time in 40 years !
Very interesting suggestion Ivander....will give it some thought .

jamesd

It is possible for him to get more money, though. Use an IFA (see unbiased.co.uk) to find the best available deal on the market. It's uncommon for the place where the money is invested to also offer the best annuity rate. The IFA will be paid the commission that the annuity company would just keep for itself if an IFA wasn't used. This is particularly important if he has any condition that might affect his life expectancy, from smoking to being overweight or having heart trouble or high blood pressure.

It's not necessarily true that larger annuity purchases pay more than smaller purchases, so even if it had been possible to combine it might not have produced an improvement.

Loughton_Monkey

Yes, I can confirm that 'transferring' pensions between husband and wife is totally and utterly impossible.

It is possible, though to achieve roughly the same thing by the purchase of a "Joint Annuity" with 100% payment to spouse. In actual fact, the rates are surprisingly high - and tend to be only slightly lower than an equivalent annuity rate on a single female life. This reflects the much higher mortality rate of men.

As has been said, annuity rates tend to be the same, whatever the purchase amount (within reason).

purch

The 'confuzzlation' may have been caused by the idea of a "family" SIPP that was being touted a few years ago, by HL and others.

The way they were 'selling' the concept would have allowed the combining of pension pots belonging to different family members.

Loughton_Monkey

purch wrote: »

The 'confuzzlation' may have been caused by the idea of a "family" SIPP that was being touted a few years ago, by HL and others.

The way they were 'selling' the concept would have allowed the combining of pension pots belonging to different family members.

I can't ever see this happening. At least not with higher rate relief. No son would ever save at 25% relief if his father could do it 'for him' at 40%.

zygurat789

I think your husband is right to be cross with you but for the wrong reason. You will read on here that planning for pensions is very important and this includes the planning of the purchase of an annuity.
We worked out the income of each surviving spouse, before the purchase of annuities. In our case the female had the higher income so, with the female annuity we purchased a joint life annuity with 100% for surviving spouse and with the male annuity we purchased a single life annuity.
Thus producing the highest available income in all three circumstances.