can i swap my swiss life personal pension plan to another company

sam_stewart

i have been cotributing to a swiss life personal pension plan since 1989. my yearly statement shows that when i retire in 2019 my pension will pay me 173.00 per month. this does not seem worth carrying on with has anyone any suggestions for a better company to transfer to?

dunstonh

Yes you can switch provider although costs would need to be investigated.

Also, the projections supplied to you are industry standard. They have to be either Monetary Growth rates which project at 5% and 9% or 7% alone or SMPI basis which is 7% with a deduction of 2.5% for inflation. Some companies will use lower rates if the potential of their fund means that achieving those rates is unlikely (e.g. Pearl). Retirement annuity contracts (before 1988) will usually use 4%, 6% and 8% monetary growth projections.

If you get a like for like projection from a new company, you may find the figure is the same, lower or higher. However, it is important to compare like for like.

Another issue with projections is that say it uses monetary growth rates at 7%. That really means nothing. Your fund could be consistently performing at 15% a year or 2% a year but the projection still shows 7%.

There are also often enhanced terms or guarantees built into old plans which would need checking out as you may be giving away a good pension to go into a worse one. Not all pre 2001 pensions are higher charging or better than post 2001 pensions.