Lapsed Personal Pension Advice needed

bjkilcoyne

I was made redundant at the end of 2005 and a few months later stopped paying into my personal pension plan with CIS. Foolishly I didn't investigate this fully and didn't realise I only had 12 months to reiinstate and then would have to pay all missed payments. I now have only a month left to reinstate the policy.

I am still not working full time and cannot afford to pay the catch up figure. I've heard that I may not get as good growth on a new scheme than I would by continuing the old one. Is this true? Is it worthwhile looking into ways of finding the catch up figure or not? Or should I be seeing this as an oportunity to reassess retirement planning altogether?

The only other saving I have is a Standard Life policy taken out when I contracted out of SERPs many years ago - I contracted back in 2 years ago.

Any and all advice greatfuly received but I really just need an answer on the lapsed pension question.

Thanks

dunstonh

CIS pensions are pretty awful anyway so it could be a blessing in disguise.

I've heard that I may not get as good growth on a new scheme than I would by continuing the old one. Is this true?

I reviewed a CIS pension a few weeks back and it was something like 4 years of zero bonus and never made it above 5%. Awful. So, in answer to your question, no it is not true.

Or should I be seeing this as an oportunity to reassess retirement planning altogether?

yes

bjkilcoyne

dunstonh wrote:

CIS pensions are pretty awful anyway so it could be a blessing in disguise.
I reviewed a CIS pension a few weeks back and it was something like 4 years of zero bonus and never made it above 5%. Awful. So, in answer to your question, no it is not true.

Thanks for the feed back - does that mean I should dump the CIS policy and transfer the fund somewhere else? If so how do I go about that. I have only a short time to decide what to do with it and am not sure what the options are or if any decision made now is irretrievable.

Also I have a contracted out pension with Standard Life, part in the With Profits Fund and part in the Millenium with profits fund. This seems to be performing better that the other one - I've paid a little less in ands its projections are higher, but not by very much. Should I be reveiwing that as well?

I have more or less decided that I need to consult an IFA but am trying to get as much info as possible first. I assume that that is the best way to get maximum benefit for the fee. Can you direct me to any sourse of advice on how to prepare for an IFA consultation on pensions - what info to get hold of first, etc?