Abbey Pension. Is it lost now?

fuzzgun19

Hi all,

My husband had a personal pension with 'Abbey Life' when he lived with his ex partner about 15 years ago, which he had paid into for a few years(about £50 pm).

He has not paid into this pension for approx 9 years.

I wrote to 'Abbey Life' asking what the situation was with this pension and received the following letter from a company called 'Phoenix' (not sure if part of Abbey?).

Has anyone heard pf 'Phoenix', and does this letter mean that my hubby's pension has 'gone' or he isn't entitled to it anymore?

Curious_Moose

I would be amazed if he had paid into a money purchase arrangement for several years and the pot of money had just disappeared.

Ask them to confirm:
1) How much was paid in.
2) What fund it was paid into (unitised or With Profits).
3) How contributions paid over several years can now have no monetary value.
4) Was the pension contracted in or out of SERPS.

Do you have a copy of the original policy document or any other details when the pension was originally set up?

fuzzgun19

Thanks.

He does not have the original policy document unfortunately, as his ex threw out alot of his 'stuff'.

The only other correspondence he has regarding the pension is below.

tyllwyd

I found this about Resolution/Phoenix/Abbey Life
http://www.resolutionplc.com/aboutus_ourhistory.shtml

Curious_Moose

Is it possible he transferred the value of the policy to another pension arrangement? That would explain why it had no monetary value (but I would expect the letter from Phoenix to refer to a transfer and not use the word "lapsed").

fuzzgun19

Curious_Moose wrote: »

Is it possible he transferred the value of the policy to another pension arrangement? That would explain why it had no monetary value (but I would expect the letter from Phoenix to refer to a transfer and not use the word "lapsed").

No, he didn't transfer to another pension, he just stopped paying into it as we couldn't afford it.

I know hardly anything about pensions. What would you suggest we do?

Should I write a letter asking the questions you suggested earlier?

Curious_Moose

Give the customer helpdesk a ring. The bottom line is, he seems to have been paying into a policy for several years and the money should not simply disappear. There may be more to it than the original letter suggests. Unless there was some onerous terms and conditions that stated that the policy would lapse with no value if premiums were not paid for a set period.

By all means ask the questions suggested, but they really should provide a better explanation without you having to ask specific, possibly technical questions, which may not mean that much to you anyway at this point.

tyllwyd

If it was a personal pension mortgage, what has happened to the property that the mortgage was on?

fuzzgun19

tyllwyd wrote: »

If it was a personal pension mortgage, what has happened to the property that the mortgage was on?

It may have been linked to a mortgage hubby had with his ex.

Do you think this has something to do with it?

tyllwyd

I dunno! But apart from the advice you've already been given, there are several IFAs who post on this board, and they might be able to shed some light on it.

fuzzgun19

Ok, thanks for the help so far.

...If there's any IFAs about.. some advice would be much appreciated!