Messy pensions need sorting!?!

presterjohn

Hi I need some help with organising my pensions. I have just changed job and I am unable to join the company pension scheme for 12 months.

After going through all my paper work I now realise what a mess all my pensions are anyway! Some how I have managed to gather over the last 13 years 4 different pension plans! All of them are shamefully small and don't add up to much ie:-

Skandia life 1 fund value £1,427.00
Skandia life 2 fund value £6,619.oo
Scotish Provident fund value £4,332.48
Friends Provident fund value £4.543.16

None of them are being paid into at present. The last active one was the friends Provident pension that stopped being paid into in January this year

What I need to know is what do I do with all these? Do I transfer them all over to a new private pension, then wait till I am allowed to join my new companies. Would it be cost effective to go back to the oldest pension ( a private one) and just put money into that one for a year and transfer to that one?

Added to that I have an ISA with Legal and general that I stopped paying into 22 months ago that has a fund value of £1047.00 and an Axa cash builder plus savings account with a cash in value of £1332.00 (matures 2013) Should I cash these in and add them to my pension pot?

I am very confused, and at 38 I need to be thinking of the future!

dunstonh

It may or may not be a good idea to transfer the pensions. It depends on the charges and if the plans have guaranteed annuity rates attached to them.

Depending on the occupational scheme, it may be sensible to transfer them into that, when available.

Lots of "depends" there but there are too many unknowns at this stage.

EdInvestor

Hi Presterjohn

Skandia life 1 fund value £1,427.00
Skandia life 2 fund value £6,619.oo
Scotish Provident fund value £4,332.48
Friends Provident fund value £4.543.16

Can you give us some more details about these? Are they all "personal pensions"? Are some of them older pre -1988 pensions? What are they invested in ?Are any of them in With profits funds?

A neat solution, depending on what they are, might be to transfer them all to a low cost online SIPP such as the type offered by Sippdeal https://www.sippdeal.co.uk (no connection, satisfied customer) or https://www.hargreaveslansdown.co.uk.

You can then combine them and invest the money in a wide range of the best funds, or in shares, at low cost long term.

But as dunstonh says you need to check for transfer penalties, any guaranteed annuity rates etc with the old pensions.

presterjohn

The first two were private pensions taken out after 88 I think possibly 1990. I literally only found the paperwork for them recently and had forgotten all about them (yes I know that is thick of me)

The third pension was a works pension that was paid into for 5 years. When I started a new job I intended to transfer the fund to my new works pension ( pension number 4) but never go around to it now three years later I have been outsourced to another company and have lost my pension, so I am starting from scratch again.

I have not looked closely but I don not think I have any penalties to pay if I move my money about.