Forced to get an Financial Advisor

RichandJ

cganesh wrote: »

It came out of the blue really, they used peopletracer to find me at my new address, I never told them and have moved several times, and it was a pack containing the figures and a few forms for transferring various ways including transferring to a personal pension plan. Im not good at finance obviously Richard and thx for your patience, but Im also computer illiterate and would never be able to post figures,in photo form,but can post what figures they have put and what they call them if it will help? Do you actually enjoy this stuff? Please don't tell me you work for Barclays!!!!

'Enjoy' probably isn't the right word but I am good at it.

Nope, they only hold my overdraft.

I'll have a look at your other post but not promising anything tonight.

RichandJ

cganesh wrote: »

Date of leaving-Feb1983, GMP 60, (I am 57) Transfer entitlement-GTV-52K,tfr value of GMP-24K,other rights -28K (scheme pension builtup before apr 1997,GMP built up before 1988 £123pa,scheme pension(over GMP) built up before 1997 £459, Total pension scheme at 1983 £582, State pension deduction£64. Benefit crystallisation??? 0% I think that's about it, does it makes sense to you now?

Ok, IF they use Fixed rate reval for the GMP that means it would currently (if you were 60 this year) now be in excess of £1,500 pa. Add the other £450 and you're talking a pension of approx £2k pa. If the £450 has also increased then even more.

As they contacted you it sounds like they're doing an Enhanced Transfer Value Exercise. These are designed to entice people out of good DB schemes (and may be subject to retrospective looking at by the Pensions Regulator).

My advice, if I was registered to give advice which I'm not so this is only a suggestion, would be to put the transfer on hold & go back to Barclays and ask for a retirement quote as at now and as at your normal retirement date under the scheme rules.

Over & out for the weekend.

cganesh

aha you cant be that good then, or is it the best place to have an overdraft?
Just seen the post, ok so you think they are being a little sneaky then, I wouldn't be surprised. Yes , I was going to put on hold, but I will ask some more questions, they haven't answered a few questions I had asked already and now I have even more, though I am understanding it a little better. Thanks for your advice, you should be an IFA, then you could afford to pay off your overdraft-lol. Enjoy the rainy week-end.

xylophone

And regarding state pension see
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/181237/single-tier-pension-fact-sheet.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/210299/single-tier-valuation-contracting-out.pdf

It appears that you are female ( GMP age 60) - remember that Barclays have no obligation to pay increases on the pre 88 GMP once it comes into payment.

The index linking to which reference is made in the BW links will not apply as you will be drawing your state pension in single tier - it may not have applied anyway even under the current system if your Contracted Out Deduction had proved greater than any pre 97 Additional State Pension.

xylophone

go back to Barclays

The Administrators are Towers Watson. Barclays used Fixed Rate Revaluation.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4736856

There may also be some form of abatement at state pension age? See https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4736856 post 43

jamesd

I think that they are being sneaky. It's particularly notable that they don't seem to have told you the correct current value for the pension you'd get, leaving you thinking it's far less than it is.

It's not as reliable as what RichandJ told you but using the 1983 start date and increasing just with RPI would take the pension value up from £582 to £1713 a year. That would make the deal £30 of lump sum per Pound of pension and that's getting into credible territory, but RichandJ gave you a more reliable number.

So for pension you're looking at £1500 plus whatever the £450 has become. If that was increased by RPI (not particularly likely) it would add £1,320. So you're looking at a pension that would be somewhere in the £1950 to £2820 range today. Something in the range of 26 to 18 times the pension income in lump sum. That's not good enough to accept because the pension will increase with some measure of inflation when it's being paid.

There's that possible exception if your health isn't decent, though.

You should really try to get a more reliable pension value now and at retirement age for this. If you're at the scheme's retirement age now that would give them a non-sneaky reason to contact you. They are supposed to try to find people at that time and DWP will help by forwarding a letter from them to the latest address that DWP has for you if necessary, just to help people get the pensions that they are entitled to.

So: looks like a bad idea still, but worth doing a bit more to get a better idea of the real pension income you can expect so you can plan around that. And by now you've probably gathered why this is so fiddly to get right that the FCA wants IFAs involved.

RichandJ

xylophone wrote: »

The Administrators are Towers Watson. Barclays used Fixed Rate Revaluation.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4736856

There may also be some form of abatement at state pension age? See https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4736856 post 43

Ah, TW. I won't say more in case I get offered a job there one day.

OP did mention a "State Pension deduction" a few posts back. Not a lot though unless reval applies.

I was going to mention no indexation on pre 88 GMP in payment but thought we could leave it til later when cganesh has the relevant figures at now & NRD, and also not to confuse the issue further.

xylophone

OP did mention a "State Pension deduction" a few posts back. Not a lot though unless reval applies.

Yes - I see the figure of £64 mentioned - Mike Floutier does give the formula for calculation. I am assuming that this is per annum.

Mike talks about this applying at SPA but in his case this more or less equates with GMP age- I am wondering whether in the OP's case it would kick in at 60 which would have been SPA for a female when she left Barclays.

Reactor_2

cganesh,

This is a no-brainer (even more so, if there is indexation) - just keep the pension, as you are guaranteed a payment.

riccaricca

Just read this thread as 3 months ago I was thinking of transferring my Personal Pension to another provider and I was told it had to be done through an FA.

I’m self employed and started a pension on December 1998 with Friends Provident now Friends Life. As I was only young at the time (22), I went along with what the FA recommended. I started with a small amount of £60 per month and have increased it yearly, so now I pay £200 per month including the tax. I know it’s not a vast amount but it’s all I can afford with all my other commitments. I have 2 funds “Friends Life Managed Fund” 80% and “Friends Life With Profits Series 4” 20%. The 2 funds value is about £30,000 or the transfer value is about £32,000. To transfer them to another provider the fees seemed high (£750 to set up plus £900 for the first year) to the FA. Then the Funds he recommended in (AXA Retirement Wealth Account) had higher charges so I decided that I would do a bit more research and see if it was best to switch into different funds in Friends Life as I don’t need to pay to switch or pay the fee and switch.

Any thoughts on these funds especially on Friends Life With Profits Series 4 Fund? They seem obsolete now.
AXA Retirement Wealth Account, are they a good company for pensions?

Any help will be appreciated, it might make it easier to decide what to do?

Thank you in advance.