What to do with former protected rights fund

rb211

My contracted out of SERPS pension received no contributions in 2013. This i now realise is because contracting out was stopped in April 2012.

I also have a company DC plan with Aviva.

When i took out the Aviva pension I asked a company appointed pension adviser about my SERPS plan and bringing the pot over into my Aviva plan, he said without seeing my paperwork, the only advice he could give would be if it says 'with profits' then leave it alone. My SERPS plan still says 'with profits'.

So would it be worth now transferring my SERPS plan into my Aviva plan because it is no longer receiving any contributions, or does the advise of leave alone if 'with profits' still stand.

Thanks for any advice

Your_Hero

rb211 wrote: »

My contracted out of SERPS pension received no contributions in 2013. This i now realise is because contracting out was stopped in April 2012.

I also have a company DC plan with Aviva.

When i took out the Aviva pension I asked a company appointed pension adviser about my SERPS plan and bringing the pot over into my Aviva plan, he said without seeing my paperwork, the only advice he could give would be if it says 'with profits' then leave it alone. At the time (2010) my SERPS plan said 'with profits'. This term is no longer mentioned in my SERPS plan, it just says 'former protected rights'.

So would it be worth now transferring my SERPS plan into my Aviva plan because it is no longer receiving any contributions, or does the advise of leave alone if 'with profits' still stand.

Thanks for any advice

Protected rights have been abolished. Your pensions rights are like any other DC pension rights.

The "with-profits" element is a different thing altogether. This has to do with how your money is invested. This would not change unless you specifically changed funds, or sometimes fund switches are not even possible.

If you are confident enough you can check the details of the plan, compare with the new plan and transfer it on your own.

But from the sounds of things, you are probably better served by speaking to a qualified Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) before you take any actions because it might not be in your best interest to transfer. With-profit pensions tend to contain some form of guarantee, such as guaranteed annuity rates (GAR) and/or guaranteed fund value etc. How valuable such guarantees are would require a detailed analysis to find out.

To find a local adviser, go onto unbiased.co.uk. You would need to pay for their advice so perhaps worth speaking to at least 2.