Clueless on Pensions

Cotta

Hi All,

I know very little about pensions, in fact it is a weak area within my financial setup and I aim to address this over the coming weeks. I currently have two pensions, one from my previous place of employment that is doing reasonably well and one with my existing employment which also seems to be doing well.

The details of my pensions are as follows and this is based solely on what information is available to me on my online account:

Pension 1

Legal and General - Valued at £7900.

This consists of two options (a) View your contributions summary and (b) View your investment summary.

Within A it advises 25.39% is regular contribution and associated with "Global Equity Fixed Weights 50:50 index PMC 3 (2000.60)" and Transfers in contribution £5879.03, "Global Equity Fixed Weights 50:50 index PMC 3".

Within B it advises "View your investment summary" which again states Global Eqty Fixed Weights 50:50 Indx (PMC) 3 £7,879.63.

Can someone explain what this means and if I should do something with it?

Pension 2 (This is live and I currently pay part of my salary into it)

It's with Aegon and valued at £5700.

This is with the Universal Lifestyle Collection, and I hold 3,389.36 valued at 169.770 each. I know very little else about this one and could really use some advice.

Thanks in advance for any help and please remember I know little on this subject and to some my questions may seem foolish.

LHW99

For the Aegon pension:
https://extranet.secure.aegon.co.uk/static/sxhub/pdf/client-pen-universallifestyle.pdf
The "lifestyle" part means that it gets automatically switched out of equities a few years before your selected retirement date.

Cotta

LHW99 wrote: »

For the Aegon pension:
https://extranet.secure.aegon.co.uk/static/sxhub/pdf/client-pen-universallifestyle.pdf
The "lifestyle" part means that it gets automatically switched out of equities a few years before your selected retirement date.

Do I need to be doing anything with it now?

atush

We dont know as you haven't said how old you are.


In general, those who are younger should be more aggressive (ie hold more or all in equities) and those who are older may want to lock money in by switching out of equities.

but this again , depends on what you will do at retirement.

Cotta

atush wrote: »

We dont know as you haven't said how old you are.


In general, those who are younger should be more aggressive (ie hold more or all in equities) and those who are older may want to lock money in by switching out of equities.

but this again , depends on what you will do at retirement.

I'm 31....

Grumpy_Old_Duffer

Suggestion ...... find a good Financial Advisor and look to save in other ways as well i.e. Stocks & Shares ISA's, as we have done over the years.

Because we have 'spread' our investments between Pensions & ISA's (PEP's) over the years it has given us more 'flexibility' in what we can do now, now we have reached retirement age.:j:j:j:D:D

shaz77_2

I'm not sure going to a financial advisor is the best option for Cotta here.

Thrugelmir

Cotta wrote: »

I know very little about pensions, in fact it is a weak area within my financial setup and I aim to address this over the coming weeks.

Then be prepared to save at a reasonable level should you either wish to retire early or would like a good income in retirement. While charges and investment returns have an impact. Your contributions will do the heavy lifting.

Cotta

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Then be prepared to save at a reasonable level should you either wish to retire early or would like a good income in retirement. While charges and investment returns have an impact. Your contributions will do the heavy lifting.

5% contributions from my salary of which my employer puts in 10%, I just need to know if everything is on track at present.

kidmugsy

Cotta wrote: »

5% contributions from my salary of which my employer puts in 10%, I just need to know if everything is on track at present.

That 10% from the employer is pretty good. So on pension 2 all you need to decide is whether you'd like to change the investment held within the pension. Your first move is to find out more about it, including the charges.

With the L&G one you need both to find out what the investment is and what the charges are.

Then if the L&G seems pricey (ask here) you can consider transferring it elsewhere.

Cotta

kidmugsy wrote: »

That 10% from the employer is pretty good. So on pension 2 all you need to decide is whether you'd like to change the investment held within the pension. Your first move is to find out more about it, including the charges.

With the L&G one you need both to find out what the investment is and what the charges are.

Then if the L&G seems pricey (ask here) you can consider transferring it elsewhere.

I know this sounds like a stupid question but where on my account do I find out what the investment is?