What to do about all my miniature pensions?

yorpington

I've moved around a lot, jobs-wise, and am now settled in a career I enjoy. However, since the age of 18 (I'm now 34) I've been working in various jobs and have always signed up to the pension scheme (if there was one) and as a result I now have various 'miniature' pensions comprised of small amounts of money with lots of different companies - RBS, Scottish Widows, Standard Life, SAUL, to name but a few.

It irks me to have all of these scattered around and I would really like to combine them into one pension, to which I could then contribute more, if I so wish. I did try to move the Scottish Widows into the RBS, years ago, but they said I needed to get a financial adviser to sign off on it because it was under 10K. At the time I wasn't in a position to pay one, so I left it.

Is this something that is worth looking into, now our financial situation is more stable? My DH has worked for the same company since leaving university so his pension is all in one place and he can log in and look at it and make decisions whenever he likes. I'd like to feel like I had a measure of control over my pension too. Is it worth paying a financial advisor to help me with this?

Thanks in advance for any replies :beer:

AlanP_2

You probably don't need to get an IFA involved unless there are complicated rules and guarantees associated with any of the schemes.

First thing - What types of pension are they all? Defined Benefit where the scheme "promises" to pay you £x pa at a specific age based on length of service and salary or Defined Contribution where you (and hopefully the employer) paid into a pot that was invested on your behalf.

Combining DC pots should be fairly straightforward, DB schemes probably trickier.

If you put the details up I am sure someone will be able to help you with suggested approaches.

Who is your current pension with and do they accept transfers in from old schemes?

yorpington

Thanks Alan!

They are all Defined Contribution schemes. My current pension is an industry-specific one and it does not accept transfers in. But I would like to combine all the others, especially as I also do some self-employed work (all declared to HMRC, obviously!) so it seems to make sense to have one private pension as well.

One of them said I could have a refund of the money I paid in but I would have to pay tax and lose the employer contributions...this seemed silly to me.

When I get home I will get all the paperwork out and put up some more details Thanks again.

kidmugsy

yorpington wrote: »

They are all Defined Contribution schemes.

Really? Even the Superannuation Arrangements
of the University of London?

yorpington

kidmugsy wrote: »

Really? Even the Superannuation Arrangements
of the University of London?

Oh dear...you see why I feel I need an IFA! I don't know what I'm doing.

I am perfectly fine dealing with current accounts and savings but for some reason pensions go over my head. I am probably coming across like a total moron :huh:

xylophone

Is your section of the the RBS a DB Scheme?

kidmugsy

Don't panic. All you have to do is think of your pensions in two categories.

(i) "Defined benefit", such as SAUL - these will eventually pay you a benefit defined in terms of a fraction of your final salary or career-averaged salary. Make a mental note of these, give them your up-to-date address and marital status, check who you said you wanted the benefits to go to if you should die early, and probably do nothing else. Perhaps revisit the question when you have more experience: you can always ask again here.

(ii) "Defined Contribution": these are now the commonest sort, where it's the contributions of you and the employer that are defined, and what you get out in the end depends on how well your investments have prospered, not on your salary. So gather together the bumf on these. Check for each whether there are (a) any nice features you'd lose by leaving (guaranteed annuity rate, life insurance) or (b) any charges you'd pay to leave. If there is neither (a) nor (b) then by all means consolidate them somewhere for ease of management.

Why not get started and then tell us what you've discovered? Start with DB: you may have only one anyway, so that category would be knocked off in minutes!