Auto Enrollment fun and games

grumpyeggman

Please excuse any naivety I may show here. I am but a humble independent school caretaker.

I am enrolled in the schools stakeholder pension scheme with L&G. I pay 5%, employer pays 7%. In the five years I have been in the scheme it seems to be doing alright as far as I can see.

Now I have been told I have been auto enrolled into the L&G workplace pension scheme. Been told all contributions will remain the same. I have a month to decide to move my pot to this scheme or leave it where it is.
There seems to be no advice forthcoming.
I was not expecting this as I believed if you were already in a pension scheme nothing would change.

I have been told that both schemes are essentially the same.
But things like this rarely change for the better.

Tried the L&G helplines a few times but got fed up after 20 minutes or so waiting.
Any opinions or info? Anyone else in the same boat?
Many Thanks

mania112

The main reason a transfer to the new scheme is being proposed is due to costs.

I would suggest your old scheme costs 1% pa and I would suggest the new one is 0.75% pa. So a change for the better.

The investments are likely to be the same - or new versions of the same thing you were in before.

But this is all speculation and you should be told the differences. So you need to ask the provider if your employer doesn't know.

dunstonh

There seems to be no advice forthcoming.

Have you employed an adviser?

I was not expecting this as I believed if you were already in a pension scheme nothing would change.

Only if the original scheme was auto-enrolment compliant. Many group schemes were not.

But things like this rarely change for the better.

Charges could be the main area of improvement. Stakeholder pricing is a bit out of date compared to modern auto-enrolment schemes. Stakeholder cap is 1.5% for 10 years and 1% thereafter. Auto-enrolment cap is 0.75%.

Tried the L&G helplines a few times but got fed up after 20 minutes or so waiting.

Are L&G acting as the group scheme administrator? If they are not, then they will refer you back to the administrator. That could be an IFA or professional administrator. The scheme letter should explain all this. Question the employer as to why you have not had anything telling you this.