Old personal pension scheme

joshly

I took out a personal pension scheme in 1989 with Abbey life and kept making small monthly payments until about 1994.


I understand they stopped taking on new customers in 2000.


I still have over a year until the agreed retirement age of 50 but thought I would start looking into it.


When the time comes will I still be able to get the money I paid in even thought I stopped making payments in 1994?


On some paperwork from 1994 it mentions
"Protected rights 0"
"Non protected rights 2500"

xylophone

Do you know what it is worth at the moment?

I wonder has the value been very much eroded by charges?

And even if not, can you access it at 50?

Best to check with Abbey Life.

https://www.abbeylife.co.uk/pages/contact.aspx

Snakey

I had a small pension pot from ages ago that I'd forgotten about, when I remembered I was quite excited but it turned out it had risen in value by absolutely bollock all in fifteen years, presumably thanks to charges.

Better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick, granted, but it was my first realisation that all this "ooooh, compound growth means that £1 invested in your twenties is worth one billion pounds in your forties" was not gospel truth and in fact it seems that if you're only going to be putting in a few hundred quid then you may as well not bother. I mean I literally could have stuck it under the mattress, and (provided I hadn't also forgotten about it, given the number of house moves in the intervening time) I'd have been no worse off.

atush

You need to get a value on this pension, and a statement saying what it is invested in. And you need to check you can access it age 50. AS the law was changed 8 or so years ago to move it up to 55. So you may not be able to.

Second, what is your other pension provision like? Dc pension pot- how much? You could transfer this old one to it? Work pension? Defined benefit pensions?

If you have no other pension, you need to open one and add this old one to it, and add more. AS it is too small.

AS far as the value, it will be worth far more than money under the mattress. At least 25% more as it had tax relief. Plus investment growth over that term. Should be worth more than double your contribs really?

dunstonh

I still have over a year until the agreed retirement age of 50 but thought I would start looking into it.

Does your pension have a protected age of 50? It probably doesnt as it sounds like a regular personal pension and there wont be a protected age on one of those. So, 55 will be the minimum age.

joshly

Thank-you for the replies.


xylophone, I do not know what it is worth at the moment. The last letter I have from them is dated September 1999.


"Non protected rights £4700"


I am not expecting it to have risen in the last 17 years due to charges etc but I would be happy to know that will get my money back at age 50 or 55.
I would be gutted if I will get nothing for whatever reason they may use.


I suppose I need to write to them at this address,


Abbey Life Assurance Company Limited
100 Holdenhurst Road
Bournemouth
Dorset
BH8 8AL


and ask them for a statement telling me what my pension is worth, what it is invested in and the age at which I can receive it.


atush, I do not have any other pension plan, work or otherwise.
Yes it is too small by a long way. I would want to take it as a lump sum to go towards a car.


dunstonh, I do not know if 50 is a protected age, it just says
"On that paperwork it says "Retirement age 50".

dunstonh

dunstonh, I do not know if 50 is a protected age, it just says
"On that paperwork it says "Retirement age 50".

It wont be 50 then. It will be 55.

xylophone

Are you currently employed? If so, your employer will have to provide a pension within a couple of years even if not at the moment.

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/overview

joshly

I am not currently employed or on any benefits.


I received a letter today confirming what you suspected. The earliest I can get my pension is aged 55.


A statement is in the post but it is currently worth £6490 and is invested in a unit linked fund and it is Abbey Pensions managed.


This works out about 2% a year compounded. Not great but at least my policy is still alive and traceable and hopefully gettable in 7 years time.

atush

I would transfer it somewhere else if the carges are high- did you ask what you were being charged? If it doesn't say on the paperwork you get, ask.

then once transferred add more to it?