Anything i can do with these small pensions?

scotty1971

I have two small private pensions that i stopped paying into about 15 years ago.Could have transferred them into my NHS pension but i was not informed about this at the time and it is now too late. Is there anywhere i could move them too so they might make money?

Current transfer value £27000 and £9000, i am 44 so have a few years to work yet.

Any advice would be most welcome.

thanks

Scott

kidmugsy

scotty1971 wrote: »

Is there anywhere i could move them too so they might make money?

How come they're not making money already?

scotty1971

All i know is it is Prosperity pension plan-with profit it's an old Pearl pension plan now with Phoenix Life. Looking at the paperwork,not that i can understand much the annual bonus was £235.36 so it is making money. Would it be worthwhile transferring the smaller pension into the slightly larger one?

thanks

kidmugsy

scotty1971 wrote: »

it is a Prosperity pension plan-with profit; it's an old Pearl pension plan now with Phoenix Life. Looking at the paperwork,not that i can understand much, the annual bonus was £235.36 so it is making money. Would it be worthwhile transferring the smaller pension into the slightly larger one?

Aha, a With Profits plan making less than1% p.a. In your shoes I'd check whether there are any penalties for moving: for instance, would you lose a GAR (Guaranteed Annuity Rate), or life insurance benefits, or lose a terminal bonus, or have to pay charges? Establish what is the earliest age that you're allowed to crystallise the fund without penalty. If there are no problems of that sort, then it could be well worth transferring to a personal pension. Two blogs give you a comparison of providers' charges: Monevator, and Lang Cat. We are happy with Hargreaves Lansdown, whose service is very good, but your fund is maybe getting to the size that might encourage you to use someone else. Some people here like Cavendish Online. Since you have a safe NHS pension to look forward to you could choose to be 100% in equites in your personal pension e.g. by using a "passive" tracker fund. These have low charges. Monevator also has views on those.

P.S. You may find Monevator very repetitive: that's fine - simple financial advice pretty much should be repetitive. One of their bloggers is very thin-skinned, so be fawning if you want to add a comment of your own.

scotty1971

How would you go about transferring a pension into a paasive tracker fund?

thanks

xylophone

I think the suggestion is that you consider transferring the cash value of both your small pensions to a new provider and then choosing to invest in a passive tracker fund?

You would need to check on whether you would lose any guaranteed benefits if you transferred and compare the costs of old and new.

http://monevator.com/category/investing/passive-investing-investing/

http://www.hl.co.uk/pensions/sipp

http://www.cavendishonline.co.uk/pensions/

kidmugsy

xylophone wrote: »

I think the suggestion is that you consider transferring the cash value of both your small pensions to a new provider and then choosing to invest in a passive tracker fund?

Exactly right.

dunstonh

scotty1971 wrote: »

All i know is it is Prosperity pension plan-with profit it's an old Pearl pension plan now with Phoenix Life. Looking at the paperwork,not that i can understand much the annual bonus was £235.36 so it is making money. Would it be worthwhile transferring the smaller pension into the slightly larger one?

thanks

The old Pearl plans have for very many years paid a tiny annual bonus with the bulk of the return handled via the final bonus.

You need to look at both and not just the annual bonus alone.

Also, I have never found a Pearl V1 that is worth keeping. Even with the penalty, the charges on modern alternatives are usually a lot cheaper. So, it is worth investigating if that is the same for you.

How would you go about transferring a pension into a paasive tracker fund?

You shouldnt do that as it would be bad quality investing. Either you should use a multi-asset solution (which could be made up of passives) or you build a portfolio of single sector funds (which again, you could use passives if you wish). You shouldnt use a single asset fund by itself.

scotty1971

it's says on the letter final bonus sits at £9700 at the moment. I have read some of the info in links provided,but unfortunately i just don't understand any of it.

xylophone

http://www.sppa.gov.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16&Itemid=114

I wonder would it be worth your while to discuss your situation with Standard Life?

They handle AVCs for your scheme - would a transfer in be viable/worth it?

Or there is a Standard Life stakeholder into which you might consider transferring both pensions?

scotty1971

thanks everyone,will look into your suggestions