Calculating Pension Pot

BookerTee

PensionTech wrote: »

I would not touch this with a bargepole. You'll need an IFA to give you advice on the transfer, so good luck finding one who will.

Of the two IFA's I have spoken to both said 'get you pension details and come back to me'. I have no great concern about being able to move my pension if thats what I decide to do.

BookerTee

coyrls wrote: »

The brief outline of SSAS here http://adviser.royallondon.com/pensions/technical-central/information-guidance/investment/ssas-versus-sipp/ states that:

Yesterday no one knew anything about these strange SSAS pensions. Today everyone is an expert!

All investments would have to comply with HMRC rules which is the point of having them administered by a compliant trustee. Not sure why people are assuming I am focused on residential investments.

BookerTee

AnotherJoe wrote: »

In that case why are you so concerned about this money? Surely with the time and effort you've spent so far on it you could have made more money by property trading or whatever it is you are doing ?

You may have noticed my example was a year long...

AnotherJoe wrote: »

You could do this every year compounding each years gains, and be making millions a year within a short time, so this money would be an utter irrelevance.

I deal in reality not fantasy.

mgdavid

BookerTee wrote: »

There will always be the naysayers who pour scorn and derision on anything they dont understand.

yup, exactly what you are doing in respect of DB pensions.

Manxman_in_exile

OP - not sure why you've bothered to post on this forum as you already seem to have answers to everything?

BookerTee

mgdavid wrote: »

yup, exactly what you are doing in respect of DB pensions.

Feel free to point out where you think I have gone wrong....

BookerTee

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

OP - not sure why you've bothered to post on this forum as you already seem to have answers to everything?

Actually you are right, the advise from the community that I belong to is not to get involved with online forums as the negativity and lack of understanding will never be overcome. The entrenched views of people conditioned to see nothing but what they have been told about wealth is still shocking/sad to experience. All I can say is the rich end of society would have a wry smile and 'no comment' about such attitudes. I have no intention of convincing anyone of anything......

woolly_wombat

BookerTee wrote: »

Of the two IFA's I have spoken to both said 'get you pension details and come back to me'.

Sensible advice.

Write to your former employer and request

1. A current Statement of Benefits
2. A Current Transfer Value

I suggest you do that before speculating further.

PensionTech

Yesterday no one knew anything about these strange SSAS pensions. Today everyone is an expert!

No. We know plenty about them. What is strange is for someone who doesn't remotely understand pensions - to the point where he seems to say that a SSAS isn't a pension and his DB pension is "stagnating" because it is revaluing in line with inflation - to want to use them. And, more worryingly, doesn't understand the full implications of investing in taxable property and administration of a SSAS.

Not sure why people are assuming I am focused on residential investments.

Well, are you?

I deal in reality not fantasy.

Well actually AnotherJoe's comment is perfectly valid. If it's a sure thing and you get 100% of your money back, plus investment gains, in a year, and you are already a sophisticated property investor, and so wealthy that a guaranteed five figures per year throughout your whole retirement is an irrelevance to you, why on earth do you need to plunder your DB pension in order to invest? That's not sarcasm, it's a legitimate question.

not to get involved with online forums as the negativity and lack of understanding will never be overcome. The entrenched views of people conditioned to see nothing but what they have been told about wealth is still shocking/sad to experience

Many of the people on here (myself not included) are themselves IFAs or otherwise involved with advanced wealth planning for themselves or others. If you have the secrets to this fantastic wealth that the rest of the financial services community can't see, why don't you make a fortune writing books, doing seminars, and selling the investments yourself? And again - why would you need to go anywhere near your DB pension for money?

Feel free to point out where you think I have gone wrong

Glad you asked:

Scheme? No idea.

You don't even know what pension scheme you are in - how can you possibly judge it?

Therefore it doesnt seem to matter how much the pension fund grows the pay out is the same?

Vast misunderstanding of "pension fund growth" for a DB pension.

Not really sure if they would have any idea what my entitlement would be anyway.

Pointless arrogance and derision - they will have a much better idea than you do.

I was originally going to ask for a transfer value but was advised that might not be a good idea unless I was ready to transfer. It was suggested that I would be likely charged the second time when wanting to actually move the money.

Wrong, as I've already said - you would have plenty of time to decide whether or not to transfer, and you would be able to get more free transfer quotes in future.

So was going to ask for statement of benefits and then estimate back to size of transferable pot.

Without any knowledge of how a DB pension even works let alone all the actuarial assumptions behind calculating an equivalent transfer value. And you were going to use this to make a decision about whether to transfer or not?

Yes, I couldnt do better from a pension scheme, youre right but that wasnt the intention.

Not your intention to do better from a pension scheme - but a SSAS is a pension scheme.

I have 13/60th in a pension scheme I left 16 years ago. It is currently worth £7300 a year and I see this is very valuable and underpins my retirement planning. It is also administred by Mercer. I contacted them by email recently for an update and all they wanted was my name, date of birth, NI number and name of the company.
That doesnt sound bad on the face of it, do you have any idea what you transferable value would be? Could you let me have their email address!!

What, their £7300 a year doesn't sound bad but you think £10000 a year does?

Although the £30k pot size limit sounds more like the FCA protecting income for their members than protecting consumers

Total misunderstanding of the motives and mechanisms behind pensions law, and clear unsubstantiated bias.

The SSAS administrator would only be a caretaker roll for HMRC compliance

Huge issues with governance risk.

I described my existing pension as stagnant as it appears it will only ever grow by inflation i.e no real increase in value.

Not how DB pension growth works.

I know very little about pensions as I have no interest in them, except for tax purposes. Which is why I am not considering anything other than a SSAS.

Not understanding that a SSAS is a pension.

Direct investment in property has some restrictions however an indirect investment via a loan to a company would be possible.

Very dubious about this. Indirect investment in taxable property is explicitly prohibited. If you know so little about pension regulation I'd wonder how you can be so sure. Get confirmation from HMRC first.

Of the two IFA's I have spoken to both said 'get you pension details and come back to me'.

The first time you said you'd spoken to some IFAs vaguely/socially about just the pension value and you think one suggested that you get a statement of the transfer value, though you couldn't really remember. Now you've got two eagerly waiting to hear back from you so that they can give you the all clear to make dizzying exponential returns in property investment?

mgdavid

BookerTee wrote: »

Feel free to point out where you think I have gone wrong....

nobody least of all me have even hinted that you have 'gone wrong'. I'm pointing out that by your own admission you know little to nothing about DB pensions, yet appear to pour scorn on any view of them which disagrees with your own.