Combining Multiple Pensions

tigerbob85

Hi all - was wondering if anybody has ever closed down small company pensions, and moved them into one larger (and private) pension pot?

My situation is that I worked for an organisation for c. 8 Years, leaving for another company c. 2.5 Years ago.I obviously stopped contributions, but the pension remains open, and I get a statement each year (and presumably I will get a small-ish income from it when I retire).

I have just been made redundant from my current employer, therefore have around 2.5 Years of pension contributions with them, and will end up with two small private company pensions.

My thinking is to move both pensions into one larger pension, which will exist even when I get a new job. Has anybody done this before? Or do people tend to leave pensions at old employers open?

bigadaj

Yes, you can normally either leave them where they are or transfer into a new personal pension or sipp.

Some people prefer having things in one place but the only real reason to transfer is based on charges or investment choice. The cutoff point in charges could be around 0.5%, much more than this and you can probably save money by transferring.

I'm presuming these as normal defined contribution, ie not final salary, pensions and they sound recent so it's unlikely there are any guarantees which is another thing to consider.

Where you might move to will be dependent on the fund size, abive around £30-40k then there are fixed fee providers that can be cheaper than percentage based schemes.

tigerbob85

Useful - thanks. Yes is defined contribution and value relatively small. As well as being able to choose what investments, the slight OCD in me would prefer one provider from an admin POV (very difficult to get in touch with the providers I find, particularly when you need to change address etc...)

bigadaj

tigerbob85 wrote: »

Useful - thanks. Yes is defined contribution and value relatively small. As well as being able to choose what investments, the slight OCD in me would prefer one provider from an admin POV (very difficult to get in touch with the providers I find, particularly when you need to change address etc...)

Fair enough, makes sense.

For smaller value pots then cavendish offer a low cost entry into the big insurers personal pension schemes which work out at less than 0.5% fees.

Alternatively, if you want a sipp, which is generally a bit more user friendly and offer more investment options, then bestinvest charge 0.3% though there are fund costs on top of that, so probably a bit over 0.5%.

[Deleted User]

Yes we have done this for DC schemes with no guarantees. DB schemes etc we have left well alone. All DIY'd as simpler that buying a cake from Greggs.

We transfered them all to a SIPP. We wanted... Proper web access allowing adhoc payments via debit card as well as DDs, lower charges, more control over investments, reporting and with an eye to drawdown in 10 years etc.

The great thing about what we have setup is that in addition to saving in monthly via DD every quarter when our FITS & RHI payments arrive we can simply and easily top up the SIPP via debit card. The same for all bank account bonuses and stoozing profits

Tax free income being boosted by tax relief, best invention ever

Cheers