What info to gather

tiger17bear

In our mid 40s looking to sort out our various pensions plans. We are almost certainly going to need to speak to an IFA but what information should we gather first? In particular himself has handed me paperwork relating to 6 pensions, 5 of which are previous employers. The oldest is defined benefit, the next 3 are all money purchase (defined purchase?), then a final salary scheme and lastly the current employers stakeholder pension. We have also received a letter from the final salary pension provider saying they will be offering an enhanced transfer value and this will come with IFA advice but I assume this advice will be limited to the offer decision?
So when I contact the various pension providers I ask about; investment type, value and transfer value, charges, transfer fees, additional benefits, (I would say performance but I guess that is what the IFA is for) anything else? I will of course get our state pension statements too. Thanks in advance.

xylophone

relating to 6 pensions, 5 of which are previous employers. The oldest is defined benefit, the next 3 are all money purchase (defined purchase?), then a final salary scheme and lastly the current employers stakeholder pension. We have also received a letter from the final salary pension provider saying they will be offering an enhanced transfer value and this will come with IFA advice but I assume this advice will be limited to the offer decision?

The oldest DB (pension 1)- your husband is a deferred member of this scheme (it may also have been a Final Salary type DB) - special rules relate to transfer out from such schemes.

Pension 5 (Final Salary) is also a DB Scheme - it appears that the pension administrator is offering an enhanced transfer value - IFA advice is being offered because it is almost certainly required.

http://www.pruadviser.co.uk/content/knowledge/technical-centre/pension_switches_transfers/

If pensions 2,3,and 4 have any "safeguarded benefits" (Guaranteed Annuity Rates....) IFA advice might also be required.

tiger17bear

The oldest DB although small we were minded to keep and an IFA advised this many years ago when no. 2 was started. Certainly it won't be touched without advice.
I will certainly ask about any "safeguarded benefits" on 2, 3 and 4.
Is there some sort of standard wording or request for the relevant information? Whilst I have plenty of paperwork and statements, some providers include lots of information and other almost none.
Should I also be asking if existing pensions will accept transfers in?
Thanks again

xylophone

In general, the default position is to stick with DB/FS schemes - there are certain circumstances where a transfer might be recommended but these are limited.

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/transferring-out-of-a-defined-benefit-pension-scheme

http://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/about-pensions/when-things-change/when-relationships-end/transfer-incentives-increase-exchange

Your husband's current pension scheme is a basic stakeholder.

https://www.gov.uk/personal-pensions-your-rights/stakeholder-pensions

The deferred DB Schemes will not accept additional contributions.

Any of the three Money Purchase pension schemes might, and indeed might accept transfers in, but he might also be better off with a new personal pension which would accept a transfer in of all three.

In the absence of experience and understanding of investment, your husband would be well advised to take qualified advice and in respect of any transfers out from DB schemes/schemes with safeguarded benefits will virtually certainly be required to take qualified advice - see previous.


You mention that the second DB scheme with incentive offer is offering IFA advice but if the IFA is being employed by the Administrators of the Pension Scheme, any advice may be confined to matters concerning that scheme.

http://www.thepfs.org/yourmoney/find-an-adviser/ may be worth a look.

tiger17bear

Thanks for the links, glad to hear that I am on the right lines. We will have to see what offer pension no 4 (FS) puts on the table, I had assumed that they would only advise on that decision but not sure how they would be able to offer best advice without considering the other pensions? We will see.


As far as I can see only one of the DC pensions has any sort of additional benefit which is Limited price Indexation (at lower of 5% or RPI) which is why I had the extra benefits question on my list.


So it will be down to returns and charges on the DC pensions as to leaving them be or gathering them together in a personal pension or SIP (guestimate total £70k transfer value maybe not worthwhile doing SIP?)


The current pension (stakeholder) does appear to be the plain vanilla type but at least it gets employer contributions.

tiger17bear

I'll get up to date statements, ask for the missing info eg benefits, charges ( flat % and transfer fees), full name of funds invested in (one just says Pru), transfer in possible. Wait for the FS scheme offer and then choose from that IFA list.

xylophone

As far as I can see only one of the DC pensions has any sort of additional benefit which is Limited price Indexation (at lower of 5% or RPI) which is why I had the extra benefits question on my list.

Are you sure that this is a DC pension?

tiger17bear

Yes, so it says (units held and value of units etc) and it also says that the amount of any pension will be reduced to provide this. It reads as if it is assumed that you automatically take their annuity but I see nothing that actually locks us in. Has to be said that although provider was promoting this part as a benefit I didn't view it as such.