Can't transfer from Standard Life to NEST

King_Mustard

The company I worked for enrolled me into a workplace pension with Standard Life.

I had around £80 in there by the time I was made redundant.

The new company I work for uses NEST.

I wrote to Standard Life with the correct form, asking to transfer the amount. They did their part and then forwarded the form to NEST.

NEST have sent me a message stating:

"You asked us to add an early leaver cash transfer to your NEST retirement pot. Unfortunately we're unable to add this to your retirement pot because we don't accept transfer in from a Personal Pension Plan."

This seems overly complicated and basically unfair. Workplace pensions (I wouldn't call it as "personal" pension, as NEST have, as I did not enrol by choice) should not be this complicated to transfer money to a newer job's scheme/provider.

I am 30. I am concerned that, in my life, I'll end up having various pensions all over the place as it seems very difficult to transfer the amounts. I am therefore concerned that I will forget which ones I have and the amounts I have in each.

I'd prefer to keep one fund in total.

Any ideas how I can resolve this issue?

jamesd

NEST is prohibited by law from taking transfers in from personal pensions or allowing transfers out before age 55. You can best resolve this by transferring to somewhere other than NEST and accepting that the best you can do at the moment is NEST plus the one you really want long term.

There was talk of this changing when something called "pot follows member" was introduced but pot follows member has been scrapped so there's no telling when it may happen now. Pot follows member would have had smaller pension pots automatically transferred to the scheme offered by a new job unless the employee opted out of it.

FatherAbraham

jamesd wrote: »

There as talk of this changing when something called "pot follows member" was introduced but pot follows member has been scrapped so there's no telling when it may happen now. Pot follows member would have had smaller pension pots automatically transferred to the scheme offered by a new job unless the employee opted out of it.

"Pot follows member" is never going to happen, because it was a thoroughly stupid idea, dreamt up by the kind of politician who "doesn't do details".

An automatic transfer from a low-cost pension to a higher-priced one is never in an employee's interests, and yet is entirely possible with any practical implementation of PFM.

Pension-fund transfers must always be judged on a case-by-case basis, taking account of all relevant factors of both schemes and the individual.

"Pot follows member" is a politician's marketing scheme, to help them get elected. It has nothing to do with the reality of retirement planning.

Warmest regards,
FA

edinburgher

Am I right in thinking that the £80 + whatever you have accumulated in NEST is your only pension provision? If so, your main concern should be growing your pension (and fast). NEST's steadily increasing contributions are better than a poke in the eye, but won't amount to much in the grand scheme of things.

dunstonh

I am 30. I am concerned that, in my life, I'll end up having various pensions all over the place as it seems very difficult to transfer the amounts. I am therefore concerned that I will forget which ones I have and the amounts I have in each.

You are an adult and should be mature enough to maintain records on these things. It isn't difficult.

Consolidation is not always in your best interests. For example, the Std Life pension could be better than the NEST pension.

xylophone

According to Money Briefing in The Times on Sunday 11 September:

Savers will soon be able to see all of their pension pots on one online platform.

A prototype of the "pensions dashboard' will go live by March, the Government is to announce tomorrow.

The tool should help savers who often end up with lots of small pots from different employers, plan for their retirement more effectively.

The dashboard will initially show pensions held with Aviva, Aon, HSBC, LV, Nest, Now, Royal London, Standard Life, Zurich, the People's Pension and Willis Towers Watson.

More providers and the state pension will be added later.

The full dashboard should be in place by 2019.

Theta101

The dashboard will initially show pensions held with Aviva, Aon, HSBC, LV, Nest, Now, Royal London, Standard Life, Zurich, the People's Pension and Willis Towers Watson.

That's interesting!

I have an old pension pot with Royal London, but I am unable to access it online.
Royal London say they are working on it!!

I can access my other pots.

dunstonh

Strange to see HSBC on that list as they sold their life and pensions business. Unless they are starting a new book (or have recently started a new book).

Willis Towers Watson are a farce when it comes to pensions. Why take 2 days when you can take 2 weeks.

neilvw

NEST will allow transfers in and out from April 2017.