Restarting a pension

chrisclay

Hi
We have just made our final mortgage payment .And now we want to start saving for retirement we are both 57, we are aware that we have left this a little late but due to a disastrous endowment mortgage took longer to complete .
So now we plan to save by paying into a pension,I have a redundant pension with around £7000 in it this is with a company called Reassure,but we are not sure if this is a good company,so do we take a new pension with one of the more well known company and leave the existing one there until retirement .Any advice or experience about this would be good.

Thanks in advance

tacpot12

Do you know that Reassure will let you restart payments into this particular pension? I thought they only bought "closed" books of business.

xylophone

You have other personal/occupational pensions?

Have you each obtained a new state pension statement?

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

https://www.reassure.co.uk/pensions/

The Reassure pension was previously with another provider?

chrisclay

tacpot12 wrote: »

Do you know that Reassure will let you restart payments into this particular pension? I thought they only bought "closed" books of business.

Hi thanks for the reply I have spoken to them and I can start making regular payments or lump sums at any time

chrisclay

xylophone wrote: »

You have other personal/occupational pensions?

Have you each obtained a new state pension statement?



The Reassure pension was previously with another provider?

Thanks forvthe reply
We have no other pensions allthough next year I will have one with my employer und auto enrolment, and yes I did get a pension statement £188.00 per week this will not increase only to keep pace with inflation

chrisclay

The Reassure pension was previously with Barclays
Thanks forvthe reply
We have no other pensions allthough next year I will have one with my employer und auto enrolment, and yes I did get a pension statement £188.00 per week this will not increase only to keep pace with inflation

tacpot12

So, the next questions you need to answer are about the Reassure service and charges. You need to look at what they offer as investments, what their charges are for servicing these investments and what sort of service you get. (I'm currently frustrated with one of my pension providers because the stopped offering an online servicing capability - now everything has to be done over the phone which is much harder).

To help evaluate providers in a very wide marketplace, I find it easier to select a provider that receives good press and compare them to the provider I'm considering. If the provider I'm considering wins, I then start to hunt for someone that can beat them. If I can't find any after a bit of research, I know I've got an ok deal.

dunstonh

Reassure are a closed company that take on dead pension books. It is unusual that the contract will be available for increments. Some do have a reinstatement option but you usually find the charges on those are high and only worth doing if there are guaranteed annuity rates.

Obviously, nobody here knows the terms of the Reassure pension you have but having seen a number of ex Barclays Life plans, I wouldn't use them. Modern plans would almost certainly be better.

chrisclay

Reassure charge 1% per year ,you are allowed to switch funds 10 times per year without any increased charges ,unfortunately this can only be done via the post. There is a choice of around 10 different funds currently I have 50% in each of these funds BL pensions equity series 5 and BL pension European managed series 5
I have spoken to them and they are happy to either start taking payments by direct debit or by lump sums.

Chris

dunstonh

Reassure charge 1% per year

Which is good in 2001. However, it is about double the cost in 2016.

unfortunately this can only be done via the post.

Barclays Life pensions were the equivalent of Black & White TVs even when Colour TVs were available. In 2016, they are black and white TVs when widescreen ultra HD TVs are available.

I have 50% in each of these funds BL pensions equity series 5 and BL pension European managed series 5

Not ideal. You need to look at how you are investing. That is not a very good way of doing it. Not unless you feel Europe Exc UK is going to be the best performing area in the world in the future.

chrisclay

Hi thanks for you reply,it seems that going forward with Reassure is not a good plan,perhaps you give some pointers as to the company's and products I should be considering

Chrsi