pension transferred to scottish widows in 1991

lorrainer58

Hi

Another request for advice.

I had a final year salary pension that ended in 1988, I had paid in for then years.

In 1991 when I took out a personal pension I transferred this to Scottish widow's.
In 2001 a pensions review showed that this wasn't the best deal for me and as they couldn't transfer me back into that fund they offered some money as compensation. Again not really understanding i accepted their advice.

Move forward 15 years and today I asked for an update and found that I can take this pension now if I transfer it to a drawdown scheme.
If I leave it where it is I may make some more money in the next 13 months it may not.
I need some additional funds now to help me reduce my hours at work ( part of my recovery from work related stress)

A friend mentioned that some of these old pensions had additional guarantees, i can't see anything in my paperwork other than a statement which says i shouldn't get less than the amount on my statement from NWW in 1988.
It appears to have performed ok over the years apart from a drop of 7k in 2008 ( they say this was due to the stockmarket at the time.

I have asked the pension advisory service to review this but thought Id ask here for any opinions on the matter.

Much appreciated if you read and respond to this thread

Thanks

Lorraine

dunstonh

friend mentioned that some of these old pensions had additional guarantees, i can't see anything in my paperwork other than a statement which says i shouldn't get less than the amount on my statement from NWW in 1988.

There are different types of guarantees. Most ended by 1990 but a few stragglers held on until 1995.

Is your plan a personal pension or a section 32 buy out bond?

I have asked the pension advisory service to review this but thought Id ask here for any opinions on the matter.

This is not something they do. They will probably tell you to see an IFA or Pensionwise (or both).

AnotherJoe

Sounds like it is invested in the stock market so unlike your other pension, you dont lose too much since you also avoid risk of losing money, and it sounds as if you need it to help you get through the next couple of years, so on the face of it sounds like a plan.

Obviously without full details and not knowing your issues at work it's a hard one for anyone to be definitive about. Even if you lose some guarantees, maybe with your health in mind it's worth taking ?

xylophone

I had a final year salary pension that ended in 1988,

A friend mentioned that some of these old pensions had additional guarantees, i can't see anything in my paperwork other than a statement which says i shouldn't get less than the amount on my statement from NWW in 1988.

Did you transfer a FS pension from North West Water to a S32 buyout bond in order to protect the GMP?

It appears that you also have a deferred FS pension from LGPS?

In addition to these you have other policies with SW?

And a pension from your current employer?

Have you obtained a new state pension statement?

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

Might you benefit from advice from an Independent Financial Adviser?

https://www.unbiased.co.uk/

lorrainer58

update

I have a letter dated 18/8/1993 which states that I may not have been given the best advice on sale and that my pension from 14/3/2018 will be guaranteed at no less than £1155.77 as quoted by the legs on 10th feb 1988 of which the GMP portion of 407.16 pa will be increased by 8.5% pa for each complete tax year from jan 88 to mar 2018. and the non gap portion of 748.61 will be increased by the change in the rpi over the same period with a maximum of 8% per annum. in addition a lump sum of 3467.32 will be payable in 2018 and will be increased in the same manner as the non gmp portion.
from march 2018the whole of this minimum pension in excess of your estimated gmp 4337.38 will increase in line with the rpi.

Does this mean that I do have a guarantee ? this seems more generous than their quotation to me today ?

Thanks

Lorraine

lorrainer58

thanks - i don't think it was a buy out - see my later note below - i do have some form of guarantee.

i have a fs pension frozen from 2005, a sw pension transferred from nwwa, and a current sw pension fund with my current employer

lorraine

AnotherJoe

Spend a couple hundred quid, see an IFA and have them explain what your best course of action is to decrease your earnings now and bridge the gap to your pensions coming on stream when you are 60 and 67.

xylophone

as quoted by the legs

You've lost me.

If you had a FS pension with a GMP then the likeliest scenario is that it was transferred into a S32 policy.

http://www.financialadvice.net/s32_buy_out_plan/zone/1288

https://www.barnett-waddingham.co.uk/comment-insight/blog/2014/08/18/what-is-a-gmp/

If you had left your pension deferred with NWW it would have increased in deferment according to legislation/scheme rules.

It would appear that SW compensated you because you were advised to transfer out the deferred FS pension.

And yes, it would appear that you have guarantees.

Your best course might well be to seek expert advice from an IFA.

sandsy

It looks like you have some valuable guarantees.

So valuable, in fact, that in order to give them up and move into drawdown, you'll be required by law to take advice from a properly authorised adviser first to ensure you understand the implications of doing so.

Scottish Widows themselves would be a good place to start, for understanding the current value of those guarantees and the need to take advice.

lorrainer58

thanks everyone

I have spoken to an ada advisor today and he recommends my first point of contact is to approach SW with a copy of the 1993 letter and ask for a manual calculation. From this I can then get a true valuation and then I can get the right assistance to see if a draw down is the right thing to do now. I am not sure what the alternatives are to make best use of the pension pot so will have to look forth into that.

The fund although guaranteed is small and not worth spending thousands with an IFA to review the value. If i don't like the outcome I guess there is always the ombudsman.

Thanks for all replies, really appreciate it

coyrls

lorrainer58 wrote: »

If i don't like the outcome I guess there is always the ombudsman.

Not liking the outcome would not be sufficient grounds for a complaint to the ombudsman.