Pension review

rockchick113

I've got an appointment at skipton building society with a plan on reviewing my pensions. I've got a pension with Phoenix life, which took over my old brittinic pension. At the moment it's worth 38k with payments of £45 month.
I also have another with Zurich which was linked to a life insurance which is no longer running. That plan as a value of 8k with no payments being made into it.
I also have a works pension with my local council pension fund.
I'm 51 and getting older by the day.
Question is what should I be asking the adviser at Skipton ? To get the best advice.

dunstonh

I've got an appointment at skipton building society with a plan on reviewing my pensions.

Strange choice of distribution to have a review of something so important?
What attracts you to them?
banks and building societies have a dreadful record on financial advice and Skipton is a restricted service (not independent). Why pay for restricted advice and not independent advice?

Question is what should I be asking the adviser at Skipton ? To get the best advice.

You are not going to get the best advice from Skipton. It could very good advice but you will be limited by their restrictions. So, you cant get "best advice".

What do you want to get out of the advice process?

kidmugsy

saxonman wrote: »

I've got an appointment at skipton building society with a plan on reviewing my pensions. I've got a pension with Phoenix life, which took over my old brittinic pension. At the moment it's worth 38k with payments of £45 month.
I also have another with Zurich which was linked to a life insurance which is no longer running. That plan as a value of 8k with no payments being made into it.
I also have a works pension with my local council pension fund.
I'm 51 and getting older by the day.

You need to do your homework before you see any sort of advisor, otherwise you might be wasting your time. In particular, for each of the two pensions establish whether they have any advantage you might lose if you transferred them e.g. a guaranteed annuity rate, or a With Profits terminal bonus. Also see what the paperwork says about charges you might face for transferring.

Ask at work about the LGPS: would they allow you to transfer in your two old pensions and, if so, on what terms?

rockchick113

dunstonh wrote: »

Strange choice of distribution to have a review of something so important?
What attracts you to them?
banks and building societies have a dreadful record on financial advice and Skipton is a restricted service (not independent). Why pay for restricted advice and not independent advice?



You are not going to get the best advice from Skipton. It could very good advice but you will be limited by their restrictions. So, you cant get "best advice".

What do you want to get out of the advice process?

I know knowing about pensions, things like that scare me to death.
Skipton offer financial advice, so I just thought why no go to them, because I'm a customer they only charge if I take up their advice.
I can't afford to go to a independent financial adviser.
Now I'm wondering if I should just cancel.

dunstonh

I can't afford to go to a independent financial adviser.

You wont be able to afford Skipton either. These initial meetings are sounding out meetings. You get the first one free with IFAs as well.

Now I'm wondering if I should just cancel.

An IFA would likely be able to improve terms on the Phoenix pension. So, there could be a cost saving there. However, the rest of it likely to tell you that you dont have enough saved towards retirement and that you should put aside more.

OldMusicGuy

Maybe you should not cancel, but you should be aware like the previous posters said, their advice will not be impartial and they are basically trying to sell you stuff. So whatever you do, don't commit to doing anything on the spot.

You need to educate yourself about pensions. Unless you are planning to work until you drop, you need to plan for your retirement, which could last quite a long time. You cannot afford to just ignore it and hope someone else will sort it out for you, especially if you cannot afford to pay an IFA.

Start by reading some of the information at places like this: https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement#

You need to find out first how much your state pension and LG pension will be, you can get a forecast for your state pension online (but you need to register) and you should be able to get a forecast from the local govmt scheme. You need to know that information before you can decide what you want to do with the other pensions.

Best of luck, age 51 is a good time to start paying attention to this. Get reading, and dig out all the old paperwork you have on those schemes. You will need to have more information before the knowledgeable folks on here can answer your questions.

LHW99

And having the information as OldMusicGuy suggests will help either the Skipton advisor, or an IFA to make better suggestions.

rockchick113

Ok thanks for the advice, more confused now on whst to do.
How do you find a IFA that you can trust.

GibbsRule_No3

You mention a Local Council pension, are you working with them still and if so are you a union member? Unions often have financial advice on hand for members, I know mine offers the service, at least one visit will be free and I'd hope they could be trusted.

bigadaj

GibbsRule_No3 wrote: »

You mention a Local Council pension, are you working with them still and if so are you a union member? Unions often have financial advice on hand for members, I know mine offers the service, at least one visit will be free and I'd hope they could be trusted.

The problem is they are generally restricted too, though unions are moving away from this as the advice isn't fully independent.

dunstonh

GibbsRule_No3 wrote: »

You mention a Local Council pension, are you working with them still and if so are you a union member? Unions often have financial advice on hand for members, I know mine offers the service, at least one visit will be free and I'd hope they could be trusted.

Nice idea and in theory it should be a good idea. However, it has never been like that. The unions have retailed some awful products over the years and taken the commission for doing so. Nowadays, they use restricted advisers and take a cut of the adviser charge.

First meeting is always free. Advisers are not allowed to charge you until they have told you the charge and you have agreed it.