What pension fund information should I retain?

MoneyQuestioner

Hi, I am drowning in annual pension fund statements (annual and quarterly statements etc) and I want to thin out what I'm keeping, but I don't want to get rid of anything that I'll need later on (I'm decades away from retirement). I never refer back to them at all. I'd be very grateful for advice on what I need to keep and what I should scrap. I don't want to have to scan everything in either - there's too much so it isn't realistic (I've got info coming in from five schemes. Can't consolidate so that's not going to change). Thank you so much for your help!

kidmugsy

Keep at least the first stuff you got from each scheme: that gives you a record of when you became a member. Maybe even keep the annual statements that record contributions. Once you are no longer contributing you could keep fewer; maybe the most recent and otherwise every fifth year's?

I didn't keep stuff from a scheme which I had left, receiving a refund of contributions. Once I had done some consolidation then I shredded the obsolete stuff. But otherwise I kept the lot, and I had more than five.

GibbsRule_No3

Perhaps scan everything from this point as you get it as well. If you scan when you receive it, it might not be as bad. Buy a dedicated USB and use it just for the Pension stuff. Just hope that technology lasts until you reach retirement age :rotfl:

BobQ

Which schemes do you have pensions with, can they be consolidated into one fund?

LHW99

Do any of the schemes have online access?
If so, see if any of the statement information you have is already available from the websites and save it somewhere safe that is backed up regularly.
Use that method to save things from now on and opt out of paper statements for those schemes.

dunstonh

First and latest is often the minimum but no harm in keeping all. Especially if you can scan it and keep it electronically.

Sometimes a statement may contain a change of T&C. For example, with a provider notified a change that was beneficial to the policyholders back in 2001. It never repeated that text in any future statements. It honours that change but unless you know it exists with that provider or you kept the statement, you would never know about it. So, keeping old statements can be beneficial.