ex employer pension

Brynsam

madlyn wrote: »

The old one is ran by Legal & General for M&S and if I remember correctly once you had been paying into your pension for 3 years, if you ever left you were unable to transfer to another pension. I left after 4 years.

That doesn't sound right. You normally have a statutory right to transfer at your age. Check.

madlyn

So, after lots of phone calls and e-mails this is my pension situation now.
I pay 3% of my monthly wage into my pension fund and this is matched by my employer.
I have increased my monthly payments into my private pension.
My ex employer pension from M&S is not open to new money being paid into it, I can move it to my private pension but the fund I pay into does not accept new money either, so I would need to pick a fund to pay into. This for me was way to confusing and as I'm under 55 I cannot cash the pension in so it is sitting with the pension provider doing it's thing.

cloud_dog

madlyn wrote: »

So, after lots of phone calls and e-mails this is my pension situation now.
I pay 3% of my monthly wage into my pension fund and this is matched by my employer.
I have increased my monthly payments into my private pension.
My ex employer pension from M&S is not open to new money being paid into it, I can move it to my private pension but the fund I pay into does not accept new money either, so I would need to pick a fund to pay into. This for me was way to confusing and as I'm under 55 I cannot cash the pension in so it is sitting with the pension provider doing it's thing.

Why?

I thought your current employer would match contributions up to 5% (?), and also are you able to benefit from salary sacrifice?

kidmugsy

madlyn wrote: »

I pay 3% of my monthly wage into my pension fund and this is matched by my employer. I have increased my monthly payments into my private pension.

For the reasons explained earlier, this is a poor decision. You'd get far better value for money by increasing your contributions to your scheme at work instead.

madlyn wrote: »

My ex employer pension from M&S ... as I'm under 55 I cannot cash the pension in so it is sitting with the pension provider doing it's thing.

That's probably fine. Be sure to keep them up to date with your address and marital status. By the way, is the M&S pension a "DB" pension, for example a Final Salary pension?

madlyn

My employer pension is done through salary sacrifice, I pay 3% and they match it. The window in which I can change my contributions only opens once a year in January I believe. If come next Jan I am in a position to increase my contributions I will.
I am fully aware that I should pay as much as possible in to my pension, but I do have other responsibilities so I pay what I can afford.

xylophone

By the way, is the M&S pension a "DB" pension, for example a Final Salary pension?

I think you had to have joined M&S well before four years ago to be a member of the DB Scheme?

This is probably the OP's scheme.

https://www.legalandgeneral.com/workplacebenefits/microsites/marksandspencer/#

madlyn

I believe the M&S pension is a defined contributions plan

xylophone

The old one is ran by Legal & General for M&S and if I remember correctly once you had been paying into your pension for 3 years, if you ever left you were unable to transfer to another pension. I left after 4 years.

According to the booklet in link in my post above (page 18) if you joined before 1 October 2015

2. completed more than two years’ membership, you can either:
• leave your Savings Pot invested in the Plan until you decide to take
your benefits. You won’t be able to make any new contributions but
you’ll be able to continue investing in the range of funds available
to you and you’ll have the same retirement options.

• transfer the full value of your Savings Pot to another Registered
Pension Scheme.

Had you considered a transfer to your private pension with Aegon?

madlyn

I have considered this, but the money I was planning on moving would not be invested into the same fund as my current pension with Aegon, so I would need to choose another fund. They e-mailed me a link with the available funds and there must have around 70 to choose from. So to avoid choosing the wrong fund and possibly losing money I decided not to move the M&S money.

cloud_dog

madlyn wrote: »

My employer pension is done through salary sacrifice, I pay 3% and they match it. The window in which I can change my contributions only opens once a year in January I believe. If come next Jan I am in a position to increase my contributions I will.
I am fully aware that I should pay as much as possible in to my pension, but I do have other responsibilities so I pay what I can afford.

I think the point people are trying to make (accepting that you cannot increase your payment until 1 Jan), is that rather than increasing your own personal pension/SIPP payments you would be far better off, from a pure financial perspective, in increasing your work pension (when you can).

Not only will you benefit from the employers matched contribution but by using salary sacrifice you will gain an additional reduction in your NI contributions of 12% (for a basic rate taxpayer).