Nest VS Standard Life

complex_matt

Hey Everyone

First of all can i say i know pretty much nothing about pensions, iv come to an age where i need to start making sure i have the correct one for my needs etc.

I work for a company that auto enrolls employees on the Nest pension scheme, i was enrolled back in 2013 and have been paying in every since (3% from me and 2% from my employer).

The company also offer a Standard Life pension which offers (4% from me and 3% from my employer)

I got an email recently saying they are changing the Nest contributions to (5% from me and 3% from my employer)

I just wanna ask, if im ok paying 5% of my salary, is there any point in the Standard Life pension? My employer is paying the same % on both, its just me paying 1% more with Nest.

I only ask as i dont know if there are variables between the 2, tried to ask our Personnel Dept but they fairly said they cant give me advice.

Thanks for your Help

Brynsam

Personnel can't give advice but they can and should give information - particularly information about the charges for each of the schemes. Unfortunately the comparison may not be entirely straightforward, given that NEST takes a slug upfront from each contribution and then an ongoing charge; Standard Life normally only takes an ongoing charge - but it may be higher or lower than NEST, depending on your fund choice.

Standard Life will almost certainly give you a bigger choice of funds, but for a novice, that may not be much use if you aren't sure what you're looking at!

Find out the charging info (should also be on the websites for the two providers) then give TPAS a call for free, impartial information if you want to talk things through: https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk

planteria

has anyone explained to you why the company pensions with two separate companies?
and others will confirm, are minimum contributions being set at 5&3 across the board?

Paul_Herring

complex_matt wrote: »

Hey Everyone

First of all can i say i know pretty much nothing about pensions, iv come to an age where i need to start making sure i have the correct one for my needs etc.

I work for a company that auto enrolls employees on the Nest pension scheme, i was enrolled back in 2013 and have been paying in every since (3% from me and 2% from my employer).

The company also offer a Standard Life pension which offers (4% from me and 3% from my employer)

First off, it's unusual for an employer to have two different (active) pension schemes on the go.

Can you confirm that your employer is paying 2% (soon to be 3%) into the NEST in addition to 3% into the Standard Life? Or is this an either/or as to which is getting funded?

I got an email recently saying they are changing the Nest contributions to (5% from me and 3% from my employer)

That's the absolute minimum required of an autoenrolement scheme from April.

But since your employer appears to have two schemes on the go at the moment, the NEST one appears to be the designated one for that purpose, hence the increase.

I just wanna ask, if im ok paying 5% of my salary, is there any point in the Standard Life pension? My employer is paying the same % on both, its just me paying 1% more with Nest.

If your employer is contributing into both schemes as well (i.e. for a total contribution from them of 6%) then it's worth it, because otherwise you wouldn't be getting their contribution. You will, most likely, have to contribute the requisite minimum yourself in order to get ir.

Otherwise, apart from an overriding "you should be saving as much as you can for your pension at those levels" there's no particular reason to be contributing to both.