Husband's SW Pension

MallyGirl

Hi
I have been looking at one of my husband's pensions in the light of comments made on here recently. I have transferred my own old pensions to a SIPP and am quite happy with how that is going but when I look at our combined situation I am not so comfortable.

I have a very small DB so am only looking at DC side - he has no DB.

My current pot is £265k due to a significant time working part time/not thinking beyond getting the max from employer. He has been more aggressive in his contributions so his allocations skew things when looked at in combination. His pot is currently £580k.

Part of his pot is the current company one so we are leaving that alone but he also has:
Sun Life of Canada - £257k - 100% equities (43% UK). He probably said he was prepared for high risk when he last changed allocations (in 2013) but we are now 51 and I am not sure this is right any more.
Scottish Widows - £224k - 55% equities, 13% cash/other, 16.5% property, 15% bonds. Was a GPPP and we pay £20 pcm to keep the fees at 'active member' rates.

I have seen people say that property should only form a small percentage but he has 8.5% overall in there (and its 15% of his company one so growing).
Equity % also seems aggressive!
I don't know if the SW is one of the "my, my sir - pensions have moved on since this one". Same with SLC - he is out of punitive transfer fees now.

I felt comfortable with dealing with my own pensions but his numbers are much bigger. Would we be better to see an IFA or could we be better off just transferring the lot to a SIPP in something like HSBC Global strategy Balanced since we hope to retire in about 8 years (at 60).

I know people cannot 'advise' but I would be interested in a few gut reactions.

Albermarle

I have a couple of older ex employer Personal Pensions . They tick over quite nicely and I have on line access for changing funds etc . Costs are OK as they still have the original employer discounts .
The only significant issue is that although both providers websites say they offer drawdown, in fact when you get down to the detail , you have to open a new personal pension/SIPP with them and then transfer your old one to it and the charging structure will change . Also it is not a quick process.
So as I have to go through this process anyway it made sense to shop around the market and maybe open a new pension with one of the SIPP providers , who tend to be more flexible and a little cheaper ( usually but not always ) In fact I am just in the middle of doing that .

DT2001

If you are not comfortable dealing with the larger pots see an IFA. I guess that as you are a regular contributor you’ll have worked out what income you want at retirement and how to fund any shortfall before SPA so it should be easier to see what risk level you need to achieve that.
I moved to an IFA when I felt I had less time to ‘correct’ any adventurous investments that failed to perform. Solid performance has given me peace of mind. A higher return would not affect my retirement plan.