Transferring pensions

rosielondon

Hi all

I'm trying to understand pensions (like a lot of people). I've currently got 3 quite small pots of money and working through how transferring or consolidating them works.

As far as I can see, they're 'defined contribution' pensions, without any sort of special guarantees. My current employer is adding to a NEST one so keen to keep that.

Is there a charge for transferring out? Otherwise, I'm with Willis Towers Watson and Royal London. Have people usually got charged with these guys? (And how do I actually do it? i.e. how lengthy/much work will this process be?)

I'm 29. Have many people my age bothered to consolidate? I imagine I'll have to do the task again when I have new jobs in the future (unless there is a way around that?). How come you've transferred, if you've done it well before retirement?

Thanks all.

xylophone

If you are happy with NEST you could explore a transfer in.

https://www.nestpensions.org.uk/schemeweb/memberhelpcentre/transfers/transfer-money-into-nest.html

Dox

rosielondon wrote: »

As far as I can see, they're 'defined contribution' pensions, without any sort of special guarantees. My current employer is adding to a NEST one so keen to keep that.

Is there a charge for transferring out? Stakeholder pensions do not have an exit charge. Many other modern personal pension contracts do not have exit charges. Given your age, you are likely to have 'modern' contracts, but the only way to be sure is to ask each provider. Just ring their helpline or contact online to ask for a current transfer value. Otherwise, I'm with Willis Towers Watson they are just third party administrators; depends on the pension scheme they are administering. Check with the scheme/WTWand Royal London depends on the contract. Have people usually got charged with these guys? (And how do I actually do it? i.e. how lengthy/much work will this process be?) Decide on the 'destination' and then talk to that pension scheme to check what needs to be done. IT's far less onerous than it sounds, by the way!

I'm 29. Have many people my age bothered to consolidate? I imagine I'll have to do the task again when I have new jobs in the future (unless there is a way around that?). How come you've transferred, if you've done it well before retirement?

Yes, you'll need to transfer future pensions if you want them all in one place. Not many people your age bother to even think about it, so good on you. Just make sure that you are consolidating into a low-charging scheme with no exit penalties and sufficient investment choice for your needs, which might become more sophisticated as you get older - but you can always transfer the consolidated pot to somewhere else as your needs alter.

Albermarle

As you say you need to keep the NEST pension , but an alternative would be to consolidate one of the other two pensions into the other one as a first step. As said it is less complicated than you might think.
There was a couple of similar questions asked a couple of days ago :
So read this thread
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6030172/multiple-auto-enrolled-pensions
and there is a link to another thread in it .

jsinc

I moved an old Royal London pension into a SIPP earlier this year. Took 8 days. Was done because underperforming, fees were too high even factoring in small profit-share, and all-UK which left me with more overall UK exposure than I want. Had no guarantees to complicate things, and under £10k. Involved getting details and value from RL and filling in recipient form online. Charges/not will depend on your scheme, and sometimes they'll be covered by the recipient firm. Mine didn't have any transfer charge.

Best to first confirm details of existing and prospective pensions:
https://www.pensionwise.gov.uk/en/transfer-pension

For example have another old pension with L&G. But it's a trustee buy out plan with lower negotiated fees. I can't transfer into it but also don't yet want to lose that cost advantage by transferring out.

Edit: also helped someone else transfer a Royal London Stakeholder pension (previously Co-op) to another stakeholder. That took longer - over a month - but involved a 3rd party, paper forms, post. No transfer charge.

wjr4

What are the values of the pensions? As long as there are no guarantees on them (unlikely because of your age), it is usually fine to transfer. NEST do not charge a transfer-in fee but they have a limited fund range. Would you prefer a pension with a larger fund range or are you happy with what you have? Also, make sure you review your NEST funds as the Higher Risk fund is probably most suitable for your age (this is not advice!) as you have a long time until you can access your pension.

Don't forget to nominate a beneficiary on all pensions (if you leave them where they are).

rosielondon

Thank you all! No charges on my specific scheme, according to WTW. And neither Royal London. One is ok sized, and the other ones small (< £5k). My current NEST investment choice is indeed the Higher Risk fund! Someone told me to do that a while back. I had a look at the Cavendish options on the other thread somebody posted.

People have said it's less complicated than you might think... but having to phone up and talk with the providers myself already seems pretty tiresome. And lots of the forms to do transfers seem to be PAPER... shock, horror. Maybe it's just the ones I've seen that don't but I'd expect each provider to already know where my other pensions are. Surely there's some common info about me linking all these schemes together?? Obviously not... I've heard of friends where they have two separate accounts at the same place (like Aviva).

Anyway, thanks for everyone's help! I'm going to choose where to move to then get on with it : )

Keith_Clunk

Although almost twice your age, I consolidated a number of pensions earlier this year into a new SIPP account with AJ Bell. I think the way forward is to choose your pension's destination first, then they will do all the legwork for you. AJB did everything, also covered exit/transfer costs up to a certain amount but I wasn't aware of there being any.

One of my pots was through Willis Towers Watson, the actual pension was with Moneybee.

All transfers were completed within 2 weeks, with the exception of WTW, which is still pending many months later, I found them frustatingly far more anal than any other provider.

Two of my pension were with Phoenix Life, they seemed very efficient in the transfers.

Albermarle

Maybe it's just the ones I've seen that don't but I'd expect each provider to already know where my other pensions are. Surely there's some common info about me linking all these schemes together??

The pensions providers are all commercial companies in competition with each other , so would probably be illegal/anti competitive for them to share personal info. I am sure a lot of customers would also be very unhappy about it.
As far as I know the only organisation who knows where all your pensions are is HMRC .

SonOf

Maybe it's just the ones I've seen that don't but I'd expect each provider to already know where my other pensions are.

Why would that be the case?
Apart from a data protection breach, there is no reason for them to do so.

And lots of the forms to do transfers seem to be PAPER.

Only if one or both sides do not use Origo Options for transfer. Towers watson will be heavy in paper but both Nest and Royal London are paperless and use Origo. And well done to Nest for improving their transfer process compared to a few years ago.

I've heard of friends where they have two separate accounts at the same place (like Aviva).

Very common and quite normal.
1 - Aviva have bought many companies over the years. Commercial Union, Guardian, Friends Provident, AXA Sun Life and many many others.
2 - Legacy pensions (not so much modern ones) were issued in versions. Someone may have taken out a version 1 but when they came to top up, there may have been a newer version and it was better for the top up to go into the new version rather than the old one.
3 - There have been different types of pensions. PPPs, SHPs, S226 RACs, S32 Buy out bonds, hybrid schemes, master trust schemes, AVcs, FSAVCs, COMPs/CIMPS etc. Its not always best to consolidate into one plan.

Silvertabby

“ Maybe it's just the ones I've seen that don't but I'd expect each provider to already know where my other pensions are. Surely there's some common info about me linking all these schemes together??

Albermarle wrote: »

The pensions providers are all commercial companies in competition with each other , so would probably be illegal/anti competitive for them to share personal info. I am sure a lot of customers would also be very unhappy about it.
As far as I know the only organisation who knows where all your pensions are is HMRC .

When I retired, there was a plan for a LGPS database, which any LGPS could access to see if 'their' pensioner had any other LGPS benefits with another local authority, purely in order to comply with the rules re trivial commutation, death benefits, etc. I can't see how a universal pensions database could be possible for the reasons Albermarle gives.