Pension Sharing Order

angelhope

Can anyone help me with this?!
I received a PSO when I divorced (6 ISH years ago)  I have not done anything with it up until now. It's stands at approximately £157,000 . What can I put it into please? I do not have any other pensions, I will be relying on this money to live abroad. I am currently 49 years old.
Many thanks 😊

Brynsam

Do you need to put it anywhere, or can it be left where it is?

gm0

Fellow consumer not adviser.

Age 55 minimum for any access. You are pre the rise to 57 for access expected in 2028 I think.

This is potentially a more complex query based on the overseas element.  And there are specific pitfalls related to that. Sorry if the following sounds patronising.  It is hard to assess prior knowledge in forums like this.
 
UK pensions

A good read of the forum FAQ and links and a conversation with the government Pension Wise service about your options for drawing a UK pension fund and product would likely be helpful. 

Where you want to end up may influence where you move it to now (if you do at all) for the last period of any saving before you can take it.  

Annuity purchase and Drawdown products are the main "roads" you can travel. 

Take a look at Pension Wise website.  Consider going to see them.  Expect jargon but they have made an effort to make it accessible.  If you get to grips with it great.  If not then you may need professional help to set this up and run it.  If you search for that make sure it is independent - whole of market advice. (Read the "find an IFA threads).  Avoid salesman for a single company aka FA.    When people come here and ask which SIPP provider should I use - I have £x they get sent to a spreadsheet of charges to work out the current answer for a DIY SIPP.  People will be a bit reluctant to do that with this query as we don't know anything about your situation and whether that particular product type (SIPP) or drawdown or DIY is in any way appropriate for you.  All we know is the amount and the comment about overseas later.  Your phrasing suggests someone recently starting to think about pensions.   Giving you an exact but entirely inappropriate answer is not helpful.  So don't be surprised if you don't get a quick "this is the answer".  There is some thinking you need to do.

Overseas factor

If you are going to be back and forth to the UK, remain tax resident and have a workable address here then things are different to the case where you aim to cut ties completely and go abroad permanently.  Also currency of pension and expenses not matching and how you will deal with that and how often - upfront, monthly, yearly   There are ways to move a pension overseas to what will then be a local product which locks in the currency at a particular time (for good or ill). But international pension transfer has been an area fraught with poor value and outright scams.  Setting up a UK pension here and managing the cash you take out to support what you need as you go is much safer in terms of fraud and reversibility of moving abroad - but leaves you with an ongoing currency FX rate to manage.  If you think about the people living in Spain with UK pensions pre-2016 and the sudden drop at Brexit referendum in how many Euros the fixed £ pension income would buy.  Not funny if you were living to the edge of income already. State pension rules are also different for ex-pats. I dimly recall some issues over what gets "indexed" and what doesn't for different types of claimant with a UK tie (tax resident) or not.  You need to check on this depending upon your plans to be overseas and for how long and where you will be tax resident.

Can't be more help than to flag a few common hotspots for the unwary and suggest Pension Wise + FAQ for pointers to get up to speed on choices of product type so you can pick your way between drawdown and annuity options and what they mean for your retirement income, heirs, and risks you keep or do not keep.   When you have done that and are provider shopping for a specific shape of solution the forum has plenty of strong opinions on the major players.  And there are plenty of threads on how to find an adviser if you go that way, prices, key questions to ask etc.

Good luck

crv1963

OP- have you actually implemented the PSO? If so where is the money/ investment now? Or is that the share you are due to have from your former spouse?

Brynsam

gm0 said:

Fellow consumer not adviser.
Take a look at Pension Wise website.  Consider going to see them.  

Too young - need to be at least 50 before you can make an appointment. Useful info on website, though - and probably helpful to give the link: https://www.pensionwise.gov.uk/en

angelhope

CRV1963
The PSO is currently still sitting in Thames Water pension where my ex spouse was working. As he has several pensions it was agreed that I would take this entire pension as apposed to percentages of different pensions. I have recently spoken to someone in pensions and he suggests putting it into an Aviva pension. . I am seriously naive to all this and really struggle understanding it all 😔

angelhope

gm0
Thank you for such an informative reply! I am still trying to figure it out! I am one of life's naive financial individuals that has very little knowledge regarding anything financial. . .I will re-read and look into the links you suggested.
Many thanks 😊

hyubh

angelhope said:

CRV1963
The PSO is currently still sitting in Thames Water pension where my ex spouse was working.

Does this mean you are a 'pension credit' member of the scheme, i.e. have your own DB pension in it...? If so, why not just draw the DB income when due?

angelhope

hyubh said:

angelhope said:

CRV1963
The PSO is currently still sitting in Thames Water pension where my ex spouse was working.

Does this mean you are a 'pension credit' member of the scheme, i.e. have your own DB pension in it...? If so, why not just draw the DB income when due?

No I am not. . I just have a PSO from the divorce, the pension is currently still in his name! 😳

 

RSVP2000

Is your first port of call to contact Thames water? Should you not be a member of their scheme in your own name now?

Kynthia

the best thing is to understand what you have before you can decide whether you need to change it. So contact Thames Water to see if you can have the pension there in your name and claim it as a normal scheme member would with the normal benefits. If yes then you might want to leave it there and keep it a Defined Benefit pension for life rather than move it out to a defined contribution scheme that is a pot of money subject to investment risk.

Find out what you can first and I'm sure people here will help you understand the answers you get.