Consolidation advice

doodlez1612

Hi everyone. I have several bitty pensions from short stints in various companies and would like to consolidate them into one. I am trying to compare the plans to decide whether to move it all into an existing plan or open a new one (probably Hargreaves Lansdown SIPP) but other than taking into account any transfer fees I’m not sure what figures I need to compare to help decide what’s best. 

Can anyone give me any pointers?

Also what’s the general consensus on PensionBee? It sounds a nice and simple solution. but I’m skeptical and feel there must be a catch. 

Thanks.

P.S. I’m 34 so no intentions to withdraw anything any time soon.

MallyGirl

there shouldn't be transfer fees for transferring a normal DC pension.
Where, and whether, to transfer depends on charges and the investment options available in the receiving pension. PensionBee seems quite limited in its investment choices.
HL is generally seen as a bit pricey but it depends on the value of funds you hold.

dunstonh

Also what’s the general consensus on PensionBee?

They do a very good job catering for small investors.  However, its a world apart from having a whole of market SIPP. 

Albermarle

You should look at the range of investments on offer and whether they suit your purpose.
Pension Bee has a handful - some personal type pensions/restricted Sipps, might have between 20 and 300 ( sometimes only funds ) and whole of market Sipps have thousands of investment choices.
Then you have to think about how you want to invest - regular monthly- lump sums - just funds or shares etc as well
Then the current and potential size of the total pot  ( some platforms are cheaper for smaller pots and some for bigger pots )
Then have a look at a couple of comparison sites 
https://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/
http://www.comparefundplatforms.com/
However  remember , investment performance is much more significant than platform fees .

doodlez1612

...and this is why I have always stuck to savings accounts with return figures in black and white rather than dabbling in stocks! Far too confusing. 

Maybe I’ll just leave them all where they are and hope.   

AlanP_2

Assuming you were happy with the investment choices you made for the existing pensions, which may have been no more onerous than going with their default fund, and presumably would be happy with the same or similar choice on a new platform the thing to look at is the charges.

You haven't said how much but "bitty" implies relatively low values so unlikley to be any great harm or gain from moving or sticking with them as saving 0.x% on a few thousand isn't going to make a great deal of difference to your standard of living in retirement, although better in your pocket as they say.

The important thing is that you contribute a reasonable amount to a pension.

Take a look at DIY Pensions by John Edwards for a primer in starting to reduce some of the confusion - https://www.amazon.co.uk/DIY-Pensions-Simple-Retirement-Planning/dp/1520782683/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Cash savings have their place for short term requirements but inflation will eat away them over longer timescales.

Albermarle

and this is why I have always stuck to savings accounts with return figures in black and white rather than dabbling in stocks! 

Normally the advice on this forum to newbie investors is NOT to dabble in stocks .

As mentioned above though , regular investing via a pension is in the long term far better than holding everything as cash savings.

Personally I would progress with consolidating your bitty pensions into PensionBee. Simple to operate.

MallyGirl

doodlez1612 said:

...and this is why I have always stuck to savings accounts with return figures in black and white rather than dabbling in stocks! Far too confusing. 

Maybe I’ll just leave them all where they are and hope.   

You can do that but you are going to have to look at it all at some point.
You can leave everything where it is, paying whatever the charges are and being invested in whatever you chose at the start (probably the default fund). It will all tick along.
At some point though you are going to want to retire.
You use the term 'bitty' which implies a few thousand here and there to me - is that the right ballpark? Assuming it is then if everything stays where it is then you might have to take different approaches with each one, all to get a payment of tens or a small number of hundreds of pounds a month. Some old plans seem to only offer an annuity and these aren't great value right now - as you are young this may not be a problem for you but it is for some. If you want to do something more flexible then you will need to transfer to a modern plan at that point, with the associated time lag to sort that out, so why not explore this now while you aren't actually wanting to get at the income?
Whichever provider you choose - HL SIPP which will require you to choose what it is invested in or maybe a stakeholder pension which has some simpler choices based on your profile - the current ones can all be transferred in there. You just ask the receiving provider to organise it and you sign some authorisation forms. Once in one place then there is only one provider you have to update with change of address, nomination of wishes on death, etc.
If the sum involved is more than a few thousand then the advice might be slightly different.
Have you asked whether you can transfer into your current employer's pension scheme?

LHW99

Why don't you find out the charges on all of them, and consolidate into the (existing) one with the lowest charges?

doodlez1612

MallyGirl said:

You use the term 'bitty' which implies a few thousand here and there to me - is that the right ballpark?

Correct but it all adds up. 

Have you asked whether you can transfer into your current employer's pension scheme?

That’s an option but trying to work out which is the best policy to stick with. For example it would presumably be a bit silly to transfer them all into my current one if say the one with the most money in at the moment had the highest transfer value based fee meaning it might make more sense to consolidate everything there. Or one with a low sum in at the moment had some other good rate meaning it makes more sense to consolidate there. (Obv will still have to have my current company one open for the time being but could put that in once I move jobs - 2 pensions for the time being is better than 5.)

doodlez1612

AlanP_2 said:

Assuming you were happy with the investment choices you made for the existing pensions, which may have been no more onerous than going with their default fund, and presumably would be happy with the same or similar choice on a new platform the thing to look at is the charges.

Thanks

AlanP_2 said:

Cash savings have their place for short term requirements but inflation will eat away them over longer timescales.

Definitely. I understand the importance of pensions for savings of this scale it’s just that I’m not clued up enough to choose investments myself and I’d rather some investment company made the decisions on my behalf!