What to do with old contracted out pension?

stulaunch

I'm 57, self employed. Over the last year or so I have attempted to get my head out of the sand and try to get a grip with my pension position.
I have 4 different pensions and I'm not sure what to do with them. All are pretty small, compared to what I read most people have on this forum, but I have not been a big earner, I work in building trade and have been Self Employed since 1989.
I believe I will have to work upto retirement age, 10 yrs to go. I have checked my state pension forecast, and will get full pension.
I started a Sipp 2yrs ago, which I have been able to put in around £250 / month, It's with AJ Bell and I just invest in  HSBC Global Strategy Balanced. 

I would like to know what options I have with my pensions. Whether I should merge them. I quite enjoy the simplicity of the Sipp. But I read about guarantees on some older pensions so not too sure.
Because I do find it complicated, can I just start with my old contracted out pension?
It's with Standard Life, total transfer value £17985
Investments are: 1, Pension with profits fund (CLOSED) risk 2, Value £7279
                            2, SL Managed Pension fund, risk 4,               Value £10687
Charges are 0.703%, £126.45 per year.

But It does tell me, your plan has a valuable guarantee which you would lose if you transferred it.
Do I need to find out more about that?
Thanks for looking, if there is anything I can add, please ask? 

Marcon

stulaunch said:

I'm 57, self employed. Over the last year or so I have attempted to get my head out of the sand and try to get a grip with my pension position.
I have 4 different pensions and I'm not sure what to do with them. All are pretty small, compared to what I read most people have on this forum, but I have not been a big earner, I work in building trade and have been Self Employed since 1989.
I believe I will have to work upto retirement age, 10 yrs to go. I have checked my state pension forecast, and will get full pension.
I started a Sipp 2yrs ago, which I have been able to put in around £250 / month, It's with AJ Bell and I just invest in  HSBC Global Strategy Balanced. 

I would like to know what options I have with my pensions. Whether I should merge them. I quite enjoy the simplicity of the Sipp. But I read about guarantees on some older pensions so not too sure.
Because I do find it complicated, can I just start with my old contracted out pension?
It's with Standard Life, total transfer value £17985
Investments are: 1, Pension with profits fund (CLOSED) risk 2, Value £7279
                            2, SL Managed Pension fund, risk 4,               Value £10687
Charges are 0.703%, £126.45 per year.

But It does tell me, your plan has a valuable guarantee which you would lose if you transferred it.
Do I need to find out more about that?
Thanks for looking, if there is anything I can add, please ask? 

Don't worry about what other people claim to have. You only need to think about your own position, not compare it to other people's.

Probably your best starting point is to assemble whatever paperwork you can find, ask for up to date fund values from each provider and book a free appointment with PensionWise: https://www.pensionwise.gov.uk/en. Lots of useful basic information on their website which might be worth reading now.

That's probably going to be a lot quicker and much more useful than dripping information piecemeal here on a scheme by scheme basis.

Linton

You must check the value of the guarantee.  Pensions from the 1980s can have guaranteed annuity rates of 11% which is a far higher return than you could get now from your money with any degree of certainty whatever you did with it.

Albermarle

But It does tell me, your plan has a valuable guarantee which you would lose if you transferred it.
Do I need to find out more about that?

Yes - give them a call , normally SL customer service is quite good ( before Covid anyway )

GunJack

If there's a good guaranteed annuity rate on the old pension, and if they'll let you, you might be better piling some of the SIPP cash into it....

stulaunch

GunJack said:

If there's a good guaranteed annuity rate on the old pension, and if they'll let you, you might be better piling some of the SIPP cash into it....

Thanks, do you mean that they might not tell me what guarantee is on the pension? 
Also, will any guarantee be on the 'with profits' fund?

stulaunch

stulaunch said:

GunJack said:

If there's a good guaranteed annuity rate on the old pension, and if they'll let you, you might be better piling some of the SIPP cash into it....

Thanks, do you mean that they might not tell me what guarantee is on the pension? 
Also, will any guarantee be on the 'with profits' fund?

Sorry GunJack, I read your reply as 'if they tell you' 

Brynsam

stulaunch said:

GunJack said:

If there's a good guaranteed annuity rate on the old pension, and if they'll let you, you might be better piling some of the SIPP cash into it....

Thanks, do you mean that they might not tell me what guarantee is on the pension? 
Also, will any guarantee be on the 'with profits' fund?

You need to find out.

Forget the idea of paying any more cash into it - they certainly won't give you any guarantees on that!

stulaunch

Marcon said:

stulaunch said:

I'm 57, self employed. Over the last year or so I have attempted to get my head out of the sand and try to get a grip with my pension position.
I have 4 different pensions and I'm not sure what to do with them. All are pretty small, compared to what I read most people have on this forum, but I have not been a big earner, I work in building trade and have been Self Employed since 1989.
I believe I will have to work upto retirement age, 10 yrs to go. I have checked my state pension forecast, and will get full pension.
I started a Sipp 2yrs ago, which I have been able to put in around £250 / month, It's with AJ Bell and I just invest in  HSBC Global Strategy Balanced. 

I would like to know what options I have with my pensions. Whether I should merge them. I quite enjoy the simplicity of the Sipp. But I read about guarantees on some older pensions so not too sure.
Because I do find it complicated, can I just start with my old contracted out pension?
It's with Standard Life, total transfer value £17985
Investments are: 1, Pension with profits fund (CLOSED) risk 2, Value £7279
                            2, SL Managed Pension fund, risk 4,               Value £10687
Charges are 0.703%, £126.45 per year.

But It does tell me, your plan has a valuable guarantee which you would lose if you transferred it.
Do I need to find out more about that?
Thanks for looking, if there is anything I can add, please ask? 

Don't worry about what other people claim to have. You only need to think about your own position, not compare it to other people's.

Probably your best starting point is to assemble whatever paperwork you can find, ask for up to date fund values from each provider and book a free appointment with PensionWise: https://www.pensionwise.gov.uk/en. Lots of useful basic information on their website which might be worth reading now.

That's probably going to be a lot quicker and much more useful than dripping information piecemeal here on a scheme by scheme basis.

Thanks Marcon, I will do that. I have a pension with Scottish Widows too, which I have been contributing to since 1989. I presume this may have a guarantee also?

Albermarle

stulaunch said:

Marcon said:

stulaunch said:

I'm 57, self employed. Over the last year or so I have attempted to get my head out of the sand and try to get a grip with my pension position.
I have 4 different pensions and I'm not sure what to do with them. All are pretty small, compared to what I read most people have on this forum, but I have not been a big earner, I work in building trade and have been Self Employed since 1989.
I believe I will have to work upto retirement age, 10 yrs to go. I have checked my state pension forecast, and will get full pension.
I started a Sipp 2yrs ago, which I have been able to put in around £250 / month, It's with AJ Bell and I just invest in  HSBC Global Strategy Balanced. 

I would like to know what options I have with my pensions. Whether I should merge them. I quite enjoy the simplicity of the Sipp. But I read about guarantees on some older pensions so not too sure.
Because I do find it complicated, can I just start with my old contracted out pension?
It's with Standard Life, total transfer value £17985
Investments are: 1, Pension with profits fund (CLOSED) risk 2, Value £7279
                            2, SL Managed Pension fund, risk 4,               Value £10687
Charges are 0.703%, £126.45 per year.

But It does tell me, your plan has a valuable guarantee which you would lose if you transferred it.
Do I need to find out more about that?
Thanks for looking, if there is anything I can add, please ask? 

Don't worry about what other people claim to have. You only need to think about your own position, not compare it to other people's.

Probably your best starting point is to assemble whatever paperwork you can find, ask for up to date fund values from each provider and book a free appointment with PensionWise: https://www.pensionwise.gov.uk/en. Lots of useful basic information on their website which might be worth reading now.

That's probably going to be a lot quicker and much more useful than dripping information piecemeal here on a scheme by scheme basis.

Thanks Marcon, I will do that. I have a pension with Scottish Widows too, which I have been contributing to since 1989. I presume this may have a guarantee also?

No you can not presume that . You need to look at the paperwork and see if anything like that is mentioned.

dunstonh

Thanks, do you mean that they might not tell me what guarantee is on the pension? 

They will tell you if you ask them.

Also, will any guarantee be on the 'with profits' fund?

The guarantee and investment fund are two different things and are not linked.

 have a pension with Scottish Widows too, which I have been contributing to since 1989. I presume this may have a guarantee also?

SW were the last ones to pull guaranteed annuity rates for new business in 1995.  However, they had a range of plans available that did and didnt include GARs.  You cannot presume anything.  Also, some plans branded under SW today didnt start out as SW.  e.g. Black Horse Life, LTSB Life, Clerical Medical and others.