Workplace Pension - Transfer Decision

madeinleeds

Hi All
Last year my company changed pension provider and stopped paying into the old one 
I have just had 2 annual statements and the despite Covid, the new pension is performing OK, however the old pension is not and losing money
At this point, I am considering transferring the old value into the new provider. The old pension doesn't appear to have any special terms or guarantees associated with it.
My other option is to keep the old pension and change where the investments are - its in an "adventurous Growth" that could be lowered to Balanced or Cautious
It is also not a final salary pension, I have 2 of these that are relatively low value, and leaving these alone.
Any thoughts on why transferring the previous mentioned pension may not be a good idea? 
Thanks 

  

Marcon

Pensions don't perform; what performs are the individual funds in which your pension savings are invested. If the two pensions are invested in different types of funds, then you'll get different results. 

What are the respective costs like?

madeinleeds

You can spot from my language that I am new at taking an interest in this rather than just assuming that it was being done on my behalf which has been a longer term skoolboy error - but better late than never!
So my old pension seems to have a sliding scale on charges depending on the time to retirement - gives me a total cost at 15 years to retirement at  0.66% but a toal cost of 0 years to retirement at 0.23%
The new provider just gives an total annual charge of 0.18%
If it helps this is Fidelity (Old) vs Aviva My Money (New)
Thanks

dunstonh

I have just had 2 annual statements and the despite Covid, the new pension is performing OK, however the old pension is not and losing money

Are the statement dates the same?  A lot of statements that went out in June and July had April dates for the value.   The recovery had not been going long at that point. -  so different valuation points could be the reason.

Is the new one higher because the investments have grown or because you have paid into it pushing the value up?

Any thoughts on why transferring the previous mentioned pension may not be a good idea? 

Insufficient information to go on.   You haven't given enough to say and the old one could be better.

Marcon

madeinleeds said:

You can spot from my language that I am new at taking an interest in this rather than just assuming that it was being done on my behalf which has been a longer term skoolboy error - but better late than never!
So my old pension seems to have a sliding scale on charges depending on the time to retirement - gives me a total cost at 15 years to retirement at  0.66% but a toal cost of 0 years to retirement at 0.23%
The new provider just gives an total annual charge of 0.18%
If it helps this is Fidelity (Old) vs Aviva My Money (New)
Thanks

If the new provider offers similar funds to your old provider, but with lower charges, then it would make sense to consider moving the old to the new. Before you do, try reading this to add to your now rapidly increasing(!) knowledge of pensions: https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-3550085/STEVE-WEBB-merge-small-pension-pots.html

madeinleeds

Dunstonh - If I read correctly (and it is very clear on the old but not so clear on the new) 

Aug 2020 for old investment is -3.5 % vs 2019 new one is up 2.6% vs 2019 

Macron - reading now - thanks

Linton

madeinleeds said:

Dunstonh - If I read correctly (and it is very clear on the old but not so clear on the new) 

Aug 2020 for old investment is -3.5 % vs 2019 new one is up 2.6% vs 2019 

Macron - reading now - thanks

August 2019/20 was a very volatile year for obvious reasons.  A return of -3.5 vs +2.6 in one year is not really that significant and could be due to relatively small differences in how the fund was invested.  Perhaps if Covid hadnt happened the old fund would have done better than the new one, who knows.  Given it is an "adventurous growth" fund whereas the new one presumably isn't that would likely to be the case. So I dont think the single year performance results by themselves give you enough reason to move the funds.

The most important factor is the choice of funds available.  How long before you intend to retire?  If it is say 15 years or more then an adventurous growth fund may be sensible whereas if you are retiring next year perhaps not, or at least not with a large % of your money.  Conversely with a cautious fund. Does the new provider have a growth fund if that is what you want?

If you can get the funds you want from either provider then I would look at costs.