Pension Scheme Question

slenderkitten

I have two small pensions:
1 with the Nest Scheme (government set up) - the other with Scottish Widows when I worked at another company.
I know and understand very little about pensions, does anyone know if it's worth keeping the Scottish Widows one as its PENS PORTFOLIO TWO 1% annual fee I do not know what the fees or the particulars of the Nest one?
Thanks for your input.

Albermarle

You should have on line access to the NEST pension. If you do not know how it is invested then how can you compare it to the SW one ? Fees are also on their website https://www.nestpensions.org.uk/schemeweb/nest/my-nest-pension/contributions-and-fees.html
For the SW pension it is possible/likely that your ex employer negotiated a discount and you are not paying the full 1 %. Easiest way to find out is to call them .

slenderkitten

Albermarle said:

You should have on line access to the NEST pension. If you do not know how it is invested then how can you compare it to the SW one ? Fees are also on their website https://www.nestpensions.org.uk/schemeweb/nest/my-nest-pension/contributions-and-fees.html
For the SW pension it is possible/likely that your ex employer negotiated a discount and you are not paying the full 1 %. Easiest way to find out is to call them .

Hi i have confirmed with Scottish Widows that I am paying 1% annual fee.  The nest one is the standard one that was set up by government a few years ago i have access to it just don't have much of an understanding of it all; that is why I am asking for additional help an opinion from others on here, the pros and cons of it all if it's worth keeping scottish widows open or not?

tacpot12

To my mind, it is not worth keeping the Scottish Windows Pension open. It is charging you more than your would pay to use NEST and it is returning worse performance than the best NEST funds. 
In my view, the best NEST funds are:
1) NEST Sharia
2) NEST Ethical Growth
3) NEST Higher Risk

These funds might be less suitable if you are older. 

slenderkitten

tacpot12 said:

To my mind, it is not worth keeping the Scottish Windows Pension open. It is charging you more than your would pay to use NEST and it is returning worse performance than the best NEST funds. 
In my view, the best NEST funds are:
1) NEST Sharia
2) NEST Ethical Growth
3) NEST Higher Risk

These funds might be less suitable if you are older. 

Thanks for your reply I'm not sure if you understand Nest is the pension scheme that the government set up a few years ago as it was auto enrollment scheme. So companies with over 250 staff have to offer it. This is the one I prefer to keep as most companies would most likely use it. I just happened to switch jobs for a short period where their's was with Scottish Widows I'm not looking to open any pension anywhere else as I don't understand them enough.
www.nestpensions.org.uk

NottinghamKnight

How much is in each pension? Do you currently contribute to a pension and are you working?

slenderkitten

NottinghamKnight said:

How much is in each pension? Do you currently contribute to a pension and are you working?

Should be starting a new job shortly there isn't much in there. 

Albermarle

slenderkitten said:

tacpot12 said:

To my mind, it is not worth keeping the Scottish Windows Pension open. It is charging you more than your would pay to use NEST and it is returning worse performance than the best NEST funds. 
In my view, the best NEST funds are:
1) NEST Sharia
2) NEST Ethical Growth
3) NEST Higher Risk

These funds might be less suitable if you are older. 

Thanks for your reply I'm not sure if you understand Nest is the pension scheme that the government set up a few years ago as it was auto enrollment scheme. So companies with over 250 staff have to offer it. This is the one I prefer to keep as most companies would most likely use it. I just happened to switch jobs for a short period where their's was with Scottish Widows I'm not looking to open any pension anywhere else as I don't understand them enough.
www.nestpensions.org.uk

I am sure tacpot 12 does understand  
The suggestion is that you transfer the SW pension into the NEST one . ( you do this by giving NEST the details of the SW pension) 
Then within the NEST pension there is a choice of investment funds . If you take some time to properly look at the NEST website then it might be clearer.
You can ignore the fact that NEST was originally set up by the Government . As far as you are concerned it is just the same as having a pension with any other pension provider. 
When you get a new job that employer may or may not be using NEST as their pension provider.