Workplace pensions

POPPYOSCAR

Our daughter has two jobs is run off her feet and so has asked me to sort out her pensions for her as she has no idea about them.
She has the following

Nest with ex employer and current employer
Smart pension with ex employer
Teachers pension

Can anyone advise me if she can or even should combine these into one scheme i.e Nest 
Presumably the teachers pension would stay as is.
I would be grateful for any pointers.

Thank you

dunstonh

She can consolidate the pensions if she wishes (although not the Teachers pension).    There is insufficient information to say whether she should or how she should do it as we don't have the data to compare the options.   However, if the amounts are small and they are all auto-enrolment then convenience is probably more important than charges (as all AE schemes have a price cap on default funds)

POPPYOSCAR

Thank you.

Yes the amounts are small. She has paid about £3000 in so far excluding the teachers pension.
Am I right in thinking that she needs to contact nest and tell them she wants to consolidate the three together and they will tell her what she needs to do?

JoeCrystal

If she still within the year of starting her job, it might be worth considering transferring old pensions to buy annual pension with TPS

Silvertabby

JoeCrystal said:

If she still within the year of starting her job, it might be worth considering transferring old pensions to buy annual pension with TPS

Only if new job is in TPS (doesn't sound like it - OP says current employer uses NEST).

Otherwise, is there any chance that this lady could return to TPS in the future?  If so, she should be able to transfer in her bits of NEST pension then.   

MX5huggy

You/she should look at what fund choice she has in Nest, I think the default is very conservative low risk / low return option when you’re  looking at I guess 30 year investment timeframe.

POPPYOSCAR

MX5huggy said:

You/she should look at what fund choice she has in Nest, I think the default is very conservative low risk / low return option when you’re  looking at I guess 30 year investment timeframe.

She is 24 so it is a long investment timeframe. I did not know she could choose her fund so that is helpful, thank you.

Albermarle

POPPYOSCAR said:

MX5huggy said:

You/she should look at what fund choice she has in Nest, I think the default is very conservative low risk / low return option when you’re  looking at I guess 30 year investment timeframe.

She is 24 so it is a long investment timeframe. I did not know she could choose her fund so that is helpful, thank you.

With all of these types of pensions you have a choice of which investments your money goes into .
Some have thousands to choose from but ones like Nest have only a handful to keep things simple. If you do not pick one then the money goes into a default middle of the road type fund.
The longer you will be invested then more risky/adventurous /high growth funds become more suitable as you have many years to ride out the ups and downs of the markets .

xylophone

She is both a current member of TPS and a member of NEST?

If she has been a member of TPS longer than a year then a transfer in of the old  pensions would probably not be possible.

Apart from that, it might well suit her to have both a DB and a DC pension.

In the circumstances my inclination would be to consolidate the NEST pensions.

https://www.nestpensions.org.uk/schemeweb/helpcentre/delegates/need-to-consolidate-accounts.html#:~:text=Individual delegates who have access,address in your contact details.

POPPYOSCAR

xylophone said:

She is both a current member of TPS and a member of NEST?

If she has been a member of TPS longer than a year then a transfer in of the old  pensions would probably not be possible.

Apart from that, it might well suit her to have both a DB and a DC pension.

In the circumstances my inclination would be to consolidate the NEST pensions.

https://www.nestpensions.org.uk/schemeweb/helpcentre/delegates/need-to-consolidate-accounts.html#:~:text=Individual delegates who have access,address in your contact details.

Yes she has a part time job as a teacher and has the teachers pension scheme which she has been in for longer than a year.
She also works full time and that employer uses nest.