Pension benefits advice

TOMIR

I watched with interest the program last week about the benefits of personal and work based pensions. As an chartered Financial Advisor of 30 years(now retired) I cannot stress the importance of taking advice prior to drawing benefits. The program gave a great insight into what was available but there are other considerations which require in depth investigations prior to taking benefits. This includes guarantees and death benefits of existing pensions and how they can be used for legacies. Taking advice can be costly but in both short and long term can save huge amounts of money.  Also, I believe that financial services should be part of the curriculum in some way in our education system

QrizB

Welcome to the forum, you've made a bold start.

dunstonh

Also, I believe that financial services should be part of the curriculum in some way in our education system

Knowing that 70% of the information would be forgotten within 3 months and the frequency of the changes that occur (pensions, for example, change every 8 years on average) are you sure it would be any use beyond the very very basic general knowledge that they teach already?
And what subject would you drop to facilitate that extra study?

Andy_L

"Pupils should be taught about...

• the functions and uses of money, the importance and practice of budgeting, and managing risk...

• income and expenditure, credit and debt, insurance, savings and pensions, financial products and services, and how public money is raised and spent"

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-citizenship-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-citizenship-programmes-of-study-for-key-stages-3-and-4

Albermarle

Taking advice can be costly but in both short and long term can save huge amounts of money.  

Just be aware that not everyone on this forum would agree with that statement . The value for money of financial advisors is a much discussed topic with 'varying opinions' !

Brie

The problem for many of us I think is that it can be very difficult to find one individual who is willing to talk about your whole pension picture.  I have 3 works pensions all dealt with by the same administrator but no one there working on one of those pensions is allowed or able to discuss the other 2.  Add to that my state pension both here and abroad and I think I need good advice but I frankly don't know where to start other than fishing for nibbles on information here.  No matter where I turn I seem to be told "oh I don't know about that try this other agency".

Marcon

Brie said:

The problem for many of us I think is that it can be very difficult to find one individual who is willing to talk about your whole pension picture.  I have 3 works pensions all dealt with by the same administrator but no one there working on one of those pensions is allowed or able to discuss the other 2.  Add to that my state pension both here and abroad and I think I need good advice but I frankly don't know where to start other than fishing for nibbles on information here.  No matter where I turn I seem to be told "oh I don't know about that try this other agency".

If you're at least 50, then this seems the obvious starting point for information and guidance - and often those are what you need, rather than actual advice: https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pension-wise?source=pw#

Brie

@Marcon

Thanks but I've already tried them and they can't help.  Their website says:

You can get free guidance from Pension Wise if:

• you’re aged 50 or over, and
• have a UK-based defined contribution pension – not a final salary or career average pension.

Which is great but I do have a DB pension as well as a hybrid and a DC one.  And one that is not based in the UK.  Now I accept that for the last I may need to ignore that while dealing with the others but it's off putting when the advisor when asked a specific question (will having a non UK pension affect my benefits here and also how does collecting a pension effect me if I continue to work) gets a blank response or an admission of "oh I don't know!"

eskbanker

TOMIR said:

As an chartered Financial Advisor of 30 years(now retired) I cannot stress the importance of taking advice prior to drawing benefits.

A decent advisor ought to be able to stress the importance of taking advice, so why can't you?

Marcon

Brie said:

@Marcon

Thanks but I've already tried them and they can't help.  Their website says:

You can get free guidance from Pension Wise if:

• you’re aged 50 or over, and
• have a UK-based defined contribution pension – not a final salary or career average pension.

Which is great but I do have a DB pension as well as a hybrid and a DC one.  And one that is not based in the UK.  Now I accept that for the last I may need to ignore that while dealing with the others but it's off putting when the advisor when asked a specific question (will having a non UK pension affect my benefits here and also how does collecting a pension effect me if I continue to work) gets a blank response or an admission of "oh I don't know!"

The main MoneyHelper site should be able to do just that: help. See https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement

They are there to answer questions about pensions/provide information to the general public, so provided you are asking for factual stuff rather than actual advice, there's no reason they shouldn't be able to answer a fair number of your questions relating to your UK pensions. If they can't answer something, they should be able to point you in the right direction without making you feel you are being shuffled from pillar to post. 

Is your overseas pension a private one, or part of the state pension system of another country - if the latter, please could you confirm which country?

Brie

@Marcon
Canadian Pension Plan.  So a federal state pension (as in government but no provincial).  No idea what it is worth as that's difficult to find out from here - I expect I'll know maybe by the autumn which doesn't help with my current investigations.  They admit there's an extensive delay in dealing with correspondence.