Pension Bee or Advisor ?

smallzoo2

I have seen some older posts about this so I hope this isn't asking exactly the same question

I have 6 different pensions, some private, some old company pensions. Mix of values from £ 5 to 50k. Total pension about £180k

I am 65 next year and we have credit card debts and loans but will have paid our mortgage off in a few months

I have spoken to a few advisors and their fees are all around 1-2 % of the initial pot and then 0.5 - 1% per year

BUT.. would it be easier to just use PensionBee ?

I am not looking for huge investment gains etc. All I want is to be able to drawdown from the pensions when needed and then use the rest as annuities

Maybe I am asking an unanswerable question ?

wjr4

Pensionbee do not provide advice so you will have to do it all yourself, are you comfortable with that?

Albermarle

Pension Bee advertise themselves as some special service where you can combine old pensions.
In fact you can do the same with any investment platform, offering a SIPP.

They only offer 7 custom made investment plans, which could be an advantage or a disadvantage depending on how you looked at it. However you still have to choose which one. You also have to decide at what rate to take the drawdown and in which form (all tax free first, or in stages for example) They will/can not offer you any personalised advice.

smallzoo2

Thanks so far for the comments.

I am comfortable with numbers so is it best at first to just call each provider ( 70% are Aviva ) and ask them what plans they offer or will they come back with 101 !

dunstonh

Hardly any providers have any initial charges any more.   So, Pensionbees no initial charge is no different to others.    

I am comfortable with numbers so is it best at first to just call each provider ( 70% are Aviva ) and ask them what plans they offer or will they come back with 101 !

If your have providers that retail their products via advisers then they will tell you to contact an adviser.  Some providers may have a small advice arm but they will usually charge more than the adviser version to cover their increased costs.  Some providers have multiple plans available depending on the target market and customer (Aviva are one of these with multiple plan types and versions).

If you are going to DIY, then you should use a DIY provider. 

Nurse2047

Open a vanguard sipp and add all pensions in there 

Albermarle

Or if one of the existing pensions, is relatively modern, with competitive charges, then you could consolidate into that one. Assuming it is one that is happy to deal direct with the public.

smallzoo2

MFW2026 said:

Open a vanguard sipp and add all pensions in there 

Thanks. I had a quick look after you mentioned it. It seems there are lots of SIPP providers such as vanguard. I guess the only worry is that.I am not a real risk taker and know nothing about which companies to invest in etc so would be worried that I might blow part or all of the pension on a bad risk ?

Nurse2047

look at https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investing-explained/what-are-lifestrategy-funds

https://youtu.be/lGQ9KyQq8Jw James Shack 

Albermarle

smallzoo2 said:

MFW2026 said:

Open a vanguard sipp and add all pensions in there 

Thanks. I had a quick look after you mentioned it. It seems there are lots of SIPP providers such as vanguard. I guess the only worry is that.I am not a real risk taker and know nothing about which companies to invest in etc so would be worried that I might blow part or all of the pension on a bad risk ?

Most peoples pensions are not invested in individual companies, but in funds containing lots of different company shares from around the world + non share investments. These of course can still go down as well as up, but will not be dramatically affected by just one company failing.
If you look at what PensionBee offer ( for example) you will see they only offer these types of funds.

smallzoo2

Albermarle said:

smallzoo2 said:

MFW2026 said:

Open a vanguard sipp and add all pensions in there 

Thanks. I had a quick look after you mentioned it. It seems there are lots of SIPP providers such as vanguard. I guess the only worry is that.I am not a real risk taker and know nothing about which companies to invest in etc so would be worried that I might blow part or all of the pension on a bad risk ?

Most peoples pensions are not invested in individual companies, but in funds containing lots of different company shares from around the world + non share investments. These of course can still go down as well as up, but will not be dramatically affected by just one company failing.
If you look at what PensionBee offer ( for example) you will see they only offer these types of funds.

Thanks.

So I guess PensionBee would be the safe bet ie low growth but also low risk whereas Vanguard SIPP and life strategy funds would be potentially higher growth but higher risk ?