Transferring pension as a mature student

Gee20

Hi everyone!

I am a 30 y/o mature student and I have small savings, a pension to transfer and no jobs prospects until I graduate in 2025 (except for occasional summer job).
For the little I have, is it work paying a financial adviser? I've seen £500 fees after the first free consultation. 

I have:
- 15K none of which is on a saving account. I plan to survive on these + a 5K uni bursary + future summer job until I graduate 
-- it means I can 'invest'/'save' 10K only
- 3K to transfer from a 1-year job with Civil service pension (as such, they cut me out once I left for uni unfortunately) 
- active student loan (fee + maintenance) 


During a financial consultation with my bank, they did not exude trustworthiness: I felt pressure to make a choice here and there on a saving account. Perhaps it was due to specific employee, but I'm not sure. Would you suggest I re-try with them first? What other alternative paths should I take before paying financial advisor? 

There's little to none finance literacy, hence my own uncertainty. 

Many thanks!

Marcon

Gee20 said:

Hi everyone!

I am a 30 y/o mature student and I have small savings, a pension to transfer and no jobs prospects until I graduate in 2025 (except for occasional summer job).
For the little I have, is it work paying a financial adviser? I've seen £500 fees after the first free consultation. 

I have:
- 15K none of which is on a saving account. I plan to survive on these + a 5K uni bursary + future summer job until I graduate 
-- it means I can 'invest'/'save' 10K only
- 3K to transfer from a 1-year job with Civil service pension (as such, they cut me out once I left for uni unfortunately) 
- active student loan (fee + maintenance) 


During a financial consultation with my bank, they did not exude trustworthiness: I felt pressure to make a choice here and there on a saving account. Perhaps it was due to specific employee, but I'm not sure. Would you suggest I re-try with them first? What other alternative paths should I take before paying financial advisor? 

There's little to none finance literacy, hence my own uncertainty. 

Many thanks!

Financial advisers are only worth their fees if they had something to work with - i.e. sufficient assets to 'earn their keep'. You aren't currently in that position, so no - not worth it at present.

Put your cash into some sort of easy access savings account. There's nothing magic about an ISA for someone in your position, so just pick one where the interest rates look better than the competition. See https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/

I assume you have to transfer out from your Civil Service pension fairly quickly to ensure you get the benefit of something more than just your own contributions (?were you in nuvos?). A cheap SIPP will do the trick: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/cheap-sipps/ 

Albermarle

By the way £500 for a financial advisor meeting is very cheap, so must be some kind of stripped down service.
A 'normal' IFA would probably charge 2% and if you had less than £50K ( more in some areas) they would not be interested.
In any case you do not need proper financial advice. As above keep as little in your current account as possible and put the rest in a savings account, at least earning some interest .
Also as above opening a new pension and requesting a transfer in, is easy and quick online.
For the ones mentioned in the link above,  you can have a look around their websites in quite some detail, without actually being a registered customer.