Pension Dummy - lots of little ones dotted about 9 February at 8:16PM in Pensions, annuities & retirement planning 19 replies 2.8K views

TXC

Hi everyone

I'm looking for some advice (obviously with the caveat that i take it all at my own risk!) I am currently 31 and being a true millenial job hopper I am now in the place where I have around 7 different pension pots dotted about the place spanning from my first part time job at 18 (which i still get an annual statement for!) 

My mum tells me all the time to get them united under one fund but I'm such an ignorant with pensions that I don't even think this is possible? Is it? How would I do it?

What would my best course of action be?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Are they all DC pensions or are some DB (final salary/CARE) schemes?

TXC

theyre all dc

Emmia

Plenty of places will take your smaller pots and combine them into a single place. 

E.g. 
https://www.pensionbee.com/

https://www.moneyboxapp.com/pension

https://www.nutmeg.com/pensions

The government has advice on this too, which should be impartial 

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/building-your-retirement-pot/uk-pension-transfers#

Pat38493

For sure you can do this if you want to and it’s arguably good housekeeping not to have large number of pensions around.  However what matters more is how each of the pensions is invested and what the charges are within each one.

xylophone

lots of little ones dotted about

Sowed your wild oats?

Presumably you are currently in a workplace pension scheme - will it accept your old pensions?

LHW99

See if your workplace pension will take any / all first, then consider a SIPP at companies like Hargreaves Lansdown (good when you start, but can become expensive when you have a lot invested), AJBell, Interactive Investor, IWeb  -  others are available.

You would ask the platform you want to move to to make the transfer, and fill in their form. They would contact the managers of the individual DC pensions. You would need the names of the companies, the account numbers of the pensions, and roughly how much is in each.

It is unusual to be charged an exit fee these days, but may be worth checking in the separate pension documents.

Depending on what funds each pension is invested in, you may be able to transfer them across as they are. Otherwise you would ask for the funds to be sold and transferred over as cash.

Worth considering first how you want to invest when all the pensions are in one place, as not all platforms offer all types of investments.

Marcon

Useful reading: https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-3550085/STEVE-WEBB-merge-small-pension-pots.html

Albermarle

Emmia said:

Plenty of places will take your smaller pots and combine them into a single place. 

E.g. 
https://www.pensionbee.com/

https://www.moneyboxapp.com/pension

https://www.nutmeg.com/pensions

The government has advice on this too, which should be impartial 

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/building-your-retirement-pot/uk-pension-transfers#

The pension providers mentioned above, do market themselves as easy to use, easy to combine pensions in etc.
However almost every active provider of DC pensions, is happy ( more than happy in fact) for you to transfer multiple pensions to them, including as suggested many current workplace pension providers.

OP - It does not necessarily have to be one or seven pensions, you could maybe have two or three for example.

Floss

OP, you may find there is a deadline to transfer into an employer scheme of 12 months from joining. 

badmemory

Whilst I would think that a lot of "pots" already so reducing the number as suggested would be a good idea along with a good personal filing system, perhaps think about how you may want to cash them in in the future.  But also look at the charges.