Unsure what to do 4 March at 11:16AM in Pensions, annuities & retirement planning 8 replies 847 views

garrob

Hello, I am in a dilemma mainly caused by my inexperience in the pension minefield. I am planning on retiring in June this year and will start my DB pension in August which will be 10,000K Pa. I am currently paying into my works DC pension L & G PMC 2020- 2025 Target date fund 3 which has £120,000 in the pot at the moment. My work changed the pension provider in November last year from BW. I will get a part time job 2 days per week. My wife will still be working for at least another 5 years as a Civil servant and has a good salary. My question is and I am just looking for pointers/help as I know you can’t give advice,is should I move my DC pension to something better when I leave my work? I won’t be touching the DC at all and don’t know when I would. Can someone give me the names of funds that could be useful or will I be better off finding an IFA. I was looking for something to put the money into and forget about it for 5 years at least.

xylophone

Have you obtained a state pension forecast?

Has your spouse?

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

With regard to your DC pension, had you considered that your new employer might offer a scheme to which you might wish to consider transferring this pension (if possible)?

Marcon

garrob said:

My question is and I am just looking for pointers/help as I know you can’t give advice,is should I move my DC pension to something better when I leave my work? 

Why do you want to move it at all - what's 'wrong' with it that makes you think you should 'move it to something better'? If you could give an indication of why you think you need to do anything except leave it alone where it is would be really helpful - you could find that the current plan is a perfectly good choice.

You can just leave it 'sitting there' for 5 years and do nothing if that's your preference - but do check the types of fund in which the pension is actually invested at present v the fund choices available (should be on L&G's website, or in the handbook your employer should be able to provide - possible online rather than hard copy).

Albermarle

is should I move my DC pension to something better when I leave my work? 

There is no guarantee that transferring out of a workplace pension will bring something 'better'

Maybe a better step is to first check that when you leave this employment, that this pension will come with you as a kind of personal pension, that you will have full access and flexibility to move and add funds, if necessary. 

Then have a good look at what other funds are available within this pensions, if for some reason you are not happy with the current fund.

It might be better to transfer out and it might not, so do not rush into anything.

garrob

Many the any thanks for your comments, yes I get full state pension and my wife will continue to work. The reason I thought about moving it is because it is in a target date fund designed to be taken at 65 but I will not be touching this pension as I don’t need it just now. The idea of moving it was to maybe get a be/tater return if possible.

NoMore

Don't necessarily have to move it, can you not just change the investments where its at then ?

garrob

That’s thing, what investment do I move it to? What do I look for?

Marcon

garrob said:

That’s thing, what investment do I move it to? What do I look for?

Any idea how you plan to take your benefits from the DC scheme - tax free lump sum with the balance used to buy an annuity (aka pension); or drawdown, where you take chunks of cash at intervals of your choice?

Albermarle

garrob said:

That’s thing, what investment do I move it to? What do I look for?

Well this sort of shows that moving your pension elsewhere is not really the  issue, which is choosing the right investment(s) whether in the current pension or a new one.
You can start by spending some time reading about basic investing. There  will be info on The L& G website and you can start here.
Investing in stocks for beginners: how to get started - MSE (moneysavingexpert.com)
Investing for beginners: Why do we invest? - Monevator