Merging pension into one company

Liz65

Hi,  my husband is paying a pension through his employer with Mercier Holdings and was previously with Standard Life, he still has the Standard Life one but is not paying into it.   

He and another colleague have been contacted at work by a company called Brunswick Investment Management Ltd asking if they would like to merge the two pensions together, and he was told that it would benefit him as the Standard Life pension is not making money at the moment.

They sent all the forms through the post for this to happen and my husband has spoken to a person on the telephone, we have also checked that the company is genuine on the FCA but are still not sure if it is the correct thing to do.  Does anyone think this would be beneficial? Thank you.

AlanP_2

As I understand it cold calls re pensions are against the rules / law so I would be very sceptical.

Also, Standard Life are pension administrators in this context so won't be making or losing your money. What you are not invested in inside the SL wrapper will be doing that 

My wife has an SL pension and it has increased in value over last year or so following falls in 21/22.

What is yours actually doing?

gm0

There are red flags

I would be extremely wary of anything and anyone operating on an outbound telesales model.

It is possible that an employer/union/other party has introduced them to a pool of people but this should have been communicated by the employer/union/group - and the consent for the data handling sought explicitly in most cases.

I have nothing to say for or against Brunswick or their product offer as I don't know what it is

But know this - wrappers / brands / companies like Standard Life or the employer admin Mercer - do not perform well or badly.  This is sales tactics. Simplistic misdirection that Brunswick good. SL bad.  And is another red flag.  For sure flat or poor performance in a short term period may help someone selling switching find more people amenable to the idea.

Investments - the funds chosen from the range offered.  Perform well or badly according to what is going on in the world.  And there are charges.  Which reduce what the world gives back

This is where the details of the Brunswick offer need extraordinarily careful scrutiny.  Transfer costs.  Initial charges, Fund management charges.  Product charges.  Exit charges (rare but doe exist).  Admin.  Support for drawdown later

Sign nothing without reading the small print. 

If you don't have time to read or understand (by asking questions) - then the balance of probability is strongly that you will be materially better off not signing and passing up on the offer.  Again this is not a specific hit job on Brunswick - just a reflection of the range of value for money in the market and the sharper practices used by some.

Liz65

Thank you for comments so far, I felt dubious about this from the start and will relay your comments to my husband.

martinbainbridge1975

definite red flags, take professional advice from a qualified pensions consultant. amongst the things to consider is if there are any defined benefits on the schemes such as pension based on years in the scheme, also referred to as final salary pensions.

LHW99

And to be honest, having 2 funds is hardly more onerous than one, and if when taking the pension one provider's IT goes down, there is still the other one!

Dazed_and_C0nfused

He and another colleague have been contacted at work by a company called Brunswick Investment Management Ltd asking if they would like to merge the two pensions together, and he was told that it would benefit him as the Standard Life pension is not making money at the moment

How do they know that?  Has he already given permission for them to have access to his personal details such as the investments held within the pension 😳

xylophone

Hi,  my husband is paying a pension through his employer with Mercier Holdings

Do you mean a pension administered by Mercer?

Is this a DC pension?

If your husband wanted his existing Standard Life pension transferred into the current workplace pension, has he personally contacted the administrator to check that they would accept a transfer in?

If they would, there seems to me no reason why your husband should not ask them to arrange it rather than going through a middleman?

Added to which, the contact by Brunswick appears to be a cold call?

I think that your husband would be well advised to do nothing at all until he has contacted Mercer(?).

And Standard Life is only the administrator - the performance of the pension depends on the investments within it.

Pat38493

Unless the employer has stated that they initiated this activity and can explain why, I would steer clear of any such approaches.  If the "contact" was actually an unsolicited phone call, this might even be illegal of Brunswick.

If he is approaching the age where he can access pension benefits, it is quite common to receive letters in the post at your home address trying to persuade you to transfer your pension scheme, but these also should be treated with care - my attitude is - if they are spending a lot of money sending out arguably misleading marketing leaflets in the post, they are probably not going to be the cheapest provider.

Albermarle

It is not so unusual transfer one pension to another, but you can do this easily yourself if you want to.
There can be some small advantages ( ease of just dealing with one provider, maybe one has lower charges etc) but as pointed out in previous posts transferring from one pension provider to another in the hope of better performance, is a fools errand.
In any case as already said dealing with two providers is not such a big deal. Different if you had 10 pensions.
The sales tactics are dubious at best and I would be tempted to complain to the employer who seems to have brought them in.
On a separate note it will pay dividends if your husband learns more about his pensions and how they are invested, then he can more easily make informed decisions in the future.

Beddie

Brunswick Investment Management is reputable, but that does not mean you should or should not use their services.

Are they the firm that your company uses for pensions? What are the costs of moving? Why not have a good look at the paperwork and ask the firm any questions that you have. 

Some people on here always assume the worst, but this could actually be to your benefit. Just make sure you understand what they are offering, what they cost and where it will be invested etc.