Transfer of Workplace pension - should I consolidate

suffbet3

Hi,

I currently have 3 workplace pensions, 1 for my current employer and 2 from previous employers. I'm happy with the providers of my pensions where I self select funds and I'm happy with both the performance and the firms that manage them. However one of these is now going to be moving to Standard Life and I need to decide whether to have it move over to SL or consolidate by moving it to my current employers provider or my other provider from a previous workplace.

I don't have any defined or protected benefits on the pension that's moving (or the other 2), they're all just straight up money purchase schemes.

I've read a few articles about transferring out and consolidating but I just wanted a few view points and real life experience in case there's something I haven't considered. I don't particularly have any issues managing 3 pensions currently I check in every few months and may switch a fund every couple of years. I did think though when it comes to using the pension (i'm 10-15 years from retirement) it might be easier to only have a couple to manage. I do also like the fact that with 3 I'm more diversified. That said, the default fund and self select funds at Standard Life haven't performed very well, and from the management side it's an unknown so my current leaning is to not go over to SL. Are there any advantages to moving it to my current employer as opposed to a fund where I no longer contribute?

As I say i'd be interested for a few people's slants on the subject in case there's anything I haven't considered. Many thanks in advance.

lisyloo

You need to look at whether there are any guaranteed benefits with the older pensions, penalties for transferring and compare the fees.

Mark_d

I had one small final salary pension, two money purchase pensions and a money purchase scheme with my current employer.  I didn't touch the final salary scheme as there's no real benefit to do so, but for efficiency I transferred my two previous money purchase pensions in to the arrangement with my current employer. I believe that this will benefit me in terms of the ongoing costs of the arrangements and also in terms of costs when the pension comes to paying out