Merging pensions - advice needed please

dunstonh

The one option you will have to make is whether you want to transfer "in specie", ie keeping the same funds, or as cash. Whether you can trasfer in specie depends on whether the old funds are supported by the new provider. Most will be.

In this case, they will all be cash transfers and not in-specie (the providers mentioned use insured funds which cannot use in-specie).

The odd one out is the Avon pension fund, which sounds like LGPS, which you wouldn't transfer.

Albermarle

Hebrews12 said:

Marcon said:

Hebrews12 said:

I have 4 pensions - Reassure, People's Pension, Virgin and Avon Pension Fund.  I want to merge them all together to make it more manageable but I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice on which 'pot' to merge them into?  My Virgin pension has the most money in it so I'm thinking that one might be best.  Am I right in thinking that I might lose a small percentage of the amount when I transfer over?  Thanks for reading. 

Are these all defined contribution pensions without any special benefits such as a Guaranteed Annuity Rate?

How old is each pension - ie are they 'old style' contracts with little flexibility about how you access your benefits?

Is online access to your account important and if so, which has the best and most user-friendly website?

What are the charges and fund performance like for each fund? Transferring to Virgin just because it's currently the biggest pot isn't necessarily best.

You wouldn't normally lose 'a small percentage' (or indeed any %age!) just by transferring, but it depends on the type of contract you have. You'd need to check each one.

OK, this post just shows how ignorant I am about the whole thing.  I'll have to look up Guaranteed Annuity Rate as that means nothing to me.  And defined contributions I guess is something to do with it being a work pension thing in terms of it coming out of my salary?

Am I able to find a good pension scheme and then transfer the lot into that if Virgin is not the right option? 

Pensions and retirement | Help with pensions and retirement | MoneyHelper
Pension basics | Help with pension basics | MoneyHelper

The latter link explains the difference between DC and DB pensions which are completely different . Probably your 'Avon' pension is DB and the rest DC, but just a guess.