Combine 5 pension pots into 1 but which pension company should I choose?

MetaPhysical

You are in a good position and have time on your side.  I'd keep this dead simple if I were at your age (I'm not, I am 57 nearly).  I'd open a SIPP in an Interactive Investor account which charges a flat fee of £200 per year and bang all your pots into a global tracker and go for 75% stocks and 25% bonds, or an even higher equities stake.  All the reading I have done, at the end of the day, points to a global tracker if you want to minimise risk and get good growth over the long term, which you have time on your side.  I wish I'd have done this.  Colleagues at work who have done exactly this are double my current worth of sticking to default funds.

MallyGirl

MetaPhysical said:

You are in a good position and have time on your side.  I'd keep this dead simple if I were at your age (I'm not, I am 57 nearly).  I'd open a SIPP in an Interactive Investor account which charges a flat fee of £200 per year and bang all your pots into a global tracker and go for 75% stocks and 25% bonds, or an even higher equities stake.  All the reading I have done, at the end of the day, points to a global tracker if you want to minimise risk and get good growth over the long term, which you have time on your side.  I wish I'd have done this.  Colleagues at work who have done exactly this are double my current worth of sticking to default funds.

II is good value for higher value pots - it would be expensive for smaller amounts which is where a percentage based fee would be better eg HL

Marcon

Royoftherovers2024 said:

Perhaps I should have mentioned, I know nothing about pensions, hence my reason for asking these question on this site.

I don't wish to personally control my pensions on a daily basis, have no desire for high risk, I just want to transfer the 5 into one pot and have simple online access once a year or so to see how they are doing.

Know very little about how I compare pension companies/products so don't know where to start.

I will certainly speak to my current pension provider within the civil service and ask if its worth me transferring the 5 pots into them, it seems they are index linked that way which sounds like it might be the safest/best option at the moment unless I hear of anything else that is likely to getter like for like.

Transferring them into the CS pension would make a lot of sense, but if you want the flexibility of a separate DC arrangement, a simple personal pension or stakeholder pension would fit the bill.

https://www.money.co.uk/pensions/personal-pension-plans/pm-1?track=885118&inset-cookie-banner&utm_accountid=3115971200&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=personal%20pension&utm_cmpid=11661682012&utm_adgid=112076440023&utm_tgtid=kwd-31955413&utm_mt=e&utm_adid=494033438594&utm_dvc=c&utm_ntwk=g&utm_plcmnt=&utm_locphysid=1006548&utm_locintid=&utm_feeditemid=&utm_devicemdl=&utm_plcmnttgt=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkIGrxum5hQMVYopQBh1XtwIlEAAYASAAEgLFrfD_BwE

poseidon1

Royoftherovers2024 said:

Perhaps I should have mentioned, I know nothing about pensions, hence my reason for asking these question on this site.

I don't wish to personally control my pensions on a daily basis, have no desire for high risk, I just want to transfer the 5 into one pot and have simple online access once a year or so to see how they are doing.

Know very little about how I compare pension companies/products so don't know where to start.

I will certainly speak to my current pension provider within the civil service and ask if its worth me transferring the 5 pots into them, it seems they are index linked that way which sounds like it might be the safest/best option at the moment unless I hear of anything else that is likely to getter like for like.

The key takeaway I get from your second post is you don't want personal control and no high risk. You also indicate you know very little about the complex world of personal pension provision, and my sense is you don't want to know.

Given these factors I am strongly inclined to suggest you consolidate your  pots with your current employer's DB scheme, unless you are prepared to take some responsibility and control of your secondary pot, which does mean beefing up your knowledge base beyond current levels.

Certainly private pension provision cannot hope to match the indexed link safety and predictability of your employer scheme, so in that sense your DB scheme is a better home for your pots.

By contrast private schemes ( which you would control) , offer you earlier access and more flexibility in how you access benefits so giving rise to the  possibility of phased retirement over your working life rather than making a single decision as to when to take retirement benefits from the Alpha scheme.

So do you want simple and safe? ( no need to learn more), or flexibility and more options in which case you have to be prepared to engage more, ie understand the investment world of bonds and equity investments and what the contents of your separate pot should look like over your desired  accumulation period. It really is not a 'tuck it away and forget' for the next decade or so process.

Forum members can give you a plethora  of different ideas in the private pension world, but your mindset as to what you really want, will determine your next course of action for the separate pots.

atush

"I don't wish to personally control my pensions on a daily basis, have no desire for high risk, I just want to transfer the 5 into one pot and have simple online access once a year or so to see how they are doing."

Why one pot?  We have many pots so it isnt a problem for us. We just make sure they have our current adress and send valuations, or have online access to their platforms. If we want it in one place, set up an excel or other spreadsheet, where you can update values once ever 6-12 months or an overall view.  This is handy as you can add in other things like cash savings, value of property esp if something you plan to sell or downsize.

 But if you want to simplify, w/o consulting an IFA then look at costs.  You can easily diversify or do lower risk investments on most if not all platforms.

Albermarle

Royoftherovers2024 said:

Perhaps I should have mentioned, I know nothing about pensions, hence my reason for asking these question on this site.

I don't wish to personally control my pensions on a daily basis, have no desire for high risk, I just want to transfer the 5 into one pot and have simple online access once a year or so to see how they are doing.

Know very little about how I compare pension companies/products so don't know where to start.

I will certainly speak to my current pension provider within the civil service and ask if its worth me transferring the 5 pots into them, it seems they are index linked that way which sounds like it might be the safest/best option at the moment unless I hear of anything else that is likely to getter like for like.

A couple of things you need to be clear on, that many new posters are confused about.

The pension provider is really only an administrator ( payments in/out ,dealing with tax issues) and holding the investments.
Your money is actually in an investment fund(s) within the pension.

So the pension provider can only be measured in terms of customer service, good website etc and their charges for running the pension.
Any growth ( or loss) comes from the investments performance, not from the pension itself .

You are in charge of choosing the investment(s) from the choice offered. Now in practice for workplace pensions, most of the clients have no clue, so do not choose anything. In this case your money goes into a middle of the road default fund, which may or may not be the best choice for you.

So when you say is Nest better than Standard Life for example? The answer to a large extent is defined by how your money is invested within that pension, and developments in financial markets,  rather than by Nest or Standard Life themselves.

poseidon1

Albermarle said:

Royoftherovers2024 said:

Perhaps I should have mentioned, I know nothing about pensions, hence my reason for asking these question on this site.

I don't wish to personally control my pensions on a daily basis, have no desire for high risk, I just want to transfer the 5 into one pot and have simple online access once a year or so to see how they are doing.

Know very little about how I compare pension companies/products so don't know where to start.

I will certainly speak to my current pension provider within the civil service and ask if its worth me transferring the 5 pots into them, it seems they are index linked that way which sounds like it might be the safest/best option at the moment unless I hear of anything else that is likely to getter like for like.

A couple of things you need to be clear on, that many new posters are confused about.

The pension provider is really only an administrator ( payments in/out ,dealing with tax issues) and holding the investments.
Your money is actually in an investment fund(s) within the pension.

So the pension provider can only be measured in terms of customer service, good website etc and their charges for running the pension.
Any growth ( or loss) comes from the investments performance, not from the pension itself .

You are in charge of choosing the investment(s) from the choice offered. Now in practice for workplace pensions, most of the clients have no clue, so do not choose anything. In this case your money goes into a middle of the road default fund, which may or may not be the best choice for you.

So when you say is Nest better than Standard Life for example? The answer to a large extent is defined by how your money is invested within that pension, and developments in financial markets,  rather than by Nest or Standard Life themselves.

Which is the ( lengthy ) point I made. OP must be prepared to  actively engage in management of his private pension since the all important investment selection and how this might need to change over the years is down to him. 

Unwillingness in this regard does instead strongly  suggest transferring the pots to the Alpha scheme ( assuming he can ) where the outcome via the DB scheme would be predictable and safer. 

Albermarle

poseidon1 said:

Albermarle said:

Royoftherovers2024 said:

Perhaps I should have mentioned, I know nothing about pensions, hence my reason for asking these question on this site.

I don't wish to personally control my pensions on a daily basis, have no desire for high risk, I just want to transfer the 5 into one pot and have simple online access once a year or so to see how they are doing.

Know very little about how I compare pension companies/products so don't know where to start.

I will certainly speak to my current pension provider within the civil service and ask if its worth me transferring the 5 pots into them, it seems they are index linked that way which sounds like it might be the safest/best option at the moment unless I hear of anything else that is likely to getter like for like.

A couple of things you need to be clear on, that many new posters are confused about.

The pension provider is really only an administrator ( payments in/out ,dealing with tax issues) and holding the investments.
Your money is actually in an investment fund(s) within the pension.

So the pension provider can only be measured in terms of customer service, good website etc and their charges for running the pension.
Any growth ( or loss) comes from the investments performance, not from the pension itself .

You are in charge of choosing the investment(s) from the choice offered. Now in practice for workplace pensions, most of the clients have no clue, so do not choose anything. In this case your money goes into a middle of the road default fund, which may or may not be the best choice for you.

So when you say is Nest better than Standard Life for example? The answer to a large extent is defined by how your money is invested within that pension, and developments in financial markets,  rather than by Nest or Standard Life themselves.

Which is the ( lengthy ) point I made. OP must be prepared to  actively engage in management of his private pension since the all important investment selection and how this might need to change over the years is down to him. 

Unwillingness in this regard does instead strongly  suggest transferring the pots to the Alpha scheme ( assuming he can ) where the outcome via the DB scheme would be predictable and safer. 

Yes it is . I just went back one stage further in the level of explanation, as many new posters ( I think like this one) do not even realise their pension is invested, or understand anything about the difference between the pension provider and the investments. 
To be fair many workplace pension providers have their own branded funds, which further adds to the widespread misunderstanding that pensions perform in some way, rather than the underlying investments.

r6mile

I agree that moving to the Alpha scheme makes more sense given the OP's attitude. However I would suggest the OP consolidate all of them into a single pension scheme first, as the transfer to Alpha can be quite lengthy and I am sure it will be simpler if it's a single transfer.

Royoftherovers2024

Thank you for all your comments. Yes, I have no real knowledge of pensions and no desire to manage the pension myself in the future.

It has been very interesting reading all tthe above comments and they've certainly got me thinking more.