Should I combine my Pensions?

frugalandsave

Hi,

I have a couple of DC pots now and I am wondering whether to combine them.

Short overview:

Age: 36
Work: I have been made redundant a month ago and will start a new employment in July. I am still waiting to find out who my new employers Pension provider is. 
DC Pensions: 2 (Aviva, Nest)
SIPP: 1 (AJBell)

Aviva: I have 78K in that DC pot which appears to have protected pension age at 55. My Policy number starts with TK, so according to this link its protected? https://www.aviva.co.uk/retirement/pension-basics/changes-to-pension-age/#:~:text=In short, a protected pension,t need to stop working.

Nest: I have 34K in that DC and wont be contributing anything more into this pot. It appears that this pension will fall in line with 10 yrs of State Pension Age. 

AJBell SIPP: 5K, I have only been contributing a minimal amount of the last few years and still need to check whether that has any benefits attached.  

State Pension: No Gaps with 18 yrs contributed. 

Option 1: Move Nest into Aviva Pension. Not sure whether anything would change to my Aviva DC rights if I move the Nest Pension in there?

Option 2: Leave things as they are.

Option 3: Move NEST pension into SIpp. 

Option 4: Any other providers that may offer value..

What are your thoughts? 

Cheers

bolwin1

With over 20 years to go until your retirement, the pension charges & available funds will make a big difference to the size of your final 'pot'. This should be your main focus. I'd suggest looking at the annual costs for each of the schemes (in percentage terms) & what funds are available. 

Most of the Nest charges are incurred in the initial deposit, ongoing charges are fairly low. They do have a fairly limited range of funds to choose from. 

AJ Bell are fairly inexpensive for the size of pension pot you are looking at (they work on a percentage). 

I've no idea on the Aviva costs (you should look at your costs as they may differ from the ones on their website). You'll need to balance them against the likelihood of wanting to retire before 57 / 58.  

Some providers get cheaper for larger pots (e.g. II) as they charge a fixed amount per month, but currently a percentage fee is likely to be better for you (this may change as the pot increases). 

Personally, I'd probably move them all to AJ Bell for convenience, a good range of funds & a half-decent website, but I'm the wrong side of 55, so the early retirement consideration doesn't apply.  

Albermarle

Combining pensions can sometimes mean 
1) Lower charges
2) Better choice of investments
3) Better customer service/website
4) Easier generally not dealing with multiple providers

However the most crucial  point is that how each pension is invested. This is more important than who the actual pension provider is, and/or whether you have one pension of five.

LHW99

If the Aviva one has the protected age 55 for access, I wouldn't personally move it (just in case). If you get to 55 and expect to / want to continue working a few more years it could always be moved then.

If Aviva allows transfers in, without changing that protected age, then transfer would depend on the charges for Nest vs. Aviva. Nest is fairly simple to find out (1.8% on payment in, 0.3%pa??), but you probably need to ask Aviva, because as an old workplace pension, it may be cheaper than the headline rate in the fund(s) literature (sometimes Aviva gives companies discounts (I think)).

If you can't tranfer to Aviva without changing the protected age, or the charges are out of line, then consider putting Nest into AJBell.

But wait until you know if the new company will also use Nest, in which case I would leave things alone.

frugalandsave

Thanks for the responses, i reached out to AJBell & Aviva to understand their side of things. Waiting on responses. 
Not overly keen to keep Nest, due to the limited product range they offer. 

I want to retain the option with Aviva to be able to access that from age 55. At the current value of 78K and 19 yrs left to reach the age of 55, there is plenty of opportunity for it to grow and could help be a key element to retire early. 

Thanks

frugalandsave

AJBell said that there aren't any transfer fees from their side and my SIPP will remain accessible from age 55. 
Nest doesn't have any special conditions attached and also no costs. 
I guess Ill start the transfer then.

Thanks again for the pointers. 

frugalandsave

Just a short update, that my Pension has now been transferred to AJBell. Was a fairly smooth transition.
Just NEST requiring proof of ID, which I had to sent via post. Not a big issue really, and a security measure.