DB quote query

Pat38493

hyubh said:

RoysV said:

Hoenir said:

RoysV said:

Pat38493 said:

RoysV said:

Well here's the update. I asked for all information to be sent to me, scheme rules, actuarial reductions etc but received nothing.

I got my quote yesterday evening    Full pension £5273        Reduced pension £3787   with lump of £25400  so lower than my March 22 quote.

I've rang the company up and spoke to two different people who have both told me that the figures change due to stock market fluctuations and that the trustees invest the money so it's down to them as to how the pension has performed and how much I get.

This is a deferred DB pension can someone please tell me I'm not going mad and this isn't correct or tell me they are correct and I've misunderstood for the last 40 years what a DB scheme is

If you are taking the pension early, or taking a lump sum, they could be sort of correct - most DB pensions have something in their rules that the trustees can alter the early repayment factors and commutation factors on pensions according to market conditions (even without informing members!).

Theoretically speaking, the adjustments should leave you no better or no worse off - i.e. the fact that your pension is lower, means that they think inflation will be lower in the following years and so the amount you get during the years before NRA is "worth" more.  Of course this is based on forecasts and guesswork so the real future might end up different.

If you are taking the pension at normal retirement age, then you are broadly correct - it should not change according to market conditions unless you take PCLS, but even this could be a bit more complicated if your pension has multiple tranches with different NRA.

Cheers. They just mentioned stock market performance and nothing about trustees moving the goal posts. Just seems strange that 3 years closer to NRA and the amount has gone down, didn't think it could happen

The Truss incident hit the bond markets hard. Will take time for the fund to recover. Supertankers aren't nimble. 

So are you saying that DB pensions are influenced by stock market movements? I honestly never realised that was the case.

They aren't, in the main...

The overall health of the DB fund and the ability to cover all future obligations can be impacted by market conditions.

However market conditions does not change the rules of the scheme, so usually, if the member is retiring at NRA and not taking a lump sum, the stock market or bond market has zero impact on what they will get.  As said above, it’s when ERF and Commutations come into play that market conditions may cause those numbers to change.  That said, OP now posts that they seem to have got the quote wrong - which is also not unheard of.

Mr_Benn

If the person who started the thread has a Pension thats run by Capita, then Im not suprised you get different answers.  Becuase they seem to cover lots of different companies pensions, they sometimes seem to just 'best guess' answers on the phone. Especially on DB pensions.

optoutDB

I don't know if OP has named the company, but my pension portal (Mercer, then Aptia) was giving incorrect (high) numbers for early drawing dates from (at least) Nov 2023 to Dec 2024.  

I tried to point this out to Mercer (by asking for an explanation of why it wasn't a smooth curve anymore) but they just played dumb.  

Early ths year I requested a formal pension quote (hoping to cash in this error) but the portal model was fixed in Jan or Feb 2025 and then the quote arrived and matched the portal.

edit: I just noticed that the OPs quotes were from before my period of bad quotes. But my bad quotes started when Mercer took over from the previous administrator (L&G). 

RoysV

optoutDB said:

I don't know if OP has named the company, but my pension portal (Mercer, then Aptia) was giving incorrect (high) numbers for early drawing dates from (at least) Nov 2023 to Dec 2024.  

I tried to point this out to Mercer (by asking for an explanation of why it wasn't a smooth curve anymore) but they just played dumb.  

Early ths year I requested a formal pension quote (hoping to cash in this error) but the portal model was fixed in Jan or Feb 2025 and then the quote arrived and matched the portal.

edit: I just noticed that the OPs quotes were from before my period of bad quotes. But my bad quotes started when Mercer took over from the previous administrator (L&G). 

Yes that's them. Unfortunately I don't have a modeller on my portal all I can see is the amount when I deferred the pension

katejo

Cobbler_tone said:

RoysV said:

Cobbler_tone said:

SarahB16 said:

RoysV said:

Just a slight update on this. I noticed on the portal that my case was complete last week, so waited for my quote etc to come through. I rang them today as nothing had arrived only to be told not to take any notice of anything saying completed that's just for them, which seems strange. So the girl I spoke to is going to chase it up.
Maybe a tip for anyone taking their DB is to get the quotes in as soon as possible, I'm about 4 months into this now. I'll update when/if I get any information

... and my tip for anyone with a DB pension is get quotes as soon as you can so you can spot any anomalies.  For me the maximum date in the future they will forecast out to is 5 years away so every year (for the last three years) I have requested a quote that is 5 years' away.  There were anomalies last November so when I queried it they advised I ask for an updated forecast in 6 months' time which I will do (I'm entitled to two forecasts a year).  

I get a quote every year to calibrate against the pension portal. It is normally within £50 a year of what it says. The worst thing must be to expect to get a figure and then get something totally different, unless it is more! 
Quotations are unlimited, transfer valuations are once per year and then £300 a pop. Either take a month.

Yes both good tips. Unfortunately I can only get one quote per year and they wont do future forecasts, also my portal only shows what my pension was worth when I left and nothing else.

That's a shame and didn't realise how lucky we are with ours. After closing in 2021 you can put any future date in and it shows you the full pension, sliding scale to adjust the lump sum and bridging pension option. It is a pastime once a month. 

My scheme offers similar but it isn't accurate for anyone who has also paid for AVCs.