Rubbish Pension

finbaar

Good luck OP, I hope you can get a better understanding of all of the options.
What this thread has highlighted to me is that I need to explain things like this to my son who is 24. The time to make the right decisions about your future is always as early as you can.

Cloan2

Absolutely. I consider myself to quite clued up on most things in life but pensions scare me. Yet they are one of the most important things aren't they! 

Brie

He has 3 company pension schemes. Scottish Provident, Standard Life, Aviva

Does he know which employers those were from?  I would start with that info and then work backwards through any other employers he might have had over the years.  Then go to Find pension contact details - GOV.UK and see if there's someone else that he needs to contact.  If he's moved they will have lost contact of him so not sent any updates.  

Once all of that info is to hand I'd set up a list (I use excel as that's easy for me) to list employer, scheme, administrator, type of pension (DC or DB or?) and the total pot (DC) or the annual amount to be paid (DB).  And of course the SP weekly amount x 52 to give the annual expectation.

And then that's when talking to an independent adviser would be a good idea.  But yes go to PensionWise first to get the terminology so that when you talk to the IFA you're not having to go over realllly basic info.  

Or post back here with some of the info and no doubt some of us will comment (as we like to help!!)

Cloan2

Thanks so much. So we have done that. We are sure we have all the info now except for figures for a pension he paid into for 20 years with Scottish Provident but have requested that info. Even without that the estimated pot is just over 42k so add the 20 year pension in, whatever that might be, then his pension pot will be more. He is now increasing his monthly contributions. However my next question is, do we keep his 3 pension pots separate, or put them into one? They are all defined contribution pensions. I now understand what defined contribution pensions are as have been doing my homework 🙃 

SVaz

It’s obviously easier to transfer all into one, just for simplicity. 

Maybe pick the one with low fees and a simple investment structure, like low, medium and higher risk plans. 

Before I went self employed and started managing my own Sipp,  I had transferred all my old pensions into what was then my current work scheme.  

 Is his current scheme nice and easy to understand, with low fees?  Can he easily choose and change investments?  

Bostonerimus1

This thread highlights the necessity of being involved with your money and that it's vital to understand your pensions and to make contributions to savings and pensions throughout your working life. It is almost guaranteed that you'll have low pension balances if your life time contributions have been small. 

LHW99

SVaz said:

It’s obviously easier to transfer all into one, just for simplicity. 

Maybe pick the one with low fees and a simple investment structure, like low, medium and higher risk plans. 

Before I went self employed and started managing my own Sipp,  I had transferred all my old pensions into what was then my current work scheme.  

 Is his current scheme nice and easy to understand, with low fees?  Can he easily choose and change investments?  

If his current pension is easy to work with and has low fees - sometimes the employer negotiates a discount on "normal" fees, so what you see on a fund information leaflet isn't what you pay - you could consider whether to transfer one / all into his current employers scheme.