Pension pot and annuities

dizzyknits

Hello everyone

My Husband has just resigned from his job, he is 64 and half. He had worked for the same company for the last 30 years and contributed to the workplace pension. He now wants to retire and get his workplace pension.
Originally it was Scottish widows, but company decided to change to Scottish Equitable, leaving the little Scottish widows one as it was.
Fast forward a few years, at the age of 62 ,(which was the retirement age he had nominated on the form for some reason ), he took the small Scottish widows pension, a lump sum and a very small pension of £40 odd pound a month.

Meanwhile it looks like Scottish Equitable, is now under the umberella of Aegon Retiready . On accessing his account it seems he has 3 different pots, 2 Scottish Equitable and a new company pension ( which has only been recently set up and only has £593 in it) all together the total sum of the 3 is £90,471. 

He phoned up Aegon and said he would like to take the 25% lump sum and have a monthly pension, expecting to be given some figures, but the first chap on the phone was really not much help, said we had to ring Scottish equitable bit of Aegon and talk to them.They were not much help either, kept saying that he had nominated 65 as the age he was retiring
Hubby has not had his final pay yet so the £593 is not accurate, First chap said he should amalgamate these 3 pots, after his final salary is paid, then look to buying an annuity. Then said that Aegon does not do annuities. So what is Aegon?, is it not a pension provider.

 We have absolutely no idea how to do this ourselves. I have 2 private pensions and it was just a matter of phoning up the pension provider and saying what I wanted, I got 2 lump sums and now have 2 pensions paid to me monthly, not this rigmarole !!
thanks in advance for any answers

DRS1

It is not unusual to find you have to deal with different bits of the same organisation especially where they have acquired other insurers over the years.  I had this experience with Aviva last year having to talk to three different bits of Aviva for 4 policies.

Does he want an annuity?  He would probably be advised to shop around for one and not just get it from Aegon (even if they did them).  So an IFA? Or something like Hargreaves Lansdown or Retirement Line (other annuity brokers are available) would be a place to start.

dunstonh

Fast forward a few years, at the age of 62 ,(which was the retirement age he had nominated on the form for some reason ), he took the small Scottish widows pension, a lump sum and a very small pension of £40 odd pound a month.

He didn't have to take it then. he could have deferred it and merged it (then or later) with the other pensions.

Then said that Aegon does not do annuities. So what is Aegon?, is it not a pension provider.

Aegon is a pension provider.  It is not an annuity provider. Most pension providers no longer offer annuities.

 We have absolutely no idea how to do this ourselves. I have 2 private pensions and it was just a matter of phoning up the pension provider and saying what I wanted, I got 2 lump sums and now have 2 pensions paid to me monthly, not this rigmarole !!

Find a local IFA to you and they will take care of it.   Aegon does not have the regulatory permissions to give advice. So, asking them what to do wont yield results.   That may seem that they are not helpful but they are not allowed to do what you want them to do.

dizzyknits

dunstonh said:

Fast forward a few years, at the age of 62 ,(which was the retirement age he had nominated on the form for some reason ), he took the small Scottish widows pension, a lump sum and a very small pension of £40 odd pound a month.

He didn't have to take it then. he could have deferred it and merged it (then or later) with the other pensions.

Then said that Aegon does not do annuities. So what is Aegon?, is it not a pension provider.

Aegon is a pension provider.  It is not an annuity provider. Most pension providers no longer offer annuities.

 We have absolutely no idea how to do this ourselves. I have 2 private pensions and it was just a matter of phoning up the pension provider and saying what I wanted, I got 2 lump sums and now have 2 pensions paid to me monthly, not this rigmarole !!

Find a local IFA to you and they will take care of it.   Aegon does not have the regulatory permissions to give advice. So, asking them what to do wont yield results.   That may seem that they are not helpful but they are not allowed to do what you want them to do.

Hi Dunstonh 
Does that mean that aegon can not offer him a pension of any sort....sorry for being thick !

dunstonh

Does that mean that aegon can not offer him a pension of any sort....sorry for being thick !

Some of their plans have no income option and need to be transferred.
Some of them will have limited income options (i.e. not all the options but a few).
Some of them will have all options except annuity.

A general guide is that the older the plan, the less modern functionality it will have.

Its not an issue though.   Once you know what method of income is best for your objectives, if Aegon cannot do it, then you transfer it to a pension (or annuity) that can.

dizzyknits

Hi Dunstonh
"Fast forward a few years, at the age of 62 ,(which was the retirement age he had nominated on the form for some reason ), he took the small Scottish widows pension, a lump sum and a very small pension of £40 odd pound a month."

I told him that at the time, but the company had bullied them by saying it had to be taken when they stated, I think they wanted to stop contributing to it!

I'll have to get him to ring Aegon again, think we will leave it until his last pay has been paid
thanks

Albermarle

OP
Do you understand the difference between the two basic ways you can take these sorts of pensions?
An annuity- you get the 25% tax free cash and the rest  is used to buy an annuity that gives you guaranteed income for the rest of your life 
Drawdown - You still get the 25% tax free cash , but the rest stays invested and you can take an income from that. This method needs more input from you. The income is not guaranteed .