Dormant pension - should I take money out

MallyGirl

tir21 said:

Marcon said:

tir21 said:

I've got a pension I haven't being paying in to for 30 odd years. Now sitting at £38,400. I put about 5k in so I think bonuses have taken it up to that amount. It's going up about £800 per year. Should I take that money out and put it in a bank account now I'm 55?

Can you change the investments in which the scheme is held?

Are you sure you can take out all the money? If it's a 30 year old pension and it's a defined contribution scheme, then you may find your only choice is to take tax free cash and the rest as an annuity. 

To access all of it, you might need to transfer to a more modern contract - and if the scheme has any 'safeguarded rights' (basically some sort of promise such as a Guaranteed Annuity Rate), you'd need to pay for regulated advice because the value is over £30K. 

If it's a defined benefit scheme, you would definitely need to transfer before you could access the whole lot in one go - and think £5K+ for the necessary advice.

5k for advice?

Yes - it is mandatory to have advice if you want to transfer from a defined benefit pension. You would need to transfer in order to get it all out in one go. The advice is expensive as few advisers are qualified to do the job. That is why people are asking exactly what sort of pension is it.

Marcon

tir21 said:

Marcon said:

tir21 said:

I've got a pension I haven't being paying in to for 30 odd years. Now sitting at £38,400. I put about 5k in so I think bonuses have taken it up to that amount. It's going up about £800 per year. Should I take that money out and put it in a bank account now I'm 55?

Can you change the investments in which the scheme is held?

Are you sure you can take out all the money? If it's a 30 year old pension and it's a defined contribution scheme, then you may find your only choice is to take tax free cash and the rest as an annuity. 

To access all of it, you might need to transfer to a more modern contract - and if the scheme has any 'safeguarded rights' (basically some sort of promise such as a Guaranteed Annuity Rate), you'd need to pay for regulated advice because the value is over £30K. 

If it's a defined benefit scheme, you would definitely need to transfer before you could access the whole lot in one go - and think £5K+ for the necessary advice.

5k for advice?

Maybe instead of asking questions you could answer them if you want people here to comment helpfully? Can't do that when you are ignoring all requests for input from you!