Is it worth keeping a Stakeholder Pension

plumb1_2

hi

I did have 6 different pensions from various employers etc

I have since transferred 3 into vanguard, so left with 3 now

Main pot Royal London and a Vanguard sipp ( although no truly a sipp), but i also have a RL stakeholder pension value less than £200, is there any benefit in keeping this?

Marcon

Stakeholder pensions have two characteristics which may or may not matter to you:

• they must accept all transfers from any registered pension schemes, even where mandatory advice indicates that the adviser does not support the transfer
• they accept much smaller minimum amounts (£20, which means the member pays in £16 and the tax top up brings the value up to the £20), and at erratic intervals, than any other type of DC scheme.

They aren't the cheapest or the most flexible, but if either of the above matters/could be important to you, then it's hard to see the harm in keeping the tiddler!

If you decide otherwise and choose to part company with it, then transferring it to one of your other schemes would ensure you don't inadvertently trigger the Money Purchase Annual Allowance (unless you are able to take it using the 'small pots' regime - but seems a bit of waste to do that for such a small amount, when you can only take 3 small pots from personal pensions).