Can I give away some of my pension pot?

geriatrix1

I hope someone can come up with a suggestion as to what I can do with my very nearly trivial pension.

I have a Personal Pension Plan with Equitable Life, which I stopped paying into when the company was going through it's difficult patch. The current value is £6598.

I am female and aged 63.

I am also in receipt of a company pension which is valued at £9997 which pays me a small amount each month.

Unfortunately the combined value of both exceeds the current trivial commutation limit of £16,500 and since both amounts increase proportionately each year, will probably continue to exceed the limit in years to come.

I would dearly like to release my funds from Equitable, at least, and possibly commute my company pension as well, although that is not so important. I would be willing to forgo/ write off the amount in excess of £16,500, but there does not seem to be any mechanism to allow this. It seems fairly pointless to purchase an annuity for such a small amount, even if I could find someone to sell me one.

Any ideas on how to proceed would be most welcome!

Thanks - Patti J

dunstonh

Its £17,500 next year and £18000 the following year. After that it is subject to treasury discretion.

Any ideas on how to proceed would be most welcome!

Why not transfer the pension and invest in funds in areas likely to see a drop? Its a bit of a gamble because they can go up as well as down (lol sounds funny saying it that way). Another way is if you use an IFA for advice then get him to take his fees from the pension instead of other products or by cheque (if fee based).

EdInvestor

Can you do trivial commutation on a pension which is already in payment?I'd have thought not.

geriatrix1

Thanks so much Dunstonh. I hadn't realised the limit was going up by a whole £1000 next year. No rhyme or reason to this, is there? But with luck and a following wind that should solve my problem, as I'm just trying to tie up loose ends and don't need the money right now.

Edinvestor, the suggestion to commute came from the company providing the pension which is already in payment, so hopefully one can.

averageguy11

Try bank and building shares..they r doing crap!

trickytrolleys

for annuities already in payment the calculation is done (assuming a level basis)

monthly payment x 12 x 25 = what HMRC will say your pension is worth

eg: if you were getting £10 pcm it would be

10 x 12 = £120 p/a

this would then be multiplied by 25 (years) = £3000

do this calculation and work on it from there

HTH