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Can you transfer old pension into auto enrolment pension?

Hi
My wife has an old work pension pot with Sun Life Financial of Canada of around £80k. This was built up from her previous employer before we had kids and nothing has been paid in for around 14 years.

About 5 years ago she went back to work in a part time modestly paid office job and was subsequently auto enrolled into a pension.

Can she transfer the old pension pot into the new one?

The statement for the old pension says there is no exit fee but it says she will still be paying charges each year (although it doesn’t say what they are). I was thinking the auto enrolled pension may have lower charges but I’m not sure if that’s true, plus it will be easier just dealing with one provider when she does retire. This will be in around 10 years time and she’s unlikely to change jobs now.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Comments

  • MovingForwards
    MovingForwards Posts: 16,917 Forumite
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    Depends on the pension provider as to whether they allow transfers in, she will need to read their terms, FAQs and any other information they have.

    Charges tend to be a fixed percentage each year, again that varies provider to provider. Again it will be in the paperwork she has from both providers and online if she looks at their website.

    She needs to look into how both have performed to see whether she wants to risk merging them, or take advice which is highly recommended as you have given little information (no pension provider details and the details in the above paragraphs, plus probably many other details) for anyone to be able to comment on pros and cons.
    Mortgage started 2020, aiming to clear it in 2026.
  • Albermarle
    Albermarle Posts: 22,102 Forumite
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    Can she transfer the old pension pot into the new one?
    If the old pot does not come with any guarantees of income or annuity rates etc and it is just a simple DC pot then normally no problem to transfer.
    If it has any kind of extra beneficial rules that you would lose by transferring then you have to think more carefully about whether you still want to transfer it. Also if you still do it will be potentially complicated
    .
    plus it will be easier just dealing with one provider when she does retire. T
    Old pensions usually do not have the flexibility of withdrawing money when it comes to that time .
    So most likely she needs to transfer it at some point anyway, to a more modern pension anyway.
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