New employer not offering pension - help!

Hi all

I left my previous employer in early Jan - with whom I had a company pension with a well known provider, BlackRock.

Going from what was a large, established regional employer to a small startup business, I was always expecting teething problems. However, since starting my colleagues and I have been asking our boss to update us on company pension, to which we have had sporadic replies of 'he is handling it' and to 'leave it with him'. We are now 9 months on and no further.

I appreciate he doesn't HAVE to offer a pension yet - I've checked in with Citizen's Advice.

My problem comes that BlackRock are only going to hold on to my previous pension fund for another week from today before it returns to my previous employer.

I therefore need to set up a personal pension, I presume, with haste so as to have somewhere to hold his money and transfer it to.

Has anyone been in a similar position? Having never set up a personal pension I'm at a loss of what to do, particularly with such a short timeframe and somewhat resent having to pay out for a financial advisor.

Any advice on best steps for a 'quick fix' would be gratefully appreciated, as well as any other thoughts on the above.

Thanks