Is there an easy way to get all my pensions in one place?

[savoloysam]

I have tried the UK government web service and typically it's rubbish. I have spoken to my current pension provider and they said they can't do it without me tracing them first. I know most of my recent providers but not all of them. I can of course call each company but one company that I was at for three years. No longer exists

 

[marty21]

Not sure, but at 59 I am interested too. There is Pension Bee ? I've never used it but would be interested if others have. I rolled my 2 main work pensions into my current one when I started here 15 years ago. I'm not sure if I was in any schemes prior to 1995 .

 

[Wkdloz]

Keeping all you eggs in one basket is never a good idea besides moving a pension usually incurs pension charges by the new provider.

 

[Silas Loom]

Keeping all your eggs in a single basket is the most sensible way to minimise charges. The bigger the pot, the less you should expect to pay proportionally.

 

[savoloysam]

Not sure, but at 59 I am interested too. There is Pension Bee ? I've never used it but would be interested if others have. I rolled my 2 main work pensions into my current one when I started here 15 years ago. I'm not sure if I was in any schemes prior to 1995 .

I was looking at Pension Bee before but the reviews weren't good. I'll have another look though. Thanks.

 

[magneze]

No, there's not an easy way to do it as far as I know. It's a pain in the arse.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

A few thoughts -

Bear in mind that pension companies / financial advisers are there to make money out of you.

Is this the pension tracing service you have tried? A quick web search suggests there are commercial organisations who will do the same sort of thing but charge you for it.

The 'all eggs in one basket' thing - may or may not reduce fees / deductions - if they are based on a percentage and all about the same percentage, then are you going to save anything? Other than making it simpler / more convenient?

Some people argue it's worth spreading across multiple providers as the risks balance out.

It's worth looking at the terms of each scheme - some pension schemes allow earlier retirement than others so may be best left where they are (I have two deferred defined benefit schemes from past employers which can be taken at 60. I could transfer them in to current scheme, but that has retirement at 67, so if I transferred to my current scheme, I'd get more at 67, but less if I did opt to retire early. They won't be enough to retire on at 60, but might mean I could go part time.) Some schemes have a life insurance element which may or may not be worth hanging on to, others may have different provisions for a surviving partner / dependents (I don't know your personal circumstances and not expecting you to go in to detail, so don't know if either might be a consideration for you.)

At the risk of stating the obvious, transferring anything that's defined benefit (final salary / career average based) in to a defined contribution scheme is rarely a good idea.

Some pension transfers (depending on just how much is involved) require you to have consulted an independent financial adviser.

Pension Wise is a free service funded by government and may be worth a look.

 

[savoloysam]

No, there's not an easy way to do it as far as I know. It's a pain in the arse.

I'm going to begin by sitting in the queue for over an for the UK gov helpline tomorrow.

 

[savoloysam]

A few thoughts -

Bear in mind that pension companies / financial advisers are there to make money out of you.

Is this the pension tracing service you have tried? A quick web search suggests there are commercial organisations who will do the same sort of thing but charge you for it.

The 'all eggs in one basket' thing - may or may not reduce fees / deductions - if they are based on a percentage and all about the same percentage, then are you going to save anything? Other than making it simpler / more convenient?

Some people argue it's worth spreading across multiple providers as the risks balance out.

It's worth looking at the terms of each scheme - some pension schemes allow earlier retirement than others so may be best left where they are (I have two deferred defined benefit schemes from past employers which can be taken at 60. I could transfer them in to current scheme, but that has retirement at 67, so if I transferred to my current scheme, I'd get more at 67, but less if I did opt to retire early. They won't be enough to retire on at 60, but might mean I could go part time.) Some schemes have a life insurance element which may or may not be worth hanging on to, others may have different provisions for a surviving partner / dependents (I don't know your personal circumstances and not expecting you to go in to detail, so don't know if either might be a consideration for you.)

At the risk of stating the obvious, transferring anything that's defined benefit (final salary / career average based) in to a defined contribution scheme is rarely a good idea.

Some pension transfers (depending on just how much is involved) require you to have consulted an independent financial adviser.

Pension Wise is a free service funded by government and may be worth a look.

I read that there are millions of pounds sitting in a unclaimed pension accounts. I suspect that government like it being this complicated because as usual the rich prosper at everyone else's misfortune.

Bless my dad before he passed away telling me how important it is to get on top of your pension earlier rather than later. Being yound and naive I just thought yeah dad whatever. I'll deal with it when I need to

 

[hash tag]

Some people argue it's worth spreading across multiple providers as the risks balance out.

Also, you can do different things with them at different times, like take the lump sum or take an income. You can take one on reaching 60 and keep the others going until your are 66 for example.

 

[Elpenor]

Also, you can do different things with them at different times, like take the lump sum or take an income. You can take one on reaching 60 and keep the others going until your are 66 for example.

This is one of the reasons I didn’t transfer my DC pension.

 

[smmudge]

You could wait until October 2026, when they announce yet another delay to the long awaited pensions dashboard?

 

[smmudge]

Bear in mind that pension companies / financial advisers are there to make money out of you.

And provide a service, in an area which people find very complicated it seems!

 

[BigMoaner]

Related question: Even if they are not contactable and you’re out of touch, do you still get paid out? Does it happen automatically or is the onus on you to claim it?

 

[hash tag]

Related question: Even if they are not contactable and you’re out of touch, do you still get paid out? Does it happen automatically or is the onus on you to claim it?

You have to be in touch, they will not automatically pay out.
I am guessing they might need identification. They will definitely need your instructions on how to pay out; do you want everything as a lump sum or
do you want maximum monthly income or somewhere in between?

 

[BigMoaner]

You have to be in touch, they will not automatically pay out.
I am guessing they might need identification. They will definitely need your instructions on how to pay out; do you want everything as a lump sum or
do you want maximum monthly income or somewhere in between?

It doesn’t effect me but I always wondered it thanks

 

[Skim]

I’ve found Pension Bee very easy to use and the customer service has been decent, in my experience. I consolidated some contributions from a number of different employments and they are almost all in once place now.

When did employers have to start making contributions? I had a lot of employments from years of freelancing and some of those were through payroll. Tracking them down is a lot of effort for not much money, but I’d rather get what I’m entitled to.

 

[smmudge]

When did employers have to start making contributions?

It depends how many staff the company employ/ed, but anywhere from 1st October 2012 to 1st April 2017, or up to 1st Feb 2018 for newer employers.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Keeping all your eggs in a single basket is the most sensible way to minimise charges. The bigger the pot, the less you should expect to pay proportionally.

It also a good idea when you’ve had a dozen employers over ten years because individually they are worth fuck all.

 

[furluxor]

I don't know about easy, I pulled all my pensions together some years ago and it was a right pain in the arse, with physical documents to sign and return, other docs sent to me so I would post them to the other provider, and so on. It's worth doing unless you have a reason to hold on to a specific pension, such as a final salary scheme. The important thing is to decide on where you want them all to sit, and usually this will be the place where they don't charge much for management. I use Vanguard and dump it all into S&P 500, this might be too risky for someone who's older than me and closer to pensionable age.

 

[hitmouse]

At the risk of stating the obvious, transferring anything that's defined benefit (final salary / career average based) in to a defined contribution scheme is rarely a good idea.

And am I right in thinking that you're not allowed to do transfers the other way? I think I had a look at trying to get all my pensions in one place a few years back and then immediately gave up when I realised I couldn't do this.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

And am I right in thinking that you're not allowed to do transfers the other way? I think I had a look at trying to get all my pensions in one place a few years back and then immediately gave up when I realised I couldn't do this.

Don't think there is any national rule that says you can't, but it will depend on the rules of the scheme - some will allow transfers in, some won't. And there may be a rule that if you're going to do it, you have to do it within a year (or something) of starting new job.

I went back in to local government a couple of years ago, and their scheme will accept transfers in - I got a transfer value from the DC schemes I'd been in recently, the council's pension people told me how much pension a year that would get me, and it was then up to me to sign on the dotted line to do it or not.

 

[hitmouse]

Don't think there is any national rule that says you can't, but it will depend on the rules of the scheme - some will allow transfers in, some won't. And there may be a rule that if you're going to do it, you have to do it within a year (or something) of starting new job.

Yeah, think it was some combination of those rules that caught me up. So if you have a DB pension in one of those schemes, the answer to the OP question is "no, not if it's been more than a year since you started working there."

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Yeah, think it was some combination of those rules that caught me up. So if you have a DB pension in one of those schemes, the answer to the OP question is "no, not if it's been more than a year since you started working there."

again, i don't know if that's something that's law, or up to the rules of the individual pension scheme.

i think some DB schemes don't allow transfers in at all.

 

[Hollis]

Also, you can do different things with them at different times, like take the lump sum or take an income. You can take one on reaching 60 and keep the others going until your are 66 for example.

Tbh - it depends what you're doing with it. There's no reason if you have a pension in one place, why you can't take some of it now, and then keep the rest of it fully invested. Not so many people take annuities now, so the idea of 'cashing in' your pension at a set age, isnt' really what happens for most people outside the public sector defined benefit schemes.

I bunged all of mine in one place, as it has a fixed fee (not percentage) so lots of savings.