Final salary pension, who to advise?

[MrChips]

Evening all,

Our company is currently in the middle of the mandatory consultation period after it announced it plans to close down the final salary pension scheme. It closed to new applicants around 5yrs ago, but the spiel is saying it's facing a deficit etc blah blah (company is not in trouble at all, record sales year on year etc, so i can't believe this unless they publish the figures).

The replacement scheme doesn't sound bad in the general context of things (they match your input up to 10%, and add 6% themselves so max 10% me/16% them contribution).

However i really need some professional advice, as my pension understanding is strictly the basics really. But... i'm not sure exactly who to turn to and how much the advice would likely cost if i'm paying for their time? Is unbiased.co.uk the best place to search for someone, and if so, what kind of stuff should i be thinking about in how to narrow down who i talk to?

In addition, at the same time, they are also proposing to increase the employee contribution and use this to offset their increased national insurance costs (due to a "recent change in the law"). I guess this one might just be a suck it up if it happens scenario!

[MrChips]

Cheers all, i've accepted it's going to close at some point sooner or later, so really the advice i'd be looking for is twofold - firstly what the impacts mean in reality for me and what the best use of my input into the new company scheme (i.e. someone to look at my personal circumstances, tax situation etc).

I'd also be looking for advice on what options i should consider outside of the company pension as don't want all my nuts in one basket (Dad lost several hundred £k in the equitable life issue back in the late 90s/early 00's!!).
We already have one BTL (our old house) but our joint income is relatively modest compared to the equity in our 2 houses as we used all my inheritance to buy our forever home.

My engineering background means i'm into the detail/analysis side of things so I'm conscious that i'd prefer advice from someone happy to talk through specific figures and the mechanisms of how possible scheme/products might work.

[MrChips]

Ginge R said:

Chips,

Just so I have it right, you're in the middle of the period, so thirty days to go? These days, it's a brave employer why tries to circumnavigate the pensions regulator's relatively relaxed requirements, and the replacement deal sounds fair. I'm just surprised that the new scheme rep hasn't pitched up to talk to you all. Or have they? From the sounds of it, the issues you refer to are distinct - firstly, the matters arising due to the business of the scheme closedown, and secondly, the requirement for you to formulate a more general plan. Any decent adviser will be able to help you, taking into account your property portfolio, DB scheme etc. Have you tried the Vouched For/Unbiased websites which offer paid for advertising?

Yep that's pretty much it. Around 3 weeks of the consultation period left, yet it seems i'd overestimated what they would be doing during that period. I would have expected them at the very least provide a route to ask questions and get answers within the consultation period. They have been accepting questions, and actively encouraging them, but there's no sign of real answers. One of my questions is whether they will pay for individuals to get independent advice or (seeing as everyone will have similar questions but different circumstances) will they link up with an advice service to provide advice directly.

The thread was more to find our who i need to be asking for the advice so in essence it sounds like the unbiased website isn't a bad place to start. What I wanted to try to limit was the risk of spending time (and money) going through the details with someone only for them to say "Oh, i only deal with pensions, you also need a tax adviser" or "I can tell you about this, but i don't know anything about the other questions"

Thanks for the input all