Sorting my pensions out - planning at 39

[Ginge R]

Maxf said:

I'm 39 and have 3 pension 'pots', 2 from old employers and 1 from my current - looking at my 'projections' is somewhat sobering as I assumed I'd be reasonably well covered, having paid in to a pension for most of my adult life - it seems like I'm on track for about £13k a year though!

Currently, I pay a little under £700 a month into my current employer's pension, which includes their contribution. I pay the maximum amount in which they will match.

My old company pensions (HSBC and Standard Life) are sat dormant - I no longer contribute anything to them. They are both defined contribution pensions and have seen a little growth lately, but nothing groundbreaking. They only give me a very limited choice of funds, but I understand the fees are quite low on the Standard Life Pension, and 1% on the HSBC (which seems high). I'm stuck with my current (L&G) pension.

So, at 39 I'm panicking a little about having enough money when I'm old and grey(er), so have a few questions on my pensions:

Should I combine the HSBC and Standard Life pensions into something more controllable (Hargreaves Lansdown SIPP or similar)?

Should I combine all of my pensions into the current company one (L&G SIPP)?

I wondered about paying more into a pension, but I think I'm better off ploughing money into an investment ISA as I can at least access it if I need to. I'm not a great saver though to be honest.

My total pot isn't massive - about £100k - so I have some work to do! I don't intend my pension to be my only retirement income/investment - but it needs to form a core of it.

Luckily my Mrs has a decent work pension too (although a smaller 'pot') but having stayed at the same company all of her career so far means she doesn't have the need to change providers. We both aim to have about 28 years until retirement (I'm older than her so will plough on until 67 and she will retire at 55). We're both in professional roles, so will probably end up doing some kind of part time advisory/contracting roles rather than fully retire.

It would be nice to build up a reasonable 'pot' between us, then do something a little more property based with it - can SIPPs be combined to invest in commercial property?

Have a think about the pros and cons of putting a little more into your partner's pension. Why have a surfeit in your name, if you get taxed to hell and back on it, especially as your fund has the benefit of twelve years more growth to capitalise on. It isn't what you make, it's what you keep.

Why aren't your existing pots doing well? That's the more important question. Sure, there are lots of merits in consolidating, but if you have twenty eight years to go until you draw benefits, why have something expensive if you decide to do it? A boggo standard personal pension that's cheap as chips will be fine for 99% of savers.

Something like an Aviva, Royal London or L&G PP is worth looking at. The first course of action will always be to do nothing, but considering moving those two isn't entirely a bad idea..