Choosing a Pension Provider?

[98elise]

I have a few of pensions. In order of taking them out they are:

Pension 1 (Personal) - 10+ years contributions 50k value. Stopped paying in when I got a company pension. Its performing well.
Pension 2 (Company) - 15+ years contributions and is performing well, and is worth a good sum.
Pension 3 (Company) - 2 years contributions 13k value, zero growth. Stopped paying into it when I started out on my own.

I now want to start serious pension saving as I want to retire in 5 years.

Pension 2 is decent and will stay as it is. I want to combine pension 1 and 3, and start paying large sums into this to form a decent second pension. That will give me a nice mix of 2 pensions and some property to fund retirement.

Initially I wanted to pay pension 3 into 1, pay a lump sum in, and then start paying a good monthly payment. Pension company 1 though seem like idiots. I've had to write to them twice, and its take them 6 weeks to get back to me. Their response has was that I can't transfer anything in, they will only take payments up to my old monthly payment. They have suggested I call their sales team to start a different pension! It all to do with the fact my pension was originally with my bank, but its now with their pension department.

If I'm going to have to start a different pension them I might as well look around, so whats a decent resource for comparing pensions for the laymen?

[98elise]

PurpleMoonlight said:

If you want to actively chose investments for yourself a Hargreaves Lansdown SIPP will probably suit.

If you want someone else to make recommendations/decisions then consult an IFA.

All I want is a bog standard pension I can pay into that's had reasonable growth in past years (at lest keeping up with inflation). The main aim is to save with the tax break, as 5 years is never going to see huge returns.

Essentially I just want to replace pension 1 with something similar where the provider will let me pay in:

1. the contents of pension 3
2. a lump sum now
3. regular monthly payments of about 3-4k

Pension 1 provider seems unable/unwilling to do this.

[98elise]

Jockman said:

Send a PM to Ginge R. I would.

Its not really advice that I need. I just need to replace 1 product with a similar product.

[98elise]

PurpleMoonlight said:

98elise said:

Its not really advice that I need. I just need to replace 1 product with a similar product.

But that constitutes advice as far as the FCA is concerned.

Yes you can get some suggestions here for free, but to get a product suitable for your particular needs you should consult a suitable authorised IFA. They will also look into any detrimental effects of transferring pension 3, eg would you be giving up any guaranteed annuity rates.

Edited by PurpleMoonlight on Friday 10th June 12:39

I'm not asking for PH to advise me on the Pension to get though. I'm asking what resourse to use, like a comparison website.

I won't be buying an annuity, so thats not an issue.