Managing work place pensions

[272BHP]

I have lots of these things. I tend to stay at companies for short periods 9months to 3 years so I have built up a lot of company pensions.

I have lots of documents in front of me from Legal and General, Nest etc etc

What the hell am I supposed to do with them all? I have never understood how all this works, do I just leave them and sort it all out when I retire? or do I have to consolidate them all every time I move company?

I am never very good at keeping documents, account numbers and passwords and I am afraid that I am going to lose some of my pot when I retire.

[The Leaper]

The most critical thing for you to do or have done already is to make sure that all the companies with which you have these multiple pensions do have your latest address. If and when you move, tell them your new address. Otherwise they have no way of contacting you and you'll have a major problem when you want them paid out.

R

[Drumroll]

You could consider creating a SIPP consolidate all your pensions into that and then opt out of any company scheme and put into SIPP. You will need to look at it carefully though.

[mikef]

If you have several policies, you should be able to tabulate returns and annual costs. In my experience, pensions taken out through major companies have much lower annual charges than equivalent schemes through small companies or personal pensions. Not to mention that the thieving bds can still charge you a couple of percent even in years where they have managed to lose you money (against the run of the market)

Find one with consistent decent returns and low annual charges and move anything into it that doesn’t incur a penalty for transferring out

[anonymous-user]

Drumroll said:

You could consider creating a SIPP consolidate all your pensions into that and then opt out of any company scheme and put into SIPP. You will need to look at it carefully though.

This is what I do. Hargreaves Lansdown has a 'Transfer Now' button on their website and they do all the leg work.

[272BHP]

Thanks for the advice - I will have to force myself to look into this properly. I hate having financial stuff spread all over the place.

I do have a full Army pension that I get every month I don't suppose I could consolidate anything with this?

[paolow]

RaymondVanDerDon said:

This is what I do. Hargreaves Lansdown has a 'Transfer Now' button on their website and they do all the leg work.

I'm not the OP - but thank you - this is useful information indeed.

[tighnamara]

Drumroll said:

You could consider creating a SIPP consolidate all your pensions into that and then opt out of any company scheme and put into SIPP. You will need to look at it carefully though.

Out of interest, why would you specifically recommend a SIPP.

[sidicks]

mikef said:

If you have several policies, you should be able to tabulate returns and annual costs. In my experience, pensions taken out through major companies have much lower annual charges than equivalent schemes through small companies or personal pensions.

Company pensions often have lower minimum premiums than individual pensions, hence sometimes charges can be higher to compensate.

mikef said:

Not to mention that the thieving bds can still charge you a couple of percent even in years where they have managed to lose you money (against the run of the market)

Nonsense.

mikef said:

Find one with consistent decent returns and low annual charges and move anything into it that doesn’t incur a penalty for transferring out

This is decent advice.

The OP just needs a personal pension, no need for a SIPP.

[anonymous-user]

They can find you as long as your NHI address is up to date, I reached 65 last year, haven't lived in the UK for 20 years, but my tax records are strictly up to date and my NHI contributions are current, I had 3 letters form pensions I had forgotten, two were hardly worth the cost of the letter they sent but one was from 1992 and was actually a nice sum, The NHI people forwarded a letter to me, and I contacted the pension fund.
Of course would be better to keep them informed of address changes but there is a back up provided by the HRMC

[The Leaper]

Berw said:

They can find you as long as your NHI address is up to date, I reached 65 last year, haven't lived in the UK for 20 years, but my tax records are strictly up to date and my NHI contributions are current, I had 3 letters form pensions I had forgotten, two were hardly worth the cost of the letter they sent but one was from 1992 and was actually a nice sum, The NHI people forwarded a letter to me, and I contacted the pension fund.
Of course would be better to keep them informed of address changes but there is a back up provided by the HRMC

In my experience, tracing a “missing” pension is not that straightforward. For over 20 years I have had a voluntary unpaid job part of which involves tracing pensions for members of the public who have lost contact with the pension provider. Usually this happens because of two things: the pension scheme has been wound up with responsibility transferred from the trustees to an insurance company, and the pension holder has not told the trustees/insurance company of any changes of their address.

The starting point for tracing a missing pension is usually the government’s free online Pension Tracing Service (PTS). You can enter information and get an online response quite quickly. Usually this gives you the address of the trustees but not the insurance company, so if you then contact the trustees you’ll be told the scheme has wound up and you need to contact XYZ insurance company. When you do this they do not recognise who you are. You may think that they have your NI number in their records but this is rarely the case in my experience. Insurance companies do not have sophisticated search programs to try and find your policy.

The government has said that it will establish a national facility where all parties holding pensions send relevant details so that members of the public can then interrogate this and hopefully locate their missing pensions. The date for establishing this facility has been put back regularly

The best advice I can give is always tell relevant parties whenever you change your address so that they can update their records and contact you nearer the pension start date.

Berw, I note your experience but I do think that you have been rather fortunate. You mention that the insurance companies asked the DWP to forward their letters to you which is unusual in my experience. Anyway, well done for getting the pensions paid!

R.