Pension questions

[Pieman68]

Afternoon guys

Just a couple of quick questions - I'm actually still a fair way off retirement age so nothing too imminent but I am starting to look more at my pensions and how things work as I look to start investing more (maintenance payments ending - am going to use them to pay debts down over the next 18 months and then start investing more once they are all paid off)

I am married with a daughter and a stepson.

1. Should something happen to me prior to retirement age would my wife get my pension pot released to her or does it remain in situ until my retirement age and then go to her as a pension? Presumably in the case of death before retirement I can name beneficiaries in a will so that it would be shared
2. In the instance that I reach retirement age and pass away shortly afterwards (say age 70), would the balance then be paid to my wife as a reduced pension? Should she then pass on in close proximity would the remaining balance of the pot be released to the children or is it then forfeit to the pension provider
3. I suppose this is a variation of question 2 - should my wife pass away before me, what happens to the remains of my pension should I pass whilst it still contains funds? Do these become part of any estate?

Sorry if these seem like obvious questions - after a recent bonus pot being found (£25k in a lost pension) I am just in the process of looking at consolidating and tidying everything up and these occurred to me

[Mr Pointy]

Probably the first question to ask is are you paying into a Defined Benefit or a Defined Contribution Pension.

Some of the answers you are after should be in your pension documentation - do you have this?

[Pieman68]

Mr Pointy said:

Probably the first question to ask is are you paying into a Defined Benefit or a Defined Contribution Pension.

Some of the answers you are after should be in your pension documentation - do you have this?

Unfortunately there is very little in documentation that I have at the minute. As I said one of the larger pots is actually the lost one - I basically set up a personal pension 25 years which I only ever made one payment into as I was 20 and hopeless, but because I had contracted out payments were made into it up to 2012 by the government

I currently have an IFA looking at all my existing and looking to consolidate with the exception of my current company scheme so should have more detail in a few weeks from the new consolidated pot - I just wasn't sure if these were standard answers or differed between schemes. The IFA did specifically state that neither of the current ones have any specific benefits that set them apart from others