Old Pensions - What to do

[ImNOTGrumpy]

I have 2 old pensions from previous industries they are Royal London Individual PP's

One from 2007 value £58504 the other from 2013 value £32846

I've not contributed anything to them as we have put any extra cash into our business premisis and other rental properties.

Looking at the projected retirement earnings they suggest I could get £2840 & £1670 per annum when i'm 65, i'm 55 this year.

What would you do with them, leave them, cash in 25% this year or something else?

Thanks in advance from a pensions novice ;-)

Edited by ImNOTGrumpy on Friday 5th March 14:16

[Mr Pointy]

Well, the first thing is you need to find out how they are performing; if they are increasing at 2% a year after charges, that's bad. If they are doing 6%, that's ok. Performance is the first key issue. Next is are there any protected benefits such as a guaranteed pension or annual rises which you would lose by moving the pension elsewhere.

If they aren't performing well & don't have valuable benfits then you can look at moving them somewhere they can work harder. You don't have to take income as an annuity, which is what the forecasts are showing.

The Pensionwise site has a lot of good basic infomation:
https://www.pensionwise.gov.uk/en

[randlemarcus]

NOT a pensions adviser, so ignore anything I say

For mine, I have looked at the charges in place, and if they are a bit toppy, have transferred the pension to my preferred plan/provider. At the very least, its one less entity to tell when I move house

[CharlieCrocodile]

Pool them into a SIPP and buy/sell shares.

[Mr Pointy]

CharlieCrocodile said:

Pool them into a SIPP...

This could be a good idea depending on the precise details of the exiting pensions.

CharlieCrocodile said:

...and buy/sell shares.

This is appalling advice: on no account do this.

[CharlieCrocodile]

Mr Pointy said:

This is appalling advice: on no account do this.

Why not? I've done much better in 6 years than the pension managers did in the previous 20.

[Mr Pointy]

CharlieCrocodile said:

Mr Pointy said:

This is appalling advice: on no account do this.

Why not? I've done much better in 6 years than the pension managers did in the previous 20.

Because you're advising a pensions novice to start playing the stock market with one of his most valuable financial assets.

[craig1912]

CharlieCrocodile said:

Why not? I've done much better in 6 years than the pension managers did in the previous 20.

Luck

[TCX]

Mr Pointy said:

CharlieCrocodile said:

Pool them into a SIPP...

This could be a good idea depending on the precise details of the exiting pensions.

CharlieCrocodile said:

...and buy/sell shares.

This is appalling advice: on no account do this.

Really? Done exactly this with three pensions,one royal London,rolled into a sipp,more than doubled money in less than a year

[jontymo]

There is only one answer! get some professional advice - end

[VR99]

jontymo said:

There is only one answer! get some professional advice - end

This is the best advice IMO. You could DIY it but personally I'd rather not risk making any bad choices with pensions e.g: losing any benefits of old pensions or not considering other factors e.g: fund costs, wider market, your age etc

Also bear in mind Equities had a great run last few years, there wasnt much to be done apart from watch it all go up nicely! We don't know if that will be repeated over the next few years given where the market is now..but who knows..

I don't like messing around with my pensions if possible but recently changed the fund in my current active pension, the default fund was absolute sh*t for performance over the last 5 years so switched to a 100% Equities fund...even with the higher fund costs the improved performance has been staggering. However I am in my late 30's so accept that there will be more dips along the way and happy with 100% Equities which may or may not be suitable for yourself Op.

Edited by VR99 on Saturday 6th March 08:01

[ITP]

Taking the higher risk pension option, buy/sell shares for example, is not a wise move when your are 55, not too far from retirement. You may get lucky, but you may lose a lot of it with no time to recover the position.

Higher risk options for larger gains are best taken at younger ages, and once older move to the best safer option.

This is just my opinion though, I am in no way an expert.

Edited by ITP on Saturday 6th March 13:07