Numerous Pension Pots

[987Monkey]

I'm thinking of rationalizing some of my various small pension pots at the age of 44.

I have a Barclays employee DC scheme, the pot is worth c. £28k and has been sitting doing very little for about 20 years. Its split into a 'credit account' (no idea what that is) and and UKRF Lifestyle fund. I don't think it gives me anything special and certainly hasn't grown much compared to my other pensions. If I transferred this out would I lose anything by it being a corporate pension?

I have another 3 pensions which are private pensions with the usual suspects (Aviva, L&G etc) and all worth c.£50k each.

I have been considering transferring all of these smaller pots into something else, either a SIPP (Wealthify or similar) or into one of my other private pension schemes, probably one with Aegon I have from an old employer.

If I moved it into a SIPP, then i'd like to target some higher risk investments, keeping it separate to my other pensions which are more conservative.

Really not sure what to do, or maybe the advice is to speak to an FA..

[rustyuk]

I consolidated all mine into a single SIPP except for my small final salary pension which requires special permission and sign-off from an IFA I believe.

My pensions were all poor performers again from the usual high fee low return pension giants. Knowing very little about stocks I simply purchased a selection of trackers and funds and allow myself one punt share (currently Rolls-Royce!).

[Carbon Sasquatch]

You should have a reason to move / consolidate..... you should be explicitly moving to something more desirable.

Each scheme will have a range of funds and associated fees. So you need to figure out what you want to invest in and ensure the fees are reasonable.

So for example, it's not the Barclays scheme that is poor, more likely your choice of investments within it. For me, the Barclays UKRF has been fantastic. It has about the lowest possible fees and I have been in UKRF Global (ex-UK) Equity Index Fund and UKRF UK Equity Index Fund which seem to have performed fairly well.

Do you know what fees you are paying & which funds you are invested in for each provider ?

[PistonHead007]

The Barclays Credit Account is a cash balance scheme. Assuming you're no longer an active member contributing the value goes up by inflation each year with no investment risk to you. When you reach the normal retirement age (NRA) you have the pot of cash to take benefits in the usual ways. Therefore, it's not a defined benefit arrangement (so no requirement for advice) but it is very low risk.

Anything else you transfer to will almost certainly mean more risk where your value goes up/down. There is potential to get higher returns but also scope to lose money which doesn't happen now.

When you transfer before NRA there is an early payment reduction, an actuarial factor applied.

Up to you what you do with that knowledge, anything more is advice...

[UrbanAchiever]

I'm a deferred member of the barclays pension that has the credit account. I'm pretty certain that if you transfer out, you lose the cash in the credit account. That's why I never transferred mine out.

Best to check that before transferring out. Be interested to know whether you lose it or not if you do look into this. If you don't lose it I'd be inclined to transfer out and put it into something with better growth prospects.

[PistonHead007]

You don't lose it, you get a Cash Equivalent Transfer Value that includes the effect of any early payment reduction. You'd have to explore whether the size of the reduction is worth it compared to getting the cash without penalty at NRA.