Pensions In Different Places - Combine Them?

[DaveyBoyWonder]

Bit of background - I currently have 4 pension plans:
1 - company I worked for for around 8/9 years with Aviva
2 - company I worked for for 1 year with L&G
3 - company I worked for for 2.5 years, also with L&G
4 - went back to company 2 this year and so have another pension with them/L&G now

I'm pretty naive when it comes to pensions so my question is this:
- my 3 seperate plans with L&G. Is there a reason why I shouldn't/should combine them? Can I do that?
- is there a reason why I shouldn't/should move my plan (which has a decent amount in it) from Aviva to L&G where my other plans are so they're easier to manage (I say "manage", I don't do anything with them apart from pay into them)? I believe there may be a fee to do this (how much, I don't know) but would there be a financial benefit longer term from having my pensions together?

Cheers,Dave

[IanJ9375]

Speak to your pension advisor - most large employers seem to use another company for this rather than just the pension suppliers.

I was in a similar position, the advisor ran a cost comparison and suggested whether it was going to be more cost effective to pool them together in the current workplace pension which it was, which has made it much easier to see how the pot is growing...which is all fine until I've transferred again so will now need to transfer the pot once more (An easy life is never had lol).

[fat80b]

maybe / maybe not. There are several things you really want to understand first. DB/DC, costs to move, fund options, etc.

But most importantly, you need to understand what the annual management charges are for each of them and whether they are good or bad - you may find that they are low enough that you are happy where they are, you may find that they are high and you'd be mad to stay.

I recently had a sales person / IFA from St James' place speak to me through work. One thing they did do was all of the leg work in comparing the various pensions that I was currently in and produced a lovely 10 page report for me with all of the information in it. Very handy!! Their charges are on the high side and I didn't go with them for this reason but their no obligation report was pretty good value

[DaveyBoyWonder]

Cheers both.

I'll see if theres someone available through work (I'd imagine there would be!).

[bristolbaron]

The risk with an advisor is they may tend to lean towards their products. I recently was given data about my current products and their compatible products through IM with which I could make my own informed decision.
They are not advisors, so will not give advice, but seeing the data in black and white made the picture much clearer for me.

[Mr Whippy]

Plus now you have the early retirement date transfer issue.

You can’t transfer anything into an explicit 55yr pension as of midnight 3rd/4th Nov 21.

So if you were planning on taking a chunk of a pension at 55yr old, you might want to leave that one in place (assuming it’s not a floating early retirement date)

Edited by Mr Whippy on Friday 5th November 08:25