Pension Transfers and Consolidation

All Pension plans, whether Personal or Occupational can be transferred to other types of Pension plan. This means that if a plan or scheme is suffering from poor investment performance, for instance due to a very restrictive selection of investment funds, then the plan can be transferred to another pension plan where the fund choice is much better and the potential for investment growth is much greater.

It is possible to transfer all types of pension plans including Retirement Annuity Contracts (RACs), Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) and Free Standing AVCs (FSAVC), Final Salary and Money Purchase Occupational schemes. 

Final Salary Occupational Schemes are generally considered the best type of pension plan as, usually, the contribution made by the employer is more generous and the benefits are guaranteed. They depend on your final salary at the time of retirement and length of service and not a fund value. However they are very expensive for the employer and many schemes have now closed to new members, and in recent years some Final Salary schemes have been unable to pay the expected pension due to insolvency or the amount it has to pay out being greater than the investments/contributions received. 

When a member has left the employment of a pension scheme provider, including a final salary scheme, it may be appropriate to consider transferring this to another type of personal plan. To do so may be in the member’s best interests but great care has to be taken to be sure that this is the case.  We can find out for you. 

The question should be asked by everyone with a pension plan – is it in the right place and could it do better?

There have been so many changes to the pension industry in the last few years that it is entirely possible that the company that you took out your pension with does not even exist anymore and it has changed provider several times. It may be in outmoded funds and on unfavourable terms. Do you know?

Are you happy with the growth that your plan has achieved?  Over the past 5 years some of the best performing pension funds have grown by over 100% whilst some have negative growth of over 40%. The difference is huge.  If you had £100,000 in your pension plan 5 years ago, at the highest level of growth it could be worth £200,000 now or, at the lowest only £60.000. This is an extreme example but, do you know where your plans would come?

During your working life you may have had a number of jobs and often a number of pension policies. Keeping track of many pension plans can be time consuming and complicated and can lead to being exposed to higher charged contracts, a loss of investment opportunity and exposure to undue risk. 

We can investigate your plans to establish vital information about performance, investment strategy and charges.  We will work with you to consolidate your pensions into one arrangement so you can benefit from reduced charges and better investment performance.   We will send you regular statements and review your investments on an ongoing basis to help you achieve the best possible growth for your funds.  Do you know the value of all your pension plans?

Finding the answers to all of these issues will cost you nothing, just talk to one of our pensions specialists.