In time honoured fashion I'm asking here on a mountain biking forum about this.

I've got a shit load of pensions floating around the place. These are a result of moving jobs but also a result of companies moving pension schemes during my employment. I feel this is possibly a bad idea but I'm not sure to be honest. I start to go a bit dizzy when people start talking to me about the fine detail which is their own fault, I know they do it deliberately to keep the layman in check.

Anyway, to summise I think I have

1. GEC pension with quite a few grand in it (paid into this for about 5 years)
2. A private pension with about 20k in it (three years paid in)
3. A final salary scheme pension (about 7 years worth – probably quite a bit in this one)
4. Another private pension with a few grand in
5. And now I'm in a civil service pension scheme.

I presume the best thing to do is bring the GEC scheme into the civil service one and possibly merge the two private pension schemes. I'm told I should just let the final salary scheme run as it is but really, I dunno. I'm reluctant to approach paid financial advice [1] as they probably charge a fortune and obviously if I talk to any of the above they'll all say stick with them.

[1] Although I'll probably do this in the end anyway.

Why can't they make this stuff simple like computers?

Any pension for dummy advice appreciated.

Leave them all where they are, better to spread the risk than move all into one and that goes belly-up (or in HMG's case, change the rules).

This is what I've done, based upon advise 15 years ago from a pensions chap at work – and backup-up lately by our Financial Advisor.

I predict pensions will be replaced by euthanasia

get an IFA to sort it out and tell him you want 50% of his commission. You'll double your pot in one go.

/cynic

So, so far the advice is do nothing. That has an appealing edge to it.

Transfer the whole lot to a SIPP (Self Investment Personal Pension) and manage it yourself. It's more fun and you can't possibly do a worse job than the so called 'Professional' fund managers.

Old GEC pensions are now controlled by the paymaster general ( same place as civil service one) so why move it?

I dunno, I had this idea that the more money you had in a single pension, the more it earned for you rather than have lots of little bits dotted about the place. If that's not true then I'll leave them all alone.

I've been thinking the same, have 4 pensions now and would prefer them to all just been in the one scheme but they make it so awkward when you ask about transferring it.

eef – Member
Transfer the whole lot to a SIPP (Self Investment Personal Pension) and manage it yourself. It's more fun and you can't possibly do a worse job than the so called 'Professional' fund managers.

No way should you transfer any final salary pension into a SIPP. But for the other schemes a low cost SIPP from someone like Hargreaves Lansdown would be a good move. There's plenty of advice on t'internet if you don't want to pay a FSA.

Samuri

Have a click through my username and drop me an email/call. I will happily talk you through your options without fee or obligation, but I won't do this on a public forum 😉

Chris.

The final salary pensions are worth having – can you buy extra years in the civil service one? Cashing in some of the others and using the money to buy extra years will probably give you the best return.

Samuri – I am (for my sins) in the Pensions industry. Whether that makes me better placed to help or not I don't know. However, I think you should seek professional advice. Pensions are a very (very) complex issue. There have been so many changes (in both private and public sector schemes) over the years that you could, without advice, makes some irreversible decisions that could significantly impact on your retirement income.

A professional adviser, of which there are many, will certainly have a no obligations discussion with you for free. They will be able to discuss your personal circumstances, attitude to risk, retirement age and time to RE, target retirement income etc. It may cost you a few £100s but it could save you a lot more.

Using someone elses advice or tips from the internet should probably be avoided. Even if it is meant in good will.

Nooooooooo do not cash any pension in just to buy exta years in your current pension.Do as b r said keep everything where it is.

How can anyone give advice on this. He has at least two types of pension. Final Salary and a DC/Personal pension. He hasn't stated what they are invested in, when he wants to retire or how much he expects to retire on when that time comes. Without this an a hundred more bits of info how can you advise on what to do?

The final salary pensions are worth having

Sorry for the slight hijack but don't have much a clue about these things, but I had one of these final salary schemes in my first job and probably put around 3k into it, employer would have put in some but can't remember how much, now I don't see that that is going to give me a significant sum of money when I'm retired so whether I leave it or put it into something else will it really make that much difference?

Pensions are a very (very) complex issue

by design. If they're going to steal your money and pretend it was your fault they need a blanket of obfuscation 🙁

I like things simply so anything not final salary I'd put into a SIPP with various funds so all in one place and easy to manage but low risk.

Cash them all in early and next time the euromillions goes over £100m stick it all on tickets.

I like things simply so anything not final salary I'd put into a SIPP with various funds so all in one place and easy to manage but low risk.

It may be simple, but having all your investments in one place is anything but low risk.

Paying extra into your civil service pension may be a good idea. But you may be better off paying off your mortgage. It depends really.

The best solution is to get some independent advice. They may charge but then this could be your most important financial decision. It's worth getting it right. Is there advice available through your current scheme? I know some arrangements offer retirement planning.

sfb – I can understand your cynicism. Over the last god knows how many years, politicians have changed pensions legislation to try and solve the impending retiremenet timebomb. Sadly, these changes have failed to address the problems and all we have been left with is a vastly complex retirement benefits system. Perhaps the issues are too deep seated to ever be resolved and no sustained long term approach (a new political term, a new panacea) to doing so is not helping.

However, saving for the future when you no longer want/are able to work is essential. People should remember that pension contributions are tax deductible, so for every £1 contributed as much as 40p extra can be paid into the pensions pot. Often employers make voluntary contributions as well. If one takes a "we're all going to get ripped off" approach it is simply delays fixing the problem.

Btw, I wasn't aiming this at you directly. Just making a point 🙂

. If one takes a "we're all going to get ripped off" approach it is simply delays fixing the problem.

that's past tense – we already have been! In the longer term, I think those still in work will balk at supporting teeming hordes of grumpy workshy oldies…

If you look back, we've been through this before. The great depression of the 20s/30s, the 70s oil crisis, the Tech boom, and most current in the mind, the banking debacle. In each of the previous cases, after a period of correction, things have continued to trend upwards. People (certainly in the developed world) have got better off, the standard of living has improved. Chances are we'll see a period like this again…and again.

Saving for retirement is a long term activity. Over 40 years these things 'come out in the wash'. The problem is not investing, it is insufficient understanding of the risks involved. Now the most recent debacle was a lesson is dishonesty and greed. But this has also been driven by generations of people who only thought house prices and share prices went up. That's why people we sold (and bought) 100%+ mortagages. Because prices always went up right. Wrong. Well in the short term anyway. They didn't understand the risks. I wont go into the institions that didn't understand the risks either that's another story.

I digress. To your original point. The foundation of UK pension provision was built on exactly that. Those in work paid in to a big pot. This would be invested by the company (or government) and would pay a pension when they retired. As schemes have gone into deficit people have paid contributions which have effectively paid for anothers pension payment.

Btw, generally, the "oldies" haven't been workshy. In fact they have been contributing in the belief that they will receive the 'pensions promise' in years to come. The bigger concern is the 20 and 30 year olds who can't afford to buy property and can't/don't want to save for retirement.

The reason I said leave them all where they are, wasn't about 'maximising' income, it was more about spreading the risk.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/2484141.stm

To quote:

This meant no guarantees that people who have contributed for decades to the scheme would get the pension they'd believed was there for their retirement.

Indeed. The sad state of affairs is that if the firm (scheme sponsor) goes bust and you are not already receiving your pension, you are unlikely to get what you were promised. Bankrupt company schemes go into the Pension Protection Fund – a lifeboat scheme – which tries to make the best of a bad situation.

No private company DB pension schemes are immune to this. Look at BA. Its a pension scheme with a airline bolted on the side.