How to consolidate pensions

You do not have to consolidate them. Think carefully about why you want to do this. 

get independent financial advice before you go any further. 

One reason NOT to consolidate might be that some workplace pensions have additional benefits that you would forego if you were to move your money. 

You do not have to consolidate them. Think carefully about why you want to do this. You do not have to consolidate them. Think carefully about why you want to do this. 

there will be a few that may never be identified due to moving house a number of times and basically forgetting to inform them. 

NO!! Simply don't stand for that; it's your money, has been accruing cpd interest and may be worth more than you think. 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/how-to-find-an-old-pension/#traceforfree

There are a couple of things here, 1, tracking down your old pensions, find them, you never know how much money is there. 

2, you may or may not want to collate pensions, there are benefits and pitfalls to both options, 1, the more pots you have the more management fees you pay to each provider. By merging you reduce this, but also increase the risk by having a larger pot with one provider, you only make as much as that provider grows your investment by etc etc. This is the bit you may want advice on as well as the point above about the additional benefits which you could potentially loose if there are conditions applied to these pensions. 

Personally, I moved a few into one pot, it's easier to track/manage, reduced my fees and means I've hit a nice sum I didn't even really know I had across multiple pots (but I could have done some simple maths to see this easily myself anyway). 

For the consolidation, I recall that the provider will encourage, or at the very least, ask if you have been given advice.  For a DB pension, it’s usually a bad idea to move it. 

I used an independent adviser to consolidate all my pots (I had three or four of them, all with small sums in them) – fortunately I had current annual statements for them all so it was just a case of signing a few forms and a couple of months later I had it all in one pot with one set of fees. I'm not exactly going to have a luxury retirement but I had more than double what I thought I had and the current rate of growth is amazing (although I believe this is broadly industry-wide and can't be relied upon as expected continued growth).

The worst bit, though, is that I have ready access to the details of the pot (which is updated daily) so I keep looking and if it has gone down I feel miserable. 

Listen to this and do it yourself. There's a checklist to ask questions of each Pension company.

https://meaningfulmoney.tv/2024/11/27/helpful-basics-combining-pensions/

I left all my pension pots alone until I retired. My chosen pension provider did all the consolidation for me. I did use the Pension Tracing Service in order to get information on one scheme I wasn't sure if I was still in. I wasn't!

So who can advise and maybe chase down the old pensions? Many years ago the company had their own advisor but I've been in the pension wilderness for some time now so looking to sit round the table with someone who can go through the whole lot but short of googling "pension advisors near me" I'm not sure of the best route? 

Plenty on here will say that you can do it yourself and yes, you can, into a SIPP or similar. OTOH I have a substantial pot and a lack of confidence / a fear of making a costly ****-up so for a relatively small cost compared to the pot (less that 1/2%) I have asked for a review and recommendations from an indie advisor recommended to me. I had a few recommendations and this one was the least upsell-ey of them. Others will say they're all just in it for themselves / can't beat the market long term, etc. - TBH not interested, my money and my decision how to invest it including taking paid for advice.

How to choose one - recommendations, there are IFA listings via google, etc., - some won't be interested unless your pot is a certain size, others will advise anyone, etc.

But whatever you do, use the link I put further up and find what you have - maybe try that Gretel link first and a bit of your own legwork. That's not something I'd be paying an IFA to do for me, TBH.

Its an utter ballache of a task to do - I had about 8 little pots - but in the end it's been worth it. Traced them all using the pension service, got a local IFA, put them all except 1, in a SIPP. The remaining one is a DB pension so i was told to leave it.

Make sure there's no extra benefit you may be losing.  I have one which gives a generous uplift if converted to annuity with employer, I had no idea at the time but a v generous benefit.  Some have widows benefits, payment on death etc.

As others have said, you need to find them, then it's your choice what to do. I've got two defined contribution schemes and two 'average salary' defined benefit. Only one is currently being paid into.  I've left the other three, but manage them on-line, especially the defined contributions. I could very easily fill in an online form to get one or the other to move together. 

You don't say how old you are but at 50+ you can get a free call with a pension advisory service; they tell you all the rules, etc., but can't advise you on whether to move money around etc., only technical advice. I learned a couple of things so worth the 30 mins or so, but they might help you in specifics of how to trace.

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pension-wise

On moving pensions about of your own volition, as others have said you may lose benefits if you do, BUT (AIUI from the call with Pensionwise) once you have traced the pensions you have, if you call them and ask a specific question 'are there any special features or benefits with this pension?' then they have to tell you what you have. Also AIUI if you are asking to transfer out and will lose specific benefits as a result then if they are of certain types/values then you have to have advice before you can so you can be absolutely in no doubt what you are doing. Suspect too many past financial scandals / missellings that they need to be seen as purer than snow on this.

(see section on Do You Need Advice?)

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/building-your-retirement-pot/transferring-your-defined-contribution-pension

If you think you’ve got pensions but have lost track of them (and they, you) the Pensions Dashboards should help. This is a service, free to the consumer to pull together pension scheme records. Larger schemes are meant to be on board by the end of May, with, I think, smaller ones getting a bit more time. But as most defined contribution arrangements will be with insurers or large administrators, I think they should be in early tranches.  We’re spending many thousands on this, and quite a bit of time, so I really hope it’s not pushed back again.