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  • More pension advice and where to get it?
  • mactheknife
    Full Member

    My pension situation is becoming slightly complicated.

    1. I have a military half pension which i am leaving in place.
    2. I have a policy with St James Place that i paid into every month for 4 years when i was working as a Limited Company Basis. So no tax has been paid on this currently.
    3. I have closed the Limited company down and am currently enroled in a basic pension scheme with my current employer.

    So, do i pay a FA to sort everything for me so that in the long run im maximising what i contribute or do you guys have any other suggestions. I started looking online for advice and to be honest I’m pretty out my depth with it all. I am more than happy to pay for the right advice but left to my own devices i don’t see it ending well 🙂

    mariner
    Free Member

    I think H&L used to consolidate pensions for free (?) but you would need to check with them.
    Personally I would leave things where they are and if you must pay more into something open an ISA.
    I are un injineer not a IFA.

    gonefishin
    Free Member

    Well you could pay an IFA, however it’s unlikely that there would be much value in doing so as there is unlikely to be a huge amount of money in your second pot.

    Leaving the military pension where it is is almost certainly the best thing you can do. After that I would look at which of the other two pensions (employer and St James Place) has the lowest fees, I’dd suspect your employers one, and then look to combine the two as it makes things easier to manage. Most schemes will accept transfers and it is unlikely that there will be any significant exit fees although you should check this too just in case. It should just be a matter of contacting the receiving scheme directly and following their process. I’ve done this to a few pension pots and it’s a really simple process these days. It only become difficult if you are transferring out of a scheme with defined benefits but it doesn’t sound like this will be the case for you.

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    FB-ATB
    Full Member

    If you’re ex forces are you a member of the CSMA? Their benefits scheme includes a free no obligation session with financial planners.

    Weren’t H&L one of the main pluggers for the now discredited Woodford fund?

    IHN
    Full Member

    Basic advice

    1. Leave as is (assume it’s a defined contribution, i.e. guaranteed income at age x, pension)
    2. SJP annual management charges are on the high side, so look at transferring into 3, but check surrender charges if you’re in the first 6 (I think) years of the policy.
    3. Save as much into it as you can, especially if there’s any kind of matching from your employer as that’s just free money. Worth checking the annual management fees though.

    Detailed advice – speak to a recommended IFA (not an SJP adviser, they are not independent)

    mactheknife
    Full Member

    Cheers all, i have a meeting with SJP to finalise how much is in the pot and i can take that info with me for any future planning. The military pension was always going to be left as even though im a financial nugget all the advice pointed it that way.

    Opening with SJP was a slight panic move when i turned 40. Realising that i really didnt know what the hell i was doing pension wise. Absolutely fell for the salesman patter 😉

    towzer
    Full Member

    Are you over 50 ?

    https://www.pensionwise.gov.uk/en/appointments

    I thought the bloke I got knew his onions (*and pensions)

    mactheknife
    Full Member

    Nope, had a look at that site yesterday. Still a spring chicken in my 40’s 🙂

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