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pension question

My husband was made redundant a couple of months ago after working for 19 years with a company who offered a final salary, non-contributory pension scheme. He has just received a certificate of deferred benefits which says:- "you may be entitled to transfer your benefits to either (i) an insurance policy in your own name (a buy out policy) or a personal pension arrangement. OR (ii) the pension scheme of your next employer."

As he is currently working for an agency on a temporary contract and still looking around for something permanent, we have no way of knowing what may be on offer with his next employer. But we are worried that his last employer is in an unstable state and may go under (taking his deferred pension with them) before the government take the steps they keep talking about to safeguard company pensions, so we are thinking carefully about moving the pension benefits to a safer haven - if indeed there is such a thing.....I feel the pension industry is one big con myself, but since these benefits have accrued without it costing us anything we are loathe to lose them.

So - what please, is an insurance buy out policy? and where can I find the best information on other pensions, given that we have no spare cash and cannot afford to pay an IFA.

the figures we are working on are.............. final pensionable pay when he left their employ of 29,400 per annum, with a preserved pension payable of 9,262, with a dependants pension of 4631, with a clause that if he should die within 5 years of retiring the balance of those first five years would be paid as a lump sum

TIA for any advice/thoughts offered.

Lyn

Reply to
Lyn
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You may find this link some use for background info, but don't foreget there is nothing to lose in seeing an IFA and everything to gain IMHO.

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Reply to
Dave Parker

The issues surrounding pension transfers are extremely complicated and frankly, the only peole who will know enough to help you will be IFAs who specialise in such matters. I suggest you go to

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and find an IFA local to you, ring him up and see if he will look at your situation. He will either want a fee - which you say you can't afford - or do it using commission as his remuneration, or a mixture of both. Phoning him will give you a start, anyway. Rob Graham

Reply to
Robin Graham

Unless there is a time-limit for one of the options.

I once had a choice of: cash refund, move to new scheme or keep with old employer.

I asked an IFA if they could set up a personal pension that I could contribute to and move the old employers funds to it as well.

They said "no problem", when they eventually came back with "no we can't do it" the deadline for the cash refund had passed and now I am stuck with a piddly paid up pension the long-term status of which is completely unclear to me.

tim

Reply to
tim

There are two possible outcomes here- either the pension fund will run out between now and when you retire because the admin charges imposed by the pension company are more than any bonus's or other uplifts it may receive until maturity. You'll end up with a pension with nil value. Alternatively, if there is any pension fund at the end, the amount left in it will be so small it will generate a very tiny pension. In which case, you can ask for a triviality settlement of the pension fund.

Reply to
Dave Parker

I think you may be underestimating the value of the pension, it could well be of the order of £200k, so paying maybe a few hundred pounds to an IFA to get good advice is likely to be worthwhile (make sure it's someone who specialises in pensions).

If you ask the current pension scheme they should be able to give you a transfer value, which is their calculation of the current value. You could just trust them but if you want it checked you need an expert to look at it. You can then get that value transferred to a personal pension scheme. That can include self-invested schemes where you keep control of the investments, but if you don't know much about investing that could be risky.

Reply to
Stephen Burke

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