Should I combine my pensions?

It’s perfectly normal to have several jobs throughout your working life, and in doing so, you might have accumulated an assortment of different pensions along the way.

According to The Times, 1.6 million pensions are lost in the UK often due to people moving house or changing jobs, the value of which is estimated to be around £19.4 billion.

To make sure you take care of your hard-earned money, it’s best to keep tabs on where exactly those pensions are and what they consist of.

If you need some guidance on how to successfully combine pensions and whether or not it can benefit your particular circumstances, you should take a look at the following useful points:

What is Pension Consolidation?

Combining your pensions is known as pension consolidation, and it’s done by transferring multiple pensions between schemes into one arrangement.

A prime example of this would be transferring several workplace pensions into a personal pension, so they combine in a single location, making them easier for you to manage.

You might be pleased to know that the transfer itself is straightforward; all you need to do is fill in an application and supply details of your old policies.

With iSIPP, this can be done online, making the process of consolidating your pension easy.

Advantages of Combining Pensions

Pension consolidation certainly has its list of distinctive advantages, perhaps the biggest one being the convenience it can provide you.

This will be great news for those of you who enjoy getting everything organised in a centralised and easily manageable location.

Combining your pensions could also help you save on the cost of fees. You may be paying unnecessary fees if you have several pension plans scattered around, so combatting this by transferring your money into a scheme with the best value is a superb way to make the most out of what you have.

Ease of access is another top reason for consolidating, particularly once you consider the lack of flexibility offered by plenty of older plans. For instance, with iSIPP, you get online access to your pension 24/7 and you only have one company to deal with.

Consolidating your pensions with us will help you cut out the paperwork and get your finances in order.

With better control over your pension, there is a lot to love about pension consolidation.

How You Can Track Pensions

To consolidate your pensions, you’ll need to find out where they are. If you no longer have paperwork from old schemes, there’s a useful government service you can utilise to help you find old pensions here.

You could also consider contacting your old employer and asking them directly for information of the schemes you were enrolled on.

It’s also worth noting that you can give your national insurance number to HMRC, who will then find out if you or your past employer contributed to a SERPS pension (State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme), which ran from 1978 to 2002.

Transferring to a SIPP (Self-Invested Personal Pension)

A SIPP may be able to offer you the greatest freedom over your savings. Not only do you invest your savings with a SIPP as but they allow you more flexibility to choose where you invest, too.

At iSIPP, we can offer you a flexible and easy-to-use platform on which to manage your Self-Invested Personal Pension at your convenience.

Find out more about us here and sign-up today!

Enjoy reading this blog? 

Why not try reading one of our other blogs on pension consolidation:

• What is pension consolidation?
• Retirement savers struggle to consolidate pensions 

Or visit our pension consolidation page here. 

Disclaimer 

The content of this article is for general information purposes only and should not be construed as legal, financial or taxation advice. You should not rely on the information contained in this article as legal, financial or taxation advice. The content of this article is based on information currently available to us, and the current laws in force in the UK. The content does not take account of individual circumstances and may not reflect recent changes in the law since the date it was created. It is essential that detailed financial and tax advice should be sought in both jurisdictions and any legal advice, if required.

This notice cannot disclose all the risks associated with the products we make available to you. When making your own investment decisions it is important you understand that all investments can fall as well as rise in value and it is possible you may get back less than what you have paid in. You should also be satisfied that any investments you choose are suitable for you in the light of your circumstances and financial position. You should seek financial advice if you are not sure of what’s best for your situation.