Moved jobs a lot?

If so, you may well have picked up a number of pension pots along the way.

Official figures suggest that, in today’s modern world, most workers will change employer 11 times during their lifetime, but whilst this may revitalise a salary and career, it does present a financial challenge – how to deal with the pension plans picked up over the years.

Even if you have managed to keep a record of all of them, there is the predicament of what to do next. Would it be better to keep them all separate or simplify matters by transferring them all into one place?

Moving your pensions into one place may make it simpler to manage your pension pot, and keep an eye on performance and charges, but that shouldn’t be the only reason for moving your pension. Research on all of your existing policies would need to be done to see what their current value, performance and fund charges are and whether there would be any exit charges or valuable perks you’d lose out on by moving any of them. Before a final decision is made you’d also need to research where to transfer your plans to including:

• what the provider charges are,
• the financial strength of the proposed pension provider,
• the level of service they provide and how easy it is to get through to someone who could help you,
• what returns you may expect to receive (although past performance shouldn’t be relied upon as market conditions do cause fund values to fall as well as rise), and
• what your attitude to risk is and the funds available that match.

Finally, there is the challenge of completing and submitting the application forms for any transfers and managing it all to make sure they all move across.

As you can probably see, this area is a minefield likely to cause even the savviest of investors a headache, especially as the information needed isn’t easy to come by. That is why speaking with an appropriately qualified financial adviser would be the best course of action, as they have the tools, experience and knowledge to investigate for you and provide the information in an easy to understand way so that you can make an informed decision. They will also manage the application and transfer process for you too. The Telegraph reported early last year that research has proven that, even after discounting advisers fees, those that seek financial advice receive far better returns than those that don’t.

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Written by Kay Crooke – Associate Practice Director at Prosser Knowles Associates Limited.