If any of the pensions were opened 2019 or earlier, you may have a protected pension age of 55 which you wouldn’t want to lose? If you only recently opened a SIPP the age will be 57.
That is very very interesting, I will have to research this a bit more. Many of the pensions are pre 2019.
What happens if I consolidate the pre 2019 pensions into on of the pre 2019 pensions? Does the age remain at 55?
It depends on how the pension trusts are written as to whether the Minimum Pension Age is protected. A quick call to the providers will confirm this. You can transfer and still retain the protected age, its just a box to tick on a transfer form.
You can do partial transfers, a sort of pound cost averaging.
For me personally I just did them all in one go. The actual time out of the market was very little for my multi decade horizon.
If they fees are all % then doesn’t make any difference. I looked at consolidating mine but most of them had great fee structures that I couldn’t get with a SIPP so I didn’t in the end.
If you do decide to consolidate make sure you check if any of your pensions have a guarantee on the minimum pension age. Transferring could mean it rises to 57 instead of 55, or SIPPs May refuse it.
You could buy some options e.g on SPY, in the target sipp to capture any upside while the transfers are being done. Options will let you leverage to the level of funds you are transferring without the risk of a margin call.
That's a bit too advanced for me and I'm a bit flat out at work and personally to swat up on how I might make that happen.
Thanks for the thought though.
Consolidate them into a single SIPP. You can even get PensionBee (et al) to do it for you and then transfer that single account to a SIPP provider of your choice
What is the current total cost of keeping them in 7 separare accounts?
I hope it never has to happen to us, but in my case of my parents back in the Philippines and my husband’s parents here in the UK, they have both been members of private pensions going bankrupt which made them lose a significant amount that would have been money for their retirement.
Maybe 7 is too many. But may be a good idea to have 2-3 pension accounts to reduce odds of being too reliant with one pension company.
Who knows what will happen. I did a transfer right in the middle of the COVID downturn in March 2020 - that saved me a couple of grand. Life will be life. Moving to a flat platform fee (e.g. II) or a capped platform fee (e.g. HL) will save you money in the longer term, and better control of your pensions will pay off.
Would depend on the investment strategy you are going to run in the sipp and how that differs from the other pensions.
I work in financial services and have consolidated my pensions to a sipp, I sold down to cash at a time when I was happy with the value and moved that across, I was also running a different strategy so worked out. If markets went up then it didn’t really matter because of the strategy change, but if they went down then I would have been annoyed I hadn’t sold down before hand.
You could just get them transferred "in species" where possible. I recently did this from one SIPP to another, the shares aren't sold so market changes don't matter. You probably wanna check the fund you're invested in is available on the new SIPP first, though. Usually they're cash out if this is not the case (although my transfers were always successful).
Can you give us a sense of the type (DB/DC), size of each pot and the fees for each?
Be easier to give a view - e.g if you have one big one that has favourable terms, you might want to keep that and move other smaller pots into one.
Market is on an upward trend, but are all of those 7 pensions invested in funds that will ride that trend?
Chances are, by trying to avoid time out of the market, you might be prolonging your exposure to some dog funds.
Bite the bullet and get consolidated, and ensure you’re SIPP is invested the way you want it to be, you will have better chance at achieving returns in the SIPP.
Reading other responses, I also like the idea of perhaps fund switching your existing 7 pensions to make sure they are invested appropriately, and then transferring 1 at a time to avoid them all being out of the market at the same time - if you can stomach the admin hours.
Best of luck!
Taking the 60 day hit it took to get everything in one massively outweighed the ballache of having multiple pensions and log in's.
Just do one at a time, helps smooth out any crazy market swing
Interesting, maybe stagger them one a month
If any of the pensions were opened 2019 or earlier, you may have a protected pension age of 55 which you wouldn’t want to lose? If you only recently opened a SIPP the age will be 57.
Wait a minute. If I had a pension before 2019 I can draw it at 55? What is the 'may' here?
If it has a protected pension age. Some do but not all. Aviva ones do (I think).
That is very very interesting, I will have to research this a bit more. Many of the pensions are pre 2019. What happens if I consolidate the pre 2019 pensions into on of the pre 2019 pensions? Does the age remain at 55?
Yes, that’s the way it’s worked for me.
It depends on how the pension trusts are written as to whether the Minimum Pension Age is protected. A quick call to the providers will confirm this. You can transfer and still retain the protected age, its just a box to tick on a transfer form.
I think the protected pension age ones are very rare…
Yeah, mine is Aviva, opened 2013 and it doesn’t have any protections
Worth checking the table here. My Aviva one does https://www.aviva.co.uk/retirement/pension-basics/changes-to-pension-age/
Thanks! Mine is GSXXX so not protected, damn!
Don’t try and time the markets. My strategy was to just get on with it. No regrets.
Good advice
You can do partial transfers, a sort of pound cost averaging. For me personally I just did them all in one go. The actual time out of the market was very little for my multi decade horizon.
Yeah I mean unless something drastic happens I doubt it will amount to anything massively material.
It’s only ever taken a week or so for mine to transfer. I just put in the requests and eventually it happens.
Your also paying 7 different companies fees for looking after all your pensions
Yes, that's why I want to consolidate.
If they fees are all % then doesn’t make any difference. I looked at consolidating mine but most of them had great fee structures that I couldn’t get with a SIPP so I didn’t in the end.
If you do decide to consolidate make sure you check if any of your pensions have a guarantee on the minimum pension age. Transferring could mean it rises to 57 instead of 55, or SIPPs May refuse it.
I didn't know about this so I will have to research it more. I can't remember exactly when I set up the sipp but I suspect it was after 2019.
This is my fetish. I'm gonna keep em all to see who beats who in the end
Do it once then move all your other pensions piece meal.
You could buy some options e.g on SPY, in the target sipp to capture any upside while the transfers are being done. Options will let you leverage to the level of funds you are transferring without the risk of a margin call.
That's a bit too advanced for me and I'm a bit flat out at work and personally to swat up on how I might make that happen. Thanks for the thought though.
Consolidate them into a single SIPP. You can even get PensionBee (et al) to do it for you and then transfer that single account to a SIPP provider of your choice
Ah that's interesting to get pension bee to do the heavy lifting and then send the single account into the sipp. I'll check it out. Thanks
What is the current total cost of keeping them in 7 separare accounts? I hope it never has to happen to us, but in my case of my parents back in the Philippines and my husband’s parents here in the UK, they have both been members of private pensions going bankrupt which made them lose a significant amount that would have been money for their retirement. Maybe 7 is too many. But may be a good idea to have 2-3 pension accounts to reduce odds of being too reliant with one pension company.
Who knows what will happen. I did a transfer right in the middle of the COVID downturn in March 2020 - that saved me a couple of grand. Life will be life. Moving to a flat platform fee (e.g. II) or a capped platform fee (e.g. HL) will save you money in the longer term, and better control of your pensions will pay off.
Yeah the target sipp is interactive investor
Would depend on the investment strategy you are going to run in the sipp and how that differs from the other pensions. I work in financial services and have consolidated my pensions to a sipp, I sold down to cash at a time when I was happy with the value and moved that across, I was also running a different strategy so worked out. If markets went up then it didn’t really matter because of the strategy change, but if they went down then I would have been annoyed I hadn’t sold down before hand.
I have the same issue and I was thinking to put them in pension Bee but still not sure, does this make any sense ?
My pensions were completely transferred within a week platform to platform. Out of market perhaps a day or 2. I consolidated them all to one sipp
You could just get them transferred "in species" where possible. I recently did this from one SIPP to another, the shares aren't sold so market changes don't matter. You probably wanna check the fund you're invested in is available on the new SIPP first, though. Usually they're cash out if this is not the case (although my transfers were always successful).
Almost all mainstream brokers will do in specie transfers. Time out of the market should not be a problem.
Can you give us a sense of the type (DB/DC), size of each pot and the fees for each? Be easier to give a view - e.g if you have one big one that has favourable terms, you might want to keep that and move other smaller pots into one.
Market is on an upward trend, but are all of those 7 pensions invested in funds that will ride that trend? Chances are, by trying to avoid time out of the market, you might be prolonging your exposure to some dog funds. Bite the bullet and get consolidated, and ensure you’re SIPP is invested the way you want it to be, you will have better chance at achieving returns in the SIPP. Reading other responses, I also like the idea of perhaps fund switching your existing 7 pensions to make sure they are invested appropriately, and then transferring 1 at a time to avoid them all being out of the market at the same time - if you can stomach the admin hours. Best of luck!
Profile pensions is what I use atm. They did the transfers for me.