# Transfer pension?



## donde (14 Jan 2009)

I have a pension policy with Ark Life for a number of years.I also have one with Hibernian.I would like to know if it is possible to transfer my Ark Life pension to Hibernian and ,if so,how do I go about it?


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## GSheehy (14 Jan 2009)

What type of pensions are they (personal,company,prsa...) and what is your employment status?


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## donal (14 Jan 2009)

While you are at it, and not to deter from the original query,

Have recently had a Group PRSA established by my employer into which they will contribute 9% and i will contribute 10% monthly from this month onwards with BOI Life. I previously had a personal pension which was worth about €8k and which i cancelled only recently to facilitate the new product. Now i am told i cannot transfer the funds from the old one (New Ireland) into the new (BOI) as it was a personal and this is a group product. If i leave the funds sit where they are, is there a good chance that over time it wil erode with admin charges etc. Should i continue to contribute the 1% i have left within the tax relief band into it, or is there anything else i should be considering? Your help here would be appreciated, and apologies if it hasn't been posted correctly.


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## Don_08 (14 Jan 2009)

DOnal what age are you?

What is the Hibernian pension invested in?  There is no problem with leaving it where it is.


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## GSheehy (14 Jan 2009)

donal said:


> Have recently had a Group PRSA established by my employer into which they will contribute 9% and i will contribute 10% monthly from this month onwards with BOI Life. I previously had a personal pension which was worth about €8k and which i cancelled only recently to facilitate the new product. *Now i am told i cannot transfer the funds from the old one (New Ireland) into the new (BOI) as it was a personal and this is a group product*.


 
You can transfer a Personal Pension to a PRSA. You can't transfer a PRSA to a Personal Pension.



> If i leave the funds sit where they are, is there a good chance that over time it wil erode with admin charges etc.


 
If you transfer it to the PRSA you will still incur an annual management charge. You should check with NI as to what the charges will be when you make it 'paid-up'. If they are less than the PRSA annual charges, you could just leave it sit.



> Should i continue to contribute the 1% i have left within the tax relief band into it, or is there anything else i should be considering?


 
By 'it' I presume you mean the Personal Pension(?). Unless you have taxable income from another source of employment, I would not do this.


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## donal (14 Jan 2009)

Right guys, thanks for this - to answer the queries, i'm 32, in full employment. The New Ireland policy was invested in the Iris fund. Whereas this old policy was a personal pension policy, the new one is, i am told a Group PRSA (which may be an important distinction as to a personal PRSA).

I do't have another source of employment


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## donde (14 Jan 2009)

They are both personal pensions.I work in a family business [ hardware ].


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## StevieC (16 Jan 2009)

donde said:


> I have a pension policy with Ark Life for a number of years.I also have one with Hibernian.I would like to know if it is possible to transfer my Ark Life pension to Hibernian and ,if so,how do I go about it?


 
It should be possible to ask for your transfer value on your Ark Life pension and transfer it to your Hibernian one. Be sure to ask first if your Ark Life pension has capital units in it though before you make any transfer as these units will be lost if you move the monies in the fund before retirement. If it has capital units in the fund, leave it with Ark Life.

There is also no need to have all your pension monies in one fund in particular unless you think Ark Life investment managers are bad and you want to cut your loses with them. Some would argue that its fine to have pension funds with different companies as it means not all your eggs are in the one basket.


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## StevieC (16 Jan 2009)

donal said:


> Right guys, thanks for this - to answer the queries, i'm 32, in full employment. The New Ireland policy was invested in the Iris fund. Whereas this old policy was a personal pension policy, the new one is, i am told a Group PRSA (which may be an important distinction as to a personal PRSA).
> 
> I do't have another source of employment


 
You'll need to double check with New Ireland but the annual management fee is usually 0.75% on a personal pension where as on a PRSA its 1%. If you are making no further contributions to the Personal Pension then its better to leave it be as BIAM are investment managers for both Bank of Ireland Life and New Ireland as BOI owns New Ireland so investment performance will be pretty much the same. 

If you were to make further contributions though, it would probably be better to put them in an PRSA AVC arrangement so you could keep your options open at retirement whether to take out an ARF (Approved Retirement Fund) or just use it to top up your annuity.


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## boaber (16 Jan 2009)

StevieC said:


> There is also no need to have all your pension monies in one fund in particular unless you think Ark Life investment managers are bad and you want to cut your loses with them.



Are Ark Life funds not now managed by Aviva Investors, same as Hibernian's?

[broken link removed]


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## StevieC (17 Jan 2009)

boaber said:


> Are Ark Life funds not now managed by Aviva Investors, same as Hibernian's?
> 
> [broken link removed]


 
They are now yes. Previously they were not, they changed a few years ago. Should be little difference in investment performance but funds will be different if it was an older Ark Life policy.


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## upport (17 Jan 2009)

Transfer value maybe alot less than current value.You dont need another source of income to qualify to make contributions to Personal Pension.Restart regular contributions to PP as you will benefit from euro cost averaging and compound growth as the fund/no. of units will be increasing.


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