Can I do anything with old personal pensions?

B

billy-bob

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Taking the new year to go over some old documents, and came across policy statements (from 2013) for 2 personal pensions I used to contribute to. Since 2004, I've been contributing to a company one, so paused these. They're not worth much but I assume if I'm not contributing to them, they'll only continue to go down in value, and against inflation will be worth diddly-squat to me when it comes to time to cash them in. Have I any alternative to letting them just fester?
 
Have you checked whether you can transfer them into your current company pension? Charges will still be taken from them of course and their value will depend on their performance I guess. But if they are that small they probably aren't worth holding separately.
 
It is not possible to transfer them directly into the company scheme, but you could consolidate with some reasonably straightforward planning. The key things to ascertain are how they're invested and what you're being charged. Either way, it should be possible to manage the investment piece so they gain value over time.
 
Yeah, transfer isn't possible, but GG I'm not sure what you mean by:

Either way, it should be possible to manage the investment piece so they gain value over time.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing you mean by talking to the companies involved and making sure the portfolio is correct, rather than just letting them sit there?
 
Well transfer is possible actually...you can't go Personal Pension to Company Scheme, but you can go Personal Pension to PRSA to Company Scheme.

But if you're paying one of the life companies around 1% per annum and you're reasonably young, just leave it in one of their higher risk rated managed funds (e.g. Standard Life MyFolio, Zurich Life Pathway, etc).
 

They should continue to increase in value!

Have a look at the charges under your group scheme. In a lot of the bigger schemes, the employer pays part of the management charge, so the cost to you is quite small. It would be worth transferring to a PRSA and then into the group scheme.

You also need to check if the transfer value differs to the current fund value. In a lot of the old plans, 50%-60% commission was paid out. The insurance company recoup this payout over the term of the policy. If you transfer out, they take what they would have collected over the remaining term so they are not out of pocket. That is the difference in the two values. Came across a case recently where the client was paying a management fee of 4.25% under one of these old policies!!

Steven
http://www.bluewaterfp.ie (www.bluewaterfp.ie)
 
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