Looking for a bit of advice wife’s got 3 small pensions, NHS, Lancs teaching pension and Amex add up to about 100k if she took a CETV and although they’re Defined benefit the yearly income is poor, thinking she’d be better taking a CETV, however pots over 30k you legally need to seek costly advice from a financial advisor, anyone gone down this route got any advise or knows advisor who offers this service at reasonable price. 

Edited March 2Mar 2 by Mounts Kipper

No reason why independent financial advice should cost a lot of money.

Mine never did- they just get a fee from providers for any products you take.

They may say leave them alone too.

I only shifted mine a good while back, into a SIP, as we were looking to invest it into some land etc to create a business. 

Never happened in the end, and I would have probably been better leaving them where they were.

The rub I guess, but good advice will pay for itself.

Wholly agree with TMGJ. My IFA amalgamated some pensions, moved some and left some alone. Never even notice any costs. My advisor is good if you want his details

1 minute ago, MancWanderer said:

Wholly agree with TMGJ. My IFA amalgamated some pensions, moved some and left some alone. Never even notice any costs. My advisor is good if you want his details

Thanks MancW were any of the pensions Defined benefit over 30k and had to be assessed before taking CETV? If you can send me your advisors name that would be great… my Advisor won’t get involved with defined benefit  to CETV transfers. 

14 minutes ago, Mounts Kipper said:

Thanks MancW were any of the pensions Defined benefit over 30k and had to be assessed before taking CETV? If you can send me your advisors name that would be great… my Advisor won’t get involved with defined benefit  to CETV transfers. 

I moved out of a defined/ final salary scheme. It had to go through a Compliance process to justify me doing it. The reason being you are increasing your risk. I was not charged for this, the Adviser earns a fee from the Pension company the fund is transferred to. The adviser is a mate I have known for years. Unfortunately based over here so not much use to you ! 
 

It has been brilliant for me as am living off the fund and it is still growing ! My old scheme old had death benefits for wife/ husband and as we are not married my missus would get nothing. So the transfer was approved. My adviser is part of St James Place who got in some bother about their fees, but as mine waives all mine I was fine. 

Unfortunately, one of my previous IFAs turned out to be a crook.

Stole money off me, and his business partner. No doubt others too.

He went to St James Place, and despite me finding out his "activities" still assumed and tried to take my business with him.

Cunt.

1 hour ago, Mounts Kipper said:

Looking for a bit of advice wife’s got 3 small pensions, NHS, Lancs teaching pension and Amex add up to about 100k if she took a CETV and although they’re Defined benefit the yearly income is poor, thinking she’d be better taking a CETV, however pots over 30k you legally need to seek costly advice from a financial advisor, anyone gone down this route got any advise or knows advisor who offers this service at reasonable price. 

NHS  and Teachers are inflation-proofed. Why ever move out of them? Large or small they are a good deal.

Agreed.

1 hour ago, MancWanderer said:

Wholly agree with TMGJ. My IFA amalgamated some pensions, moved some and left some alone. Never even notice any costs. My advisor is good if you want his details

Im on the look out for a new IFA - if they are decent id love to see who you recomend.

What does CETV stand for then?

Can't you get free advice from Pension wise? 

Edited March 2Mar 2 by Duck Egg

4 minutes ago, Duck Egg said:

What does CETV stand for then?

Can't you get free advice from Pension wise? 

I wondered that too. Cash Equivalent Transfer Value.

I got told i would get a phone call from a pension adviser expert from some department or other, yes i did get the call, it cost nothing and he waffled on about stuff i had no idea about, using jargon that he could have made up for all i know.

Asked him a couple of things to which his answer was " well I'm not allowed to tell you that"

He knew I'd lost interest and started to tell me about his VW golf, at the end of the fay mate take whatever cash is available NOW, the way things are going there won't be owt left for anyone anyway.

1 hour ago, Duck Egg said:

What does CETV stand for then?

Can't you get free advice from Pension wise? 

When you are in a defined Pension scheme you get told that at retirement you will get a monthly income of £££s , plus a tax free lump sum. Or you can take a larger monthly income and no lump sum, your pension does not have a ‘value’ as such. But if you transfer out they pay out a lump sum to your new provider this is the CETV.

That money is then invested and goes up and down based on the investments, so there is risk whereas previously the amount was guaranteed. You still have 25% tax free if invested in a proper pension scheme. 
 

Graphs below show FTSE over last 2 years and 10 years. Growth has been pretty strong especially last 24 months. You can see in 10 year chart when COVID hit things went south but have recovered well. Highlights when people talk about cost of living crisis affecting everyone it really is nt.

57 minutes ago, Whitestar said:

I got told i would get a phone call from a pension adviser expert from some department or other, yes i did get the call, it cost nothing and he waffled on about stuff i had no idea about, using jargon that he could have made up for all i know.

Asked him a couple of things to which his answer was " well I'm not allowed to tell you that"

He knew I'd lost interest and started to tell me about his VW golf, at the end of the fay mate take whatever cash is available NOW, the way things are going there won't be owt left for anyone anyway.

Did you ask what things would be worth in the future or which scheme is ‘best’. Rather than not being allowed to tell you stuff they are not allowed to speculate. 

Not sure about your final point , might be valid when talking state pension, but if your Pension money is invested the money is over flowing at the moment. 

24 minutes ago, Ani said:

When you are in a defined Pension scheme you get told that at retirement you will get a monthly income of £££s , plus a tax free lump sum. Or you can take a larger monthly income and no lump sum, your pension does not have a ‘value’ as such. But if you transfer out they pay out a lump sum to your new provider this is the CETV.

That money is then invested and goes up and down based on the investments, so there is risk whereas previously the amount was guaranteed. You still have 25% tax free if invested in a proper pension scheme. 
 

Graphs below show FTSE over last 2 years and 10 years. Growth has been pretty strong especially last 24 months. You can see in 10 year chart when COVID hit things went south but have recovered well. Highlights when people talk about cost of living crisis affecting everyone it really is nt.

Interesting. Thanks.

I have 1 decent sized pot (frozen), and 2 small ones. 1 frozen, 1 I'm paying into now. The small frozen one is worth about £20k. So if I were able to transfer it into my current pot, I'd not get 20k straight in there just whatever the CETV is worth?

Despite you thinking it is Frozen it carries on being invested in whatever funds it had been in previously. Many people have moved jobs and knew they had a pot and have not visited it in years only concentrating on their current pension pot and these could have doubled/trebled in the intervening years.

You will get a transfer figure if you want to transfer one into the other

 

And anyone with a little bit of  common sense, can move investments around, if and when you think we are going to go in recession or the stockmarket is about to tank.

Moved all mine into money Saturday which takes three days to kick in. Should be protected Wednesday onwards. Most investments are rated one to seven on a sliding risk factor one being money which is safe but earns very little. Seven will be anything involving high risk these can lose 20% overnight when the Market Crashes. My pension will lose out the next three days but hopefully i have moved in time. If and when this shit show ends i will move them back to my previous investments.

Edited March 2Mar 2 by masi 51

4 hours ago, Mounts Kipper said:

Thanks MancW were any of the pensions Defined benefit over 30k and had to be assessed before taking CETV? If you can send me your advisors name that would be great… my Advisor won’t get involved with defined benefit  to CETV transfers. 

One of my pensions is defined benefit and over £30K. He’s not moved it for now but said that he would if it became beneficial to do so. I’ll DM you his details 

2 hours ago, Not in Crawley said:

Im on the look out for a new IFA - if they are decent id love to see who you recomend.

I’ll DM you

54 minutes ago, Duck Egg said:

Interesting. Thanks.

I have 1 decent sized pot (frozen), and 2 small ones. 1 frozen, 1 I'm paying into now. The small frozen one is worth about £20k. So if I were able to transfer it into my current pot, I'd not get 20k straight in there just whatever the CETV is worth?

As Masi says it is not frozen, should still be invested, but as you imply nothing being paid in. It is weird that the CETV might be more than you think, or less ! It depends on how the actuaries calculate it.

The Pension company have a ‘liability’ on their accounts so they need to hold some cash to offset set the liability. Some times they will be looking to reduce that long term liability, at others they will want to build it. When I got mine I assumed it would be 4 times my tax free allowance because that was 25%. But is nearly double that my Adviser said that the particular scheme was giving very generous values at that time so I went for it and have not regretted it. (However if you asked me during Covid I was not sure) 

The scheme I was was a company I used to work where the adviser had also worked so he got a lot of enquiries. 

50 minutes ago, masi 51 said:

Despite you thinking it is Frozen it carries on being invested in whatever funds it had been in previously. Many people have moved jobs and knew they had a pot and have not visited it in years only concentrating on their current pension pot and these could have doubled/trebled in the intervening years.

You will get a transfer figure if you want to transfer one into the other

 

And anyone with a little bit of  common sense, can move investments around, if and when you think we are going to go in recession or the stockmarket is about to tank.

Moved all mine into money Saturday which takes three days to kick in. Should be protected Wednesday onwards. Most investments are rated one to seven on a sliding risk factor one being money which is safe but earns very little. Seven will be anything involving high risk these can lose 20% overnight when the Market Crashes. My pension will lose out the next three days but hopefully i have moved in time. If and when this shit show ends i will move them back to my previous investments.

I have a mate just turned 60 with a massive pot, over £2m !! He has just de risked his as he realised that he already he fucking loads so not worth the risk. 
 

I think you have posted before about managing your funds so not doubting you. It is worth noting that for long term investments the old ‘sell high buy low’ mantra is great when it works but has inherent risk. The latest view is that ‘time in the market’ is just as important as timing. So take the highs and lows and long term you will be fine. Charts below show this.
 

Although personally I think markets are at a false high at the moment and shit in Iran might change everything. Although so many companies have interests in supplying and manufacturing arms the markets perform differently than I expected !

’They bought prosperity down at the armoury.’ - Billy Bragg. 

1 hour ago, masi 51 said:

Despite you thinking it is Frozen it carries on being invested in whatever funds it had been in previously. Many people have moved jobs and knew they had a pot and have not visited it in years only concentrating on their current pension pot and these could have doubled/trebled in the intervening years.

You will get a transfer figure if you want to transfer one into the other

 

And anyone with a little bit of  common sense, can move investments around, if and when you think we are going to go in recession or the stockmarket is about to tank.

Moved all mine into money Saturday which takes three days to kick in. Should be protected Wednesday onwards. Most investments are rated one to seven on a sliding risk factor one being money which is safe but earns very little. Seven will be anything involving high risk these can lose 20% overnight when the Market Crashes. My pension will lose out the next three days but hopefully i have moved in time. If and when this shit show ends i will move them back to my previous investments.

Gold has shot up. 

Understandably. 

Worth banging a bit into that, and capitalising?

35 minutes ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

Gold has shot up. 

Understandably. 

Worth banging a bit into that, and capitalising?

Great advice. Harks back to that old saying - buy high, sell low.

47 minutes ago, Ani said:

I have a mate just turned 60 with a massive pot, over £2m !! He has just de risked his as he realised that he already he fucking loads so not worth the risk. 
 

I think you have posted before about managing your funds so not doubting you. It is worth noting that for long term investments the old ‘sell high buy low’ mantra is great when it works but has inherent risk. The latest view is that ‘time in the market’ is just as important as timing. So take the highs and lows and long term you will be fine. Charts below show this.
 

Although personally I think markets are at a false high at the moment and shit in Iran might change everything. Although so many companies have interests in supplying and manufacturing arms the markets perform differently than I expected !

’They bought prosperity down at the armoury.’ - Billy Bragg. 

Agreed if you are more than happy like your mate why keep it high risk. I tend to stay on the cautious side of things now. Got burnt in 2008 and took me a bit to get anything like i had at the time. Covid i acted pretty quickly and rode that out by throwing most of it in cash, my mistake covid went on too long and i think i was too cautious for a couple of years after....This last 12 months everything has been rosy but i have once again retreated to the safe haven of cash

Just think, buying gold much earlier today would have already yielded a profit had it been sold later.

Buy low and sell high.

May go up further yet as the days go on, but interestingly it has fallen slightly on today's high.

Another opportunity to buy low and wait until it goes higher.

 

1 hour ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

Just think, buying gold much earlier today would have already yielded a profit had it been sold later.

Buy low and sell high.

May go up further yet as the days go on, but interestingly it has fallen slightly on today's high.

Another opportunity to buy low and wait until it goes higher.

 

So you are saying you should buy something and then sell it for a profit ? 
 

The slight flaw in your genius plan is knowing what is ‘low’ and what is ‘high’ 

 

Edited March 2Mar 2 by Ani