 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Mrs_oab has a small pot in the Scottish Local Govt. pension scheme - not contributed for 7 years.
She also has Scottish Teacher scheme (2015), active member.
The teacher scheme is all based on a series of calculations about how long you work for and your average salary. She can buy more benefits either monthly or as a lump sum.
The Local Govt. scheme is a more traditional actively managed pot which is invested, may go up and down.
Does anyone know if we can transfer out of Local and into the Teacher scheme - it seems in the current climate a much safer place to be for her...
The Local Govt. scheme is a more traditional actively managed pot which is invested, may go up and down.
Defined benefit or defined contribution?
The fund management is not relevant as all pension providers actively manage
I'm also interested as some years in a civil service pension scheme.
I thought I'd read there was a limit in time, you had to do it in the first few months/year?
Are you sure the local government scheme she's in is variable as current local government scheme is CARE - same as the current teachers scheme but with slightly different calculations / options. I know you can't transfer into the local government scheme once you've been in over 12 months so teachers scheme may have a similar rule.
If Mrs OAB is in the SSTA they did have a deal for free pensions financial advice but not sure whether this deal is still in place.
Actually I'm going to contact the pensions agency and ask them.
Onehundredidiot - when I looked at this (which was 2013), transfers into Civil Service pensions had to be made within a year of joining the new (i.e. Civil Service) scheme.
If she can't transfer the old into the new, it might be worth looking at transferring it to a more flexible (maybe) private pension fund. Though you would have to seek financial advice from a proper adviser
If she can’t transfer the old into the new, it might be worth looking at transferring it to a more flexible (maybe) private pension fund. Though you would have to seek financial advice from a proper adviser
Unless you have an appetite for risk and want to invest in potential higher growth funds, you'll be unlikely to do better as I suspect the fees are quite low in the LA fund. The LA fund will be conservatively managed with low fees so be a pretty safe bet.
MOAB - the only answer really to the transfer question is "it depends on the rules of the schemes". If the teachers' one is a defined benefit scheme I wouldn't be surprised if transfers in are not allowed, and if they are they will likely 'buy' a quite small amount of benefit, as the scheme is taking on the risk of paying a guaranteed income to your wife.
Similarly, for the flexibility or otherwise of the investment options in the Local scheme, it depends how it's set up and managed. Some employer schemes are through managers that allow access to pretty much any fund (although they'll default to a middling-risk, middling-growth fund), some will be more restricted, all (pretty much) do allow at least some degree of choice.
Time to dig out the paperwork and ring the scheme administrators I'm afraid.