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I moved jobs earlier this year and as I wasn't in the last place much over a year I need to move my pension out of their scheme. I have another scheme from another previous job that I can move it into but I forgot about it and it needs to be completed by 5th December or apparently I lose all rights to the cash I built up in the last role.
I'll be straight onto the (hopefully) receiving pension company in the morning to see if they can help but does anyone know if there's any chance of getting the funds transferred by next Friday? Also, is it right that I can lose those funds if the transfer isn't complete by then, as that's what the letter appears to say?
At a relatively young age I was pressurised into making a quick decision about my pension. It cost me big time!
Don't be pressured into anything that makes someone else's life easier!
To be fair I left the last job almost 3 months ago and forgot about the letter until now, so I'm not blaming anyone else. It doesn't seem quite "fair" that they can just say if I miss the date then I've lost it. Fingers crossed the receiving company can help me out and get things done in time.
Get independent advice from someone properly knowledgeable, now.
Flip, this sounds familiar! I left a job and a few (3-6 months later) received a letter telling me I had 7 days to make a decision about the pension I had been contributing to.
That was a false deadline and my decision was poor. Get in touch with them and maybe an independent financial advisor tomorrow.
Seems odd, are you sure this is what it says? I had to move a fund once or it would stop appreciating. Moving these things is very slow IME but maybe if the process is initiated in time it would be OK.
Morning bump.
Read everything! I made a mistake once and whilst on a low wage was paying the minimum 4% into my pension which my employer matched. They would match up to 15%.
Then then changed all the terms making it biased towards being better for those paying in the minimum, but they only matched up to 8%. They would honour existing members who payed above 8%, I missed the deadline by hours to increase my contributions to 15%, throwing away 7% of 'free' contributions 🙁 Should have kicked up a stink really as the intranet let me increase my contributions but they then told me it was too late.
I reckon you won't have time to get it moved as your new/current pension place will require that you take advice from an IFA to do this - I'm currently going through this. But AFAIK it is only your contributions you'll be transferring, not those the company put in.
Also an other option should be to take out your contributions as 'cash', although you will pay tax on them.
tbh If we are talking 1000's then it's important, if it's a few 100's...
I think if you have less then 2 years service all you are entitled to is a refund of your contributions or a transfer, if the new scheme will accept it. But yes, get some advice.
P.S it will be in your pension scheme handbook, you should have been issued with one, or will be available from HR.
I've not heard of anyone losing the capital due to it being a small amount, possibly there's a transfer window but the worst scenario should be you have to keep it separate.
That's not always a bad thing, I recently found an old account which I had paid into for a couple of years a long time ago it's now quite a reasonable amount. Just don't forget about it no ones going to remind you they have your cash!
The letter from my old employers is brief, and pretty clear: I must transfer the value of my pension investments to another registered pension provider or lose rights to any benefits from the plan. It's not possible to have my fund paid to me as a lump sum.
Old employer didn't do matched contributions as such, had to allocate a certain amount to pension from your "value account" (there's a clue!).
I'm contacting both companies this morning.
Edit - it's a few grand so I'll be suitably annoyed with myself if I lose it!
Given the company nothing would surprise me!
Well that was much less painful than expected. Called the pension dept of former employer and once they were happy I'd spoken to another provider about the transfer they've given me a 3 month extension to the deadline. They did confirm that I'd have lost the lot if I let the deadline pass.
I'm a little rusty on this so can't guarantee the accuracy plus scheme rules may differ to the statutory minimum.
Less than three months service they can just give you a refund of your contributions (so nothing if only the company paid in)
Three to twenty four months you get the choice of transferring everything to a new scheme or a refund of your contributions (take a refund and again you lose any company contribution)
Twenty four months or more and you have the option of leaving the whole lot where it is (deferred) or transferring to another scheme.
The deadlines are needed where there is a choice or some would procrastinate forever and the admin cost would be high.
Did you ask them to put that in a brief 'confirmation letter' (ie word politely when what you are really asking is written proof in case they try to screw you)
I'm in that 3-24 month bracket and the way the scheme works (you get a benefits pot of 25% of basic salary and allocate it to pension, take as cash etc) I assume that means that all contributions are considered company contributions. That 25% pot isn't as good as it sounds though, the basic salary is lower to compensate.