How I tracked down my 28 pensions pot and netted £250,000

Reginald Smith knew that he had just a few pensions from earlier jobs, however even he was shocked at simply what number of he discovered as soon as he and his spouse Geraldine began digging.

The 64-year-old well being and security skilled has 28 pension pots and counting – as extra proceed to return out of the woodwork, with the newest positioned simply two weeks in the past.

Since 1978, Reginald has labored in almost 30 jobs as a contractor, well being and security supervisor, adviser and planner for dozens of companies.

But one yr earlier than his deliberate retirement, the grandfather-of-two from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, has confronted the daunting process of getting his retirement funds so as.

With the dear assist of his spouse Geraldine, 64, who’s a retired monetary adviser, the pair have for the previous 9 months been tracing the litter of pensions he has left behind throughout his busy profession. 

They have mixed greater than 18 of Reginald’s pensions up to now into one pot of greater than £250,000 with PensionBee, an internet self-invested private pension supplier.

‘It’s not been straightforward to seek out all of the coverage numbers and names of the pension corporations,’ he says. ‘Luckily, my spouse has been very useful and we have discovered £5,000 right here or £10,000 there.’

From Rolls-Royce to pet food corporations, mining companies, universities, vitality provider EDF Energy and chocolatier Thorntons, Reginald has labored throughout all sectors, accumulating pensions with every job.

He says the massive variety of jobs was largely right down to the character of his work. Some strikes had been his alternative, others had been out of his palms within the case of redundancy. He has been headhunted on a number of events or has modified jobs to enhance his work-life steadiness to spend extra time along with his spouse, son and the youngsters they fostered.

He says: ‘I’d spend two years right here and there. I’ve at all times been fairly good at placing cash apart, however I by no means considered what number of completely different pots of cash I’d find yourself with.’

However, savers like Reginald might quickly have the ability to maintain only one pension pot for all of their working lives underneath plans introduced by the Chancellor in November. Last week, Jeremy Hunt confirmed throughout his Budget that the Government was pushing forward to introduce sweeping reforms to the pension market.

The proposals would permit employees to proceed paying into their former employer’s pension scheme somewhat than opening a brand new account each time they transfer jobs.

Currently, anybody working within the non-public sector who modifications jobs is mechanically signed as much as the pension scheme chosen by their new employer. This means most employees will retire with their financial savings cut up between a dozen pension pots, as employees have a mean of 12 jobs throughout their profession.

Holding a number of pots could make it laborious for employees to maintain observe of their complete retirement financial savings. The Chancellor’s reforms would give new staff the correct to decide on which pension scheme their employer pays into after they transfer alongside of their profession.

Rebecca O’Connor, of PensionBee, says the rule change could be a boon for savers, as they’d now not be shoehorned right into a pension they did not actively select.

She says: ‘People of their 20s are more and more reporting having as many pensions by the point they flip 30 as folks in older age teams as a result of it is turning into extra widespread to vary jobs frequently.

‘If you may have a number of small pots, you usually tend to lose observe of them if you happen to do not assume they’re very useful however over time they might have grown considerably.’

A staggering £40 billion of unclaimed pension property is languishing in long-forgotten pots, in accordance with Gretel, an internet service which reconnects folks with misplaced and dormant accounts.

Once an account is recognized as dormant, the money is moved right into a central fund put in direction of good causes by means of the Big Lottery Fund. But it’s nonetheless potential to return ahead and be reimbursed.

Accounts might be declared dormant if a pension supplier’s letters to you might be returned saying you now not reside on the handle. This is normally after a interval of inactivity – the place you haven’t touched any funds for between one and 5 years.

Reginald has began to cut back his hours and plans to completely retire on his sixty fifth birthday in March subsequent yr, when he and Geraldine plan to go on many travels.

In preparation, the couple have offered their £330,000 Victorian home, with a quarter-acre backyard and 5 bedrooms, downsizing to a £178,000 three-bedroom bungalow. They have drawn down on their pensions to renovate the property, placing in underfloor heating, constructing walk-in bogs and widening doorways to future-proof it.

He says: ‘Having all my pensions in a single place is making it a lot simpler to attract down from them for these sorts of bills.’

Consolidating pensions also can forestall you from unwittingly paying excessive charges levied by some companies on legacy pensions. A small distinction in charges can price tens of 1000’s of kilos over many years.

To observe down previous pensions that you have not stored an eye fixed on, first test to see when you have any previous paperwork which could have the title of your pension scheme or particulars of the scheme’s administrator or supplier.

Most pension schemes should ship you an announcement every year, but when you have not been receiving them it could be since you modified handle and did not notify the supplier. If you battle to seek out any info, contact the pension supplier, your former employer if it was a office pension, or the Pension Tracing Service, which is a free Government service.

You can normally transfer an outlined contribution pension at any time earlier than you begin taking cash from it in retirement. This kind of pension has turn out to be the commonest and is a pot of cash that you simply and your employer contribute to and which is generally invested in shares and bonds.

In most circumstances, you possibly can switch your cash to a unique supplier after you’ve got began to take cash from it however test the positive print.

You also needs to test to be sure to aren’t giving up any useful advantages by transferring out of a scheme – for instance, a assured annuity charge possibility or extra dying advantages.

If the worth of any assured annuity charge, or different useful profit, is greater than £30,000, you’ll have to get regulated monetary recommendation earlier than you are allowed to maneuver the pension. Some schemes cost an exit price, which penalises you for transferring cash from them.

On his spouse’s knowledgeable steering, Reginald has stored a number of useful outlined profit pensions, together with one native authorities pension and one other mining pension, separate from his new pot.

• Have you bought greater than 20 pension pots? Email [email protected]