I tracked down my 28 pension pots 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 situated 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 activity of getting his retirement funds so as.

Labour of affection: Geraldine Smith helped her husband Reginald discover the pensions he gathered over his profession

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 thus far into one pot of greater than £250,000 with PensionBee, a web based self-invested private pension supplier.

‘It’s not been simple to search 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, amassing pensions with every job.

He says the big variety of jobs was largely right down to the character of his work. Some strikes have been his alternative, others have been out of his arms within the case of redundancy. 

He has been headhunted on a number of events or has modified jobs to enhance his work-life stability to spend extra time together with his spouse, son and the youngsters they fostered.

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

However, savers like Reginald may quickly be capable to hold 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 enable employees to proceed paying into their former employer’s pension scheme relatively than opening a brand new account each time they transfer jobs.

Currently, anybody working within the non-public sector who modifications jobs is robotically 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 median of 12 jobs throughout their profession.

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

Playing detective: Holding a number of pots could make it onerous for employees to maintain observe of their complete retirement financial savings

Rebecca O’Connor, of PensionBee, says the rule change could be a boon for savers, as they might 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 changing into extra widespread to alter jobs repeatedly.

‘If you might have a number of small pots, you usually tend to lose observe of them when you do not suppose they’re very worthwhile however over time they might have grown considerably.’

A staggering £40 billion of unclaimed pension property is languishing in long-forgotten pots, in line with Gretel, a web based 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 via the Big Lottery Fund. But it’s nonetheless attainable 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 tackle. 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 totally 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 bought 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 loos 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.’

> How pensions work: Your important information to retirement saving 

Savvy saver: Most pension schemes should ship you an announcement every year

How to trace down outdated pensions 

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 hundreds of kilos over many years.

To observe down outdated pensions that you have not stored an eye fixed on, first test to see you probably have any outdated paperwork which could have the identify 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 may be since you modified tackle and did not notify the supplier. 

If you battle to search 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 sort of pension has turn out to be the commonest and is a pot of cash that you just and your employer contribute to and which is generally invested in shares and bonds.

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

You must also test to ensure you aren’t giving up any worthwhile advantages by transferring out of a scheme – for instance, a assured annuity price choice or further dying advantages.

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

On his spouse’s skilled steering, Reginald has stored a number of worthwhile 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]