UK Personal Pensions central agency??

[le petit roi]

I have some personal pensions in the UK which I had pretty much forgotten about and despite contributing several years into them, have written off their proceeds. However, in considering them again very recently, I should at least endeavour to find out their current status and determine from there, what to do with them.

 

The issue I have is that with the misappropriation and mismanagement of the UK personal pension schemes over the last 20 years (before I left for Oz, I remember being disgusted how much one pension had shrunk even though the stock market had overseen one of the most rapid rises in its history), companies have amalgamated, policies moved around, etc and I don't know who owns what or which company to contact.

 

Does anyone know of a central agency in the UK whereby if I give them a company name and policy number, they could provide contact details of where my policies are currently held thus allowing me to trace them and at least provide updated contact details.

 

There is a small hope that I may be pleasantly surprised if I ever find out where they are located.:smile:

 

Cheers

Edited May 30, 2016 by le petit roi

[CiderDrinkingCoder]

Here you go, matey: https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details

I think they work based on your NI number - but don't quote me on that.

[Thom]

I looked into whether or not I had any NHS pension from the years I worked for them, (1991 to 2003, with a small break.)

 

Turns out I have a small fund, which will pay £3463.00 pa and a £10,300.00 lump sum on hitting retirement age, or £3037.00 pa and £9,500.00 lump if I were to take it now. (age 57yrs,)

[winter1]

If you have the original policy it is not always difficult to find who has taken the fund over a google search found mine.

 

Just be careful not all small pensions are useless despite the pension company sending statements each year saying investment performance is not as good as they expected.

 

I took out a small private pension paying £20 a month in 1982 I increased the premium to £40 in 1985 and paid until I started a local government job in 1987 and was told I was no longer entitled to contribute to it. Total premiums paid less than £2000 + tax relief at the then rate I think it was around 25% ish. It turned out this was a rule 226a pension which meant I paid for the annuity at the time I paid the premiums.

The insurance company at the time of maturity at 60 in 2013 told me that the annual pension I could buy was around £650 to £750 pa as the fund was now worth £18,000. However as it was a rule 226 it guaranteed £1,800 each year and the investment statements they had sent me were for illustration only but it gave me the option to take the lower amounts.

 

( I was only informed of this after I asked the question about guarantees).

 

Just check your pension to make sure it may provide a GMP Guaranteed minimum pension.

Edited May 31, 2016 by winter1

[le petit roi]

Here you go, matey: https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details

I think they work based on your NI number - but don't quote me on that.

It gives me some addresses when I punch in the old pension provider so I'm hopeful some lead makes an appearance.

Thanks for the link and all who contributed; gives me some hope not all is lost. Fingers crossed they've left me with something.:twitcy:

Edited June 1, 2016 by le petit roi

[le petit roi]

Thanks again to all. After a few slow mail posts, I've managed to trace all my pensions and an insurance policy....not all good news though. One policy I started in my 1st job after leaving uni 25 years ago has the princely sum of 59 GBP in it. This in spite of almost 3 years of contributions from myself and my employer. Granted not a fortune but maybe 3-4k GBP contributions over the term and I did expect more than 59 GBP. Nothing more than theft as the FTSE has almost doubled during the same period.

 

Overall I think I'm happy enough just having located them and notified a change of address but that pension return is a bitter pill :-)

[le petit roi]

Resurrected this - I was back in the UK in Feb/Mar 2017 and did a bit more calling around. Turns out that one of my pensions currently has circa $40k in it which is substantially more than I ever thought. Another one wasn't quite so good...circa $600 but to redeem it into the other pension has a value of circa $200. Robbing thieves!! I've changed my contact address to my mothers in the UK so at least if I move around, I'll keep contact of where all my UK pensions are.

One final few questions on this topic if anyone can help me with an answer: 

1) As an Australian resident, am I permitted to contribute to the $40k pension?

2) What can I do to reduce the fees which will be likely charged by the Pension fund?

Cheers

[Guest The Pom Queen]

5 hours ago, le petit roi said:

Resurrected this - I was back in the UK in Feb/Mar 2017 and did a bit more calling around. Turns out that one of my pensions currently has circa $40k in it which is substantially more than I ever thought. Another one wasn't quite so good...circa $600 but to redeem it into the other pension has a value of circa $200. Robbing thieves!! I've changed my contact address to my mothers in the UK so at least if I move around, I'll keep contact of where all my UK pensions are.

One final few questions on this topic if anyone can help me with an answer: 

1) As an Australian resident, am I permitted to contribute to the $40k pension?

2) What can I do to reduce the fees which will be likely charged by the Pension fund?

Cheers

Hopefully @Andrew from Vista Financial Can help, he is our pensions expert

[Andrew from Vista Financial]

Hello

 

Sorry for the delay I over looked this one.

So in answers to your questions.

1) You may or may not be able to it will depend on your individual scheme's rules, from a HMRC perspective it is possible.

That said you should consider whether making contributions to the UK or to an Australian superannuation fund will be a better outcome (actually lots of variables involved but you should understand the implications in each case).

2) First of all consider how you wish for this money to be invested ie low, medium or high growth..................then once you know how the assets are to be allocated you can then go about choosing the appropriate investment option.

Then look into the fees associated, generally there will be two sets of fees:

> Admin fees - These will go to the pension company provider for administering the pension;

> Management Fees (MER) - These will be for the investment manager for the actual investment fund option you invest in to ie Blackrock UK Equity Fund, typically these fees are implicit meaning that you will not see them being deducted rather they are deducted before investment returns are added to the account.

Hope this helps.

 

Andy