What do do with small workplace pension?

[Linguaphile]

Hi all,

I have a small workplace pension (VERY small—maybe 5k) from a job I had years ago. I am now a SAHM and we no longer live in the UK, but looking at the fees I’m wondering if the money would be better off either invested elsewhere? Or should I just leave it? One option may be to move it to a European fund where we live now. It’s an Aviva pension and they’ve said it’s locked away until I’m 55, so I don’t think I can just put it into index funds... or can I?

Any ideas? What would you do?

I would look at the funds within the pension and see if there are any options for changing asset allocation. Then review that annually.

If you start work in the country you are in and have a pension scheme there... you may be able to move the UK pension to the country you are in. Something to investigate.

If you want it in index funds, you could speak to Aviva re asset allocation or maybe transfer the money to a SIPP and manage it yourself.

I'm not sure what the international agreements and rules are, but I'd most likely leave the money in the UK as you can always pay it out as a tax free lump sum when you retire.