Starting a personal pension that will accept transfers in from other schemes

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I am thinking of starting a personal pension.

I already have approx 18 years in public sector schemes. My new employer has Aegon pension arrangements, so I have some contributions in there. But I am on a fixed term contract there.

If I start a scheme with Virgin money or similar, would I then be able to merge in my Aegon scheme? Or should I just carry on contributing to Aegon after I leave that workplace?

Ideally I would like an ethical fund too, so I’m not afraid of a SIPP.

Things to consider:

1. Your workplace pension will benefit from reduced charges because it will be charge capped, plus your employer may have negotiated lower charges. Personal pensions will have higher charges

1. SIPPs can often have additional charges due to the wider investment functionality. Unless you are a savvy clued up investor they are often unnecessary. You can still have plenty of investment options in a workplace pension. You also need to ensure you have the time to monitor funds when self investing. Workplace pensions will have default funds which have lots of governance wrapped around them (so someone else is doing that for you).

1. workplace pensions will still allow you to contribute even when you leave your employer but your reduced charges still apply. (This doesn’t apply to occupational/trust based pension arrangements)

If it's public sector is it final salary?

Many thanks, both.

My 18 years of public sector schemes are a mix of final salary and career average.

The Aegon scheme is the other type of scheme, where you build a 'pot'. Minibiscuit, your comments have helpfully prompted me to get out all the paperwork relating to the scheme - there is actually an ethical investment option within their funds, but the charges are higher. The scheme paperwork also says that you may be able to change it to an individual scheme once you have left your employer.

I am getting the feeling that I should
a) look into bumping up my present contributions
b) explore AVC options with my prior schemes, if I am still eligible
c) explore converting my Aegon employer scheme to an individual scheme if possible.