How do you keep on top of multiple pension pots?

[halloweensweets]

I am only in my 30s but I have 3 pensions with 3 different employers. They all have tiny amounts in as I only worked there for a couple of years.

I'm sure I will have a few more employers by the time I'm 80/dead or whatever the retirement age will be, so I'm wondering how people keep tabs on multiple pension pots for decades? Do you literally have to write them all down incase you forget? Surely some people do forget about their small pots and that's how the firms make their money?

What happens if you die before you retire, how would your family track down several pensions if you never made a note of them?

You can usually move them together.

It's best to review them carefully to check what's best for you though - for example some may lower charges. It always worth taking advice from a qualified advise if you're unsure.

Lots of useful information on www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pension-wise

*adviser

I just moved a pension I have with pension bee over to a pot I have with ageon today. Its very easy and all in one place now!

We just swept ours into consolidated private pensions every so often. They were all just standard private company invested pensions though, nothing with any defined benefits.

I keep a file with the details on google drive and update amounts when I get an annual statement. Combining isn’t a good option for me as I have some Defined benefit pensions.

Edited to add: I’m 40 and have 6 pensions.

I combined 3 main companies' pensions together as that suited me to have 1 place to look (current employer). They were all defined contribution (DC) pensions and their rules allowed this.

I also had a very small amount of DB (defined benefit) pension from another employer, this can't be combined into the DC pots, so I just keep a track of it on a spreadsheet listing my pensions, as well as listing my various savings / bank accounts etc.

You could consider merging them into the same platform, but you would have to be clear that they are all just standard defined contribution type pensions with no other benefits (as by moving you could lose those extra benefits).

I've worked at 6 different companies over the past 20 years and ended up with 5 x different pension pots over 4 different providers. I have transferred two of them into a SIPP with Vanguard and in process of transferring a third. My main driver for doing this is the access to different investment options and also the lower fees. The admin is slightly simpler but if you are organised anyway it isn't too hard to keep track of three pension pots.

I have a spreadsheet with all my financials on, it's nothing fancy it just allows me to track things on a monthly basis easily. You don't need to do this monthly for pensions though.

Check what your pensions are, what they are invested in, what the fees are and see whether they meet your requirements going forward. If they don't then consider transferring elsewhere. Its q fairy easy process but can take several weeks to complete.

If you are in your 30s you have time to really build a decent pension by the time you retire. Make sure you are contributing to a % that maximises the % your employer pays is (that's just free money).

I have a financial / life organising factsheet that I look at every month.

it’s a word document that details

• my current account
• savings account
• isa
• two pensions
• A list all subscriptions/ utilities with renewal dates (phone contract end dates, Microsoft 365, house insurance, anti virus software, apple, car insurance, MOT date and I recently added passport renewal and driving license renewal date

It just about sits on a single paged word document.

Every month I go on to see if I need to get insurance quotes etc in the next couple of months.

when I get annual updates from my pension companies I update that section and once a year I’ll update savings / isa accounts. It really isn’t onerous - I do it when the postal statements come.

The original purpose was to give enough info that if I die dc / exh have all my financial info in one place but it’s involved into a really useful tool to help me plan financial and admin tasks

Put infor in a folder and forget about them till you retire. CHeck retirement on them - at 26 I put 55 so can claim now woohoo or leave till later but from now can take my tax free amount out.

As an aside I thought one of mine would be tiny, left it where it was, turns out to be gold plated for an initial 100 quid pyt taken as I wasn't quick enough to sign out it now stands at 25k pot.

You can merge them to one place but I would be careful about doing that unless you really know about investments and pensions etc. You need to have a spread of risk and also take into account the different benefits of different pensions.

I have a secure spreadsheet with all nine pensions in, plus savings accounts. (I'm older than you).

Username, password (in code), company, account number, value. I check them once a year, update their values in the spreadsheet. My solicitor has a copy of the doc, as does my dsis

When I retire, I'll spend the lower performing ones first. 😊