Pension pots and 25% tax free

[Newgolddream70]

I am speaking to an IFA in a couple of weeks and getting all my pension paperwork together. I have four pension pots: current work, one personal and two former work ones which I haven't contributed to for years.

I would like to take some cash next year and I want to know if it's possible to take the 25% tax free element from two of the above pensions at the same time. Has anyone else taken from more than one pot at the same time?

Each pension is handled separately. So IF they are all defined contribution schemes, then you could take 25% from all four.

However your IFA will talk to you about the long term implications of taking tax-free cash from a pension before you need it. When you take money out, that is no longer in the pension to grow. They will also likely discuss merging pensions so there are less to handle, and some of the pensions may not be defined contribution schemes so may not give 25% tax-free cash.

You are doing the right thing in gathering together as much information about your particular pensions as you can. Then having an adviser look at that and gather more information, and have a discussion with them about your money needs. They can then create a cashflow model to show you where money could be taken from and how that may impact the future.

A couple of videos that may be useful to you:
6 reasons to take tax-free cash:
5 reasons not to take tax-free cash:

Thank you @nannynick, that's really helpful!

As nanynick says, but you can do it alone without a IFA, go through the steps with pension wise online and you can complete the forms to claim the 25%, but if you don’t feel confident doing your own research then possibly the fee for the IFA is worth it . 25% is the total,of all your pensions good luck

25% of your pension is tax free whenever you take it. If you take the 25% tax free as a lump sum you pay tax on 100% of future draw downs (above your tax allowance), so it affects not only your pension’s capacity to grow but the future impact of tax.

An advisor should do you loads of graphs demonstrating the impact of lump sums, cheaper fees , impact of level of draw down, etc.