4 small pensions- consolidate or keep all 4 going?

[Rigatone]

I would appreciate opinions on my pension situation and options. I'll try to provide relevant info clearly here:

I'm am 43 and still working full time. I am starting a new job next week which will be yet another new employer pension to add to my collection.

I have 12 years paid into teacher pension- no longer a teacher and no plans to go back. Will leave that alone.

I have 4 really small separate employer pensions from different jobs I've had aside from teaching. The largest one is currently about £5k and the others less.

Should I consolidate the 4 smaller ones into one? Or let them be?

I am currently thinking of continuing to pay into at least one of them- just a small amount per month like £50 but just something to keep them growing a tiny bit at least.

If your advice is to consolidate the small ones, I would love to know how to choose which one to sweep them all up into, or if I should start a new private pension with all the little ones in one?

I tried Martin Lewis for advice but it pretty much says get an IFA. I asked my financial guy who does my mortgages but he said is it worth it for such small amounts, for what a pension advisor will charge me. Thanks for any suggestions.

Do you know how much the account fee and ongoing charge is for each of the smaller pots? If I were you I’d consolidate them all into a platform like vanguard and top up any extra you can along with it (after maxing out employer match)

The key thing is to check the amount you are being charged for each pension. What I found (this might not be the same for you) was the charges were higher for my old pensions where I was no longer contributing, and my current employers one had cheaper charges. So I transferred my old pots into my current ‘live’ one (which is also more convenient all round)

You might be able to transfer them all into your new employer’s scheme so maybe wait and see what their pension terms are before making any decision. You may also find that if you pay extra into your new employer’s scheme that they will match or part match your additional contributions and that would then be a better option than paying into one of the older ones where you wouldn’t get those additional employer contributions.

I am NOT a financial advisor!

So if they are four smaller pensions, I'd start by collecting information for each on their amounts, management fees, cost of transfer fees, overall performance to date. Also note if you can cash them in early due to I'll health, or at an earlier age.

Form a plan of what ideally you'd like retirement to look like, what your budget is likely to look like at retirement and then a contingency plan if you are out of work close to retirement.

I'd start with transferring the worst performing/most costly one, to the best performing.

I'm quite risk adverse, so I wouldn't see it as a problem having separate small pensions, particularly if they offer flexibility to cash in earlier. I see it as very personal to you what your plans are and your attitude to risk.

I’d consolidate them into your teacher’s pension. It saves you having to pay all those separate sets of fees. Check to see if there are any penalties first though!

Definitely gather all the info first, then compare. I find it all quite dry and tedious so got an IFA. Sometimes a short term cost like a review can be beneficial.

In my mind I gave ours a year to prove themselves and the performance has been better than what had been going on to date on the various ones I had.

The Meaningful Money podcast is a good way of learning from a financial advisor without actually formally consulting one as there's a few considerations with what's best for you.

https://meaningfulmoney.tv/2023/02/15/simplify-your-pensions/

I don't know if you can transfer defined contribution schemes into your Teachers defined benefit scheme though, but you could probably at least combine the 4 into one with lowest charges that you could also add to, eg Vanguard or similar.

Not possible as tp is a DB scheme

Thank you so much everyone.

Just listened to this. Reassuring as I am on the right lines so far and some interesting new info and clarification. Thank you and I definitely recommend to others in my situation reading this thread.

I always make sure to pay pension contributions that are the max my employer will match and I'll do that again in my new job too.