Ask a Scottish Widows expert your questions on pensions and retirement - 3 x £100 voucher to be won!

[EmmaMumsnet]

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We are working with Scottish Widows to help answer any questions you have on pensions and retirement. With minimum workplace pension contributions increasing in April, from 5% to 8%, we’d love to hear your questions or any thoughts you have, either on this or about pensions and retirement in general.

Scottish Widows Retirement Expert Jackie Leiper has volunteered to answer your top questions and is passionate in helping women plan for their financial future.

Jackie said: “We know women face their own unique challenges in saving for the future. With more women working part time and many of us going on maternity leave at various points in our careers it’s often difficult to know if you’re saving enough for your future.

With an increase to workplace pensions in April I want to help explain what the changes could mean for you and how a small increase now could really make a big difference to your future.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and questions on the changes or anything that’s in the back of your mind regarding saving for retirement.

To help get you started and explore the upcoming changes you can watch our Pension Basics film or visit our website to see how it could impact you.”

Whatever questions you have around pensions and retirement, please post them below and we will choose 10 for Jackie to answer. Everyone who posts a question below will be entered into a prize draw to win one of three £100 vouchers of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw.

MNHQ

Terms & conditions apply

How best to choose a fund manager to manage surplus accrued funds in a family SIPP based on commercial property?

And, as a former pension professional in the US, please remind all participants that every £ invested before you turn 25 is worth three or four times the same pound invested after 40. Very small sums mount up, if you start start young.

I'd like to understand the NHS pension changes and the tapering annual allowance reduction that I believe I would fall foul of this year?

I have an NHS pension but I worry about it being changed without warning as has happened in the past. Is it worth trying to set up a private pension too or am I being paranoid?

I have two pension pots that will pay out at different retirement ages. I'm interested in the possibility of a bridging pension that would allow me to retire at the earlier of the two ages.

Are bridging pensions generally well thought of, or should I be considering something else?

I have a defined benefits occupational pension that I can take from 60 but I won’t have a full NI record by then. Can I pay voluntary NI contributions after the age of 60 when I will have already retired?

Is it better to leave pensions as stand alone pots or merge them and if so how should I go about this?

Is mid forties too late to start a pension? Is there any chance of getting a reasonable sum together before retirement?

I'm in the NHS. How do I make Additional Voluntary Contributions, if that's what they're called?

I am 53 and my state pension age is 67. Will it definitely be 67 or might it creep upwards again ?

How can I reconcile all my pensions into one?

When the new working pensions came in a couple of year's ago the company I was working (and had been for 18 years without a pension) for signed up to Nest and I paid about three months before I left to join another company. I was with the next company seven months before they made everyone redundant (having paid about three months with a new workplace pension). I'm now with another company and have just been enrolled into their workplace pension and I just wondered whether it's worth amalgamating all three?

I'm 45 so a bit late to this pension lark and only earn minimum wage so I can't afford to make any higher contribution than the legal minimum and working for solicitors means they don't contribute any more than they have to either 😛.

Actually wondering if it's really worth it.

What sort of range of fees is reasonable to expect to pay on a SIPP and the holdings within it?

I contacted out of serps around twenty years ago. How can I find out the implications of this now? Thank you.

I’ve had a lot of FTC over the last 10 years and opt for a work place pension to gain the organisations contributions.

I now have around 4 workplace pensions and a private pension with Scottish Widows, but have been told I can’t transfer money in to my private account from another.

Should I look to consolidate?

What are pensions companies doing to keep up with people now having (unintentional) numerous pensions? Will we move towards the Australian model?

I have an NHS pension - how do I find out at what age this will start to pay out and what my predicted pension will be? I now work in another sector and have done for several years, I pay into the local council pension - would I be better cancelling that and paying it into the NHS pension to keep that topped up (and is that even possible?).

Hi Jackie.

I’m have a workplace stakeholder from when I was employed, charges are low (0.35%). I am now self employed and want to restart contributions. Are stakeholders ‘legacy products’ these days and should those holding them be looking to switch?

My IFA has suggested a new scheme with much higher charges (0.9%). What are the other charges and things to look at that would offset such an increase in charges.

I've worked for 6 different companies so have got a few different (and small!) pension pots - is it always better to combine them together into one pot or not?
Are there any broad guidelines to help me decide whether or not to merge them ?

I found it easy to set up and run a Sipp on my own using an allocation of trackers and investment trusts. Now that I am retired I am still contributing. I am finding it impossible to transition from saving to spending. Frankly I enjoy investing too much. The best I can come up with is to draw off some of the dividends using ufpls within a net no tax parameter. What is wrong with me ?

I've been in the NHS pension scheme for 18 years (I'm now 42). Since having dc 5 years ago I only work 1.5 days. Should i be topping up into a private pension and do i need a financial advisor to find a good one, or is this information relatively easy to find? Having always been in the public sector i don't really know where to start. And is it better to put spare cash into a pension or pay down mortgage debt as quickly as possible?

thank you!

Are we saving enough? How much should we be saving?

(And if you have any extra time- how long is a piece of string?)

My work keeps suggesting AVCs. Should I be doing them? Do I save tax?

I have a disability and was on Employment Support Allowance since about 2011. Now I am on Universal Credit. I moved from America to the UK in 2007. I was married and got a divorce. I do have Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK.

I have never worked since being in the UK. I am 61 years of age and from what I understand, 66 is my "Retirement" age.

Because I have a disability and have not worked, will I still be able to get on a Pension when I reach 66 years of age? Or will I just be left with a disability and no money to live on?

If I take three months unpaid maternity leave does my employer stop contributing during that time?

What options are open to me if I want to retire at 55

What are the different options for taking your pension at retirement and how are they taxed? Also, what happens to workplace pensions if you die - do you lose the money saved or can they be inherited?