What do I do with these pensions?

I have been givin 50% of the pensions in my divorce, these come from three different pension companys. The one thing Im hopeless at is finace. My sol says I need to get advice on what to do with them. Im totally broke at the moment so cannot afford any professional advice. I know its important to put these pensions somewhere secure. Do I put them all together or not? feeling abit lost with this at the moment.
Any help from anyone would be appreciated. I really hate getting divorced, not a good day.

Do you know what types of pensions they are and how they were shared,

Sometimes pensions can`t be reallocated so you get your own pension but it stays with the original provider,

If you can give as much information,as you can people will help you,

There are two very good member's on site peter@bdm and the divorce IFA oh and maggie hopefully people will spot your question and help soon.

Hi,

I am sorry to hear that you are struggling with this.

It is important that you investigate what these pensions are, how they will deal with pension sharing and how these options fit in with your future needs. You will now have three pension entitlements which you will be able to draw on in retirement.

Without knowing the schemes involved I cannot add any value at this point so if you can give more information on the schemes, the amounts involved, etc. It may be that the best advice would be to amalgamate the schemes. Equally, it may be that they are best left where they are.

You could instruct an IFA to work on a commission only basis - i.e the pension provider pays not you personally. However, you would need to be careful as they would only be remunerated on the amounts transferred to a new scheme. You may able to deal with the pension sharing without having to transfer out and there would therefore be no remuneration.

Please post again for more comments. Alternatively, feel free to send me a PM and I will take you through it on a no obligation basis.

Regards

Phil

The Divorce IFA

From a sharer's point of view - I had a share of two pensions on divorce - for each one I had to transfer out my share to another pension scheme.
I agreed to take the whole amount from just one - the biggest - pension to save one set of fees charged by pension schemes for splitting pensions on divorce.
Do you know if you have to transfer your share out of all three and if so will they all charge to do it?
According to the regs they have to warn you up front of any charges.

I decided to go directly to the pension company charging the lowest annual management fees for a Stakeholder pension and their rep organised transferring my pension pot - if I'd been a bit more confident I could have done it online and got a lower annual charge.
I chose a stakeholder pension because if it turned out to be useless or I became a pension genius I could swap to something else later without a penalty fee.

Hi,

The approach Maggie took is sensible. On a case I am working on at the moment where there are 10 pensions involved the pension sharing order charges range from £2,350 down to £0 so these can be a factor and can mount up. But it may be in your interests to share all three rather than one.

Cost is only one issue and I would argue the key is to make an informed decision on your options.

To do that you will need a lot of information from the current pension schemes to decide the best way to go.

I admire the fact Maggie went direct. But a word of warning when dealing with insurance companies directly, they often offer a product which is no better than one where commission would have been paid. Check the offer carefully.

In my opinion, and of course, I am biased, independent financial advice is worth paying for but my many testimonials attest to the fact I add more value than the fees/commission paid.

Regards

Phil

The Divorce IFA

Have to ask about "going direct" - I know I pay 1% annual management charge - do you mean the pension company will also be taking the annual "trail commission" for ongoing advice that would have gone to the IFA?
I can look online at my pension fund - there's no statement of charges - just a rolled-up pension value which goes up and down weekly ie any charges aren't obvious.
Are they in fact likely to be taking more than 1% from my pension each year?

Hi,

Yours is probably a bad example because you have a stakeholder charged contract which at 1% is competitive. However, if I was placing a stakeholder without commission than the annual management charge would be lower! I have seen direct offer personal pension plans at 1.5% per annum.

Hollyet - apologies, we do tend to get off the subject matter in our postings.

I hope this has helped towards understanding the costs of pensions.

If I can help some more, please post again.

Regards

Phil