Advice on pension - moved jobs

K

KK1

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I have recently moved jobs and I am looking for advice on what to do with my old pension, I could leave it where it is, which would be an income of €600 pm on retirement, (30 years down the line but it’s indexed linked), I could set up a PRSA or I could transfer it to the pension scheme in the new job.

Is it safer to move it as I am worried the company I left recently won’t be in existence in 5 years time let alone 30. If a company does close down where does that leave your pension? It is a medium sized company that is in existence for about 50 years and would have a lot people already claiming a pension. Thanks.
 
Sorry, but I'm not too sure of the difference but employees contributed 3% I think, and that was matched by the company. It was also tied to final salary and not average salary if that's what you mean.
 
Have a read of this thread. I think that the circumstances are similar to your own.

Try and get more information on the current 'nominal/actuarial' value of your fund, within the scheme, along with the transfer value. The annual report on the scheme should also give you information on how under-water it is and what plans there are to rectify any imbalances.


GS
 
Under current legislation (Pensions Act of 1990) the employer never "owns" the assets (money) in a pension fund (nor "owns" the money they put in on behalf of employees once its in the fund) - it is held in trust on behalf of the members - so even if the employer goes bust it doesn't mean the pension fund ceases to exist. However, unless it is a Public Sector pension, the overall value of the pension fund goes up & down in line with the performance of the underlying investments.
 
Thanks very much for the advice, the transfer value is €25k so I may be better leaving it where it is for the moment.
 
Last point, just make sure to keep your contact details up to date with the trustees or whoever runs the fund on behalf of the company, ie a pension manager like Mercer, and make sure to ask them for an annual statement of benefits.
 
I was made redundant by a private sector company in 1987. I was in their non contributary pension scheme for about 6 years. I did nothing about my pension at the time i.e. I left it where it was. The company is long established and reasonably sound. I am now 60. Can I still claim on that pension when I reach 65 and how should I go about it?
 
If you know who the pension scheme consultants are, you can contact them to claim your pension. If not, you can contact the Human Resources department of your former employer when you want to retire (which doesn't necessarily have to be 65, by the way - the Trustees have discretion to approve earlier retirement if you wanted.)

You can contact either the scheme consultants or the HR department now to request an up-to-date statement of your entitlements from the scheme if you haven't got one recently.

Liam D. Ferguson
 
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