Have got a pension from my old job with a decent amount in and was wondering if there is a way of cashing it in? all advice would be greatly recieved

you'll be able to in a few months mate

Depends on what you mean by cashing in and your age. You should take specific advice based on your circumstances.

I am thinking about cashing in a private pension I have. Predicting how much it will be worth in nearly 40 years time is crystal ball gazing.

Houses anyone?

Pensioners should be drowned at birth .

Have you ever had a statement for it ?

Your statement should have a cash value on it, or ring the plan provider for one - whether that is literally a "CASH" value or a value to transfer to another scheme I don;t know, but its the sort of thing that you have to take very serious advice on.

Not sure what you mean by cashing in a pension. So far as I know when you reach the requisite age to take benefits you can normally take a tax free lump sum of 25% of the value of the fund and normally buy an annuity with the other 75%. There are other things that can be done - income drawdown, etc. Company schemes will set out their rules and there will be various options to benefits. But I do not believe you can simply take the fund value out as it's not your money - it's normally held in trust.

A few things you need to do/find out.

Firstly, is the pension index linked, if so then ALL advice will probably be to leave it where it is as it will grow with time at a vastly higher rate than you would get investing it certainly at the moment.

If it isn't then you need to mention whether its contributory or not.

If it was contributory, then that part of your pension, the money you have paid in, is yours and should be cashable in at anytime, of course, by doing that, you will also lose the other part the company paid in or be able to take a small percentage lump sum before it comes to fruition.

If it wasn't contributory, then chances are you will only get a small percentage cash out of it, as you haven't actually paid any in yourself.

If you wish to transfer the pension into another pension then this might be possible, it depends if the pensions are similar enough for this to occur.

In all this, you MUST take professional advice, its a serious matter and come retirement age could mean a BIG difference to you or your family. Ask your provider for a statment and rules leaflet and then take it to an experienced pensions advisor.

The other point to mention is that if you withdraw money early, then you will likely pay the income tax on it, or at least a big chunk of it, depending on your circumstances, age etc. So far, the money is untaxed, assuming a contributary pension.

As has been said several times, this is your future at stake, and probably in most circumstances you would be better off leaving it where it is, or moving it to another pension fund.

Whatever you do, make sure you get qualified professional advice before making any changes.

If you ring up for advice from whoever runs your pension fund, very likely you will get some, free. I did.

If you want to read up on it, go on the Hargreaves Lansdown site which has loads of info, and if you get a quote for your annuity, they will shop around and probably enable you to beat it by at least 25%.

If it is a contrib. pension then if you have reached the age when you can take it, you need to be sure that if you switch pension provider, you don't take a big hit. That can happen if you simply "move" the pension to a different provider, but not if you elect to take the pension/lump sum, and do so by transferring the pot to another provider on "maturity".

On no account do anything without getting adequate advice as you could do yer bollox in.

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First off any benefits you are able to draw as a lump sum or as a monthly pension are dependent on your age. If you're not 55 or likely to be soon there are very limited circumstances in which benefits will be paid.

Assuming that the pension you have is a money purchase type arrangement (ie. a pot of money that has accumulated over time with contributions and investment growth) you will likely have 2 figures available - a current fund value and a transfer value. Sometimes the same, sometimes quite a bit different dependent on terminal bonuses or scheme admin charges. If you want to look at moving it, obviously its more beneficial if the tv is larger than the fv and you will have a number of options, including moving it to a private arrangement where you can have more control over when it will be paid out (for eg many occupational schemes will only let you take benefits before the scheme retirement age at the trustees discretion). You will still be subject to the minimum retirement age of 55 but will have options such as taking the 25% cash lump sum without putting the rest of the pension into payment if you don't need the income.



This is not the case sadly. If you are a bit of a job hopper, you sometimes are offered the opportunity to receive a refund of contributions upon leaving the scheme if you have been in it less than 2 yrs. Any period longer than this and your contributions are locked in. There is a lot of tax relief on money paid into pensions and as such there are also a lot of restrictions on how and when you can take it back out. Work on the assumption that anything you have paid in is staying in until you vest the benefits and you won't be far wrong.

And I'll throw in the disclaimer that no advice has been provided in this post, just general information

Happy to answer any questions by pm though.

Yes. As I said above - the money is not yours but trustees' money, irrespective of whether you contributed it or not. If its a personal arrangement you lose your capital at the point an annuity is bought. You get your 5 or 6% pa (or whatever at the time) and an insurance company takes your pot! That's the price of tax relief.

Both the contrib company pensions have a cash value which pretty much equates to my contributions which is why I posted this.

of course this only availavle post 55.