Pension Help Required !!!

A question about : Pension Help Required !!!

I don't trust any pension companies but the reality is that i am not prepared for my old age and I know i need to find a solution........can anyone offer some advice !!

The reason I don't trust them is that i paid a few thousand pounds into 2 seperate pension schemes with Scottish Life - one which was contributed to by my employers so was having approx Ј200 per month paid in. When I left the company I didn't keep up the payments but stupidly thought that the fees would be minimal and it would stay there in the main until I began paying into it again.

I spent the next 12 months sitting on the fence but during this time I requested Scottish Life send me statements out so that i could decide weather I wanted to keep my business with them or find a new pension - by the end of the 12 months I still hadn't received a statement.

A friend recommended a good IFA who managed to get the statements from them but when we received them it was bad news ! I found out that the smaller one had eaten itself away in fees and the other was next to nothing !!! I was horrified and felt cheated by Scottish Life as the delay in the statements had cost me more money than if I had been able to make a decision twelve months earlier.

I would like to think I could claim this money back but don't really know where to start or indeed if I would get it, I also want to move the pension to a trustworthy company or even a bog standard savings account and just add to that for my pension as I have been really put off by this and pensions in general.

Can anyone offer any advice please ????

Best answers:

• Hi, Martin's asked me to post this in these circumstances: I've asked Board Guides to move threads if they'll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email abuse@moneysavingexpert.com.
• Will I still receive notification of replys to my posting or do I need to find it and subscribe again - if so where have you moved it to ???
  Sorry to sound thick !
• Hi anitap
  If you want to have more control over your pensions, then you can transfer the money to a low cost online Self invested Personal pension (SIPP).
  But you need to have some idea about how you plan to invest the money (eg which funds, or which shares?) after you've moved it
  Do you know how the money is invested now? Finding that out would be step one, along with asking Scotlife for a transfer value of the pension if you decided to move it.
• Not sure where it is invested but last time I asked if I could transfer they told me I couldn't and that the only way to bump it up was to pay the monthly fee plus more investment - but I would rather stick pins in my eyes than pay any more money to a company who won't send me statements when i ask for them if you know what i mean ????
• I find Scottish Life's admin to be a good level and their current contracts are very good. Their older range does allow transfers out to other schemes but they usually have guarantees on them that makes them better off left where they are. Policy fees were common on older plans.
• What kind of pension is this anita?
  You seem to be saying that one of them is a former occupational scheme that has contributions from your employer?Is it a "Section 32 buyout bond?"
  That might explain why you can't immediately transfer.Pensions like these have valuable guarantees which override their investment value - in your favour
• It was an occupational scheme - my employers matched my monthly contribution for 18 months - "section 32 buyout bond" doesnt ring a bell.
  To be quite honest I just want out - I trusted the financial advisor who I got my first mortgage and pension with at the age of 19 and he fought with them for me for 12 months, I then took on another recommended IFA who also tried to win the battle and whilst he managed to get a statement, he couldn't move them on the findings of the fees they had took and couldn't get them to let me move what remained (which by then was £0 in one and very little in the other compared to what had been paid in) - I feel that if they can't win then i don't much stand a chance on my own unless there is a chance taking it through someone like the financial ombudsman but they have just been involved on a case I had with the Coventry and when they didn't agree with my dispute I reverted back to basics and contacted the chief exec of the coventry who resolved the problem and compensated me accordingly but I went round the houses a bit - you live and learn though !
  I think I have run out of steam with the financial scene and might just save for my pension by sewing bank notes into my mattress !!!!
  I pride myself on reading the small print but it seems that no matter what you do you can never protect yourself 100% but whilst I take your comments on board about your experience with scot life I wouldn't touch them with a barge as long as i live !!!!
• Hi Anita
  Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Pensions are a minefield and its hard to know where to get good advice, or even what questions to ask sometime.
  Cant really advise on the Scottish Life situation, but dont get bogged down in that so much that you dont make a deicsion about what to do now re your retirement planning.
  What is your situation now - are you working, and are you contributing to a pension scheme or putting any money aside for retirement at all? Do you own your own home and have you got any personal debts?
• Hi Claire
  I am putting off making a decision on what to do for my retirement planning simply because of the scot life stuff but I know I will have to bite the bullett at some point !
  Working full time, own home and couple of loans and credit cards but have plenty left at the end of each month to be able to spare a few hundred for a pension or investment. Failing that HTB is in the army will just have to hope that his pension stretches !!!!!!!!!!!