Retirement - inventory of pensions

So where do you start?

Start with an inventory of your pensions

Over the years it's likely you've had many jobs and each one of those jobs has the potential to have a pension of some sort. So get a piece of paper (or start a spreadsheet sheet) and list every job you've ever had. Include as much information as you can remember about the job - for example the name of your Employer, office location, employee ID, Salary, pension details (if you know them - the pension provider, scheme name, scheme number, your pension membership number etc). 

For each employment, find out if there was a pension, and if so were you part of it. Keep digging to get as much information as you can - what was the pension scheme name, what were the scheme rules, is there a pension scheme booklet. Once you've located the pension, find out how much it's worth, when you can access it and how it will grow. These are all determined by the scheme rules.

Add your state pension to this list and get the same information.  

If you can't find details of a pension, contact the company (if they still exist), or ex-colleagues if your in touch with any and try and get information. If all else fails use the Government Pension Tracing service

This inventory of jobs and pensions is really important - not just for you so you know what you have for retirement, but for your family. Without this your family won't be able to locate your pensions if the worst was to happen. I can't tell you the number of people I've spoken to who have lost pensions and not been able to find them, and I know from personal experience that finding old pensions for a deceased family member is nigh on impossible without this information.

Now you have a list of what you've got you can consider if there are any actions to make the overall pensions position better. For example

- if you've missing years in your state pension should you pay extra National Insurance contributions to cover those years?

- if your pension is still active, can you pay extra into it to make it better?

- if you've lots of little pensions should you look at consolidating them to reduce the overall charges and potentially get better growth?

- Should you consider starting a private pension and contributing to that?

There are loads of things you might want to consider, and with this inventory you'll be in auch better position to decide

So what should you do next?

Try Doing a budget 

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