You really should carry out a pension fund and annuity wealth check, and there is a very good reason for this. You need to ensure that your pension fund investments are on track and invested properly. After all, the larger your pension fund at retirement, the higher your retirement income.
You might well be growing number of people that have acquired more than one pension plan during your career. If so, you’ll know that juggling separate pension plans can be a time-consuming task, especially with all the administration involved. You could therefore consolidate your different funds into one single fund, and, with just one plan to keep track of, monitoring investment performance will become quicker and simpler. You could also end up paying less in charges.
It’s important to note however, that with some pension plans, for example, those offering defined benefits DB schemes), having guaranteed annuities, or with-profits funds with market value adjustments (MVA’s), the financial implications of consolidating plans may outweigh any practical benefit.
You could be in the final months running up to retirement. In this case it is vital that your pension fund is correctly invested to try to avoid as best as possible any last minute surprises when you reach retirement, such as witnessed in recent times with the turmoil in the stockmarkets. It might be the case that you are in a position where you need a complete review of your pension fund investments and your general retirement planning in general, to try and maximise the retirement income you might get.
Whichever scenario you find describes your situation best there is another thing to add. Yes, it is sensible to get the best sized pension fund you can, but when you reach retirement you need to check out annuity quotes to find the best annuity rates. It is only with the right sized fund and the right rates that you really maximise your retirement income.