What to do when you leave an employer's pension scheme

If you have an employer that pays into an investment based pension you need to take a couple of easy steps.

1. Ensure that you and your employer cease paying to the pension

2. Obtain a current fund value and statement from the pension company and ideally a breakdown of the payments made into it over the current tax year (starting from 6th April)

You then have 4 main options:

If you have a new job lined up - the new employer may offer a pension scheme if so you could:

1. Transfer the old pension into the new employers pension


2. Leave the old pension alone to grow


3. Add to the old pension - either by paying into it yourself or possibly also getting the new employer to pay into it.


4. Transfer the old pension into a better new pension (but not the employers pension)

An adviser will help guide you through the pros and cons of each. The key things to consider are the charges involved in any new arrangement and the investment choice. The most important thing is that you continue to build retirement benefits if you are able to do so. The more you put into a pension and the longer you do so, the better your pension ought to be.

Of course the pension should be reviewed carefully and you need to ensure that you have an investment strategy in place that works for you, suitable to your attitude to risk and your plans for retirement.