Thetownend.com

I have an old pension fund that has not been used for 15 years. Does anyone have a rough idea how much it would be worth if I cashed in on it? As a percentage of the value?
Ta.

I'm not an expert, but how are people supposed to know, despite the extensive information given

I'm not a Financial Advisor but I don't think you can just 'cash in' a pension plan unless you are over 50... If you have another pension why not just transfer it into that? I've just consolidated 3 plans into one with Hargreaves Lansdown SIPP and now have complete control over where it is invested.

On a side, my other half had a pension plan that hadn't been used for a similar period of time and the management fees paid over the period meant it was worthless and was closed out...

   :clap:

Hmmm, I always thought that an offer could be made on a fund value  :sherlock:
I could transfer it but I wouldn't mind a bit if cash now. I'm not quite 50 yet.  8)

Thanks Dave, but I was hoping that samdy was reading this. It could be a rough rule of thumb that you are offered e.g. 50% of the current fund value.

Trouble is with pension funds is that you received tax relief on it - as a result the rules for cashing out are completely different to ISA's and endowments

You're right, I can't cash it I can only transfer it or wait until I retire  :(

I think you might have to wait till you are 55 now. The rule was changed a few years ago because my old Allied Crowbar give us £100 and we'll give -£100 back was one where I could take 60% of the fund at 50. Less tax of course. So I was going to use the lump to reduce or pay off my mortgage and cane my company pension for as long as I'm employed by them to make up a decent pot when I retire at about 96 if I'm lucky....

You are right Fatbasher.....and then you can only have a quarter of the value as a lump sum...the rest has to be a pension.

There are companys who will temp you to invest with them and they will give you slightly more than the quarter value.

This can lead to problems.

Under current rules, when you reach 55 years old, 25% can be taken as pension commencement lump sum, which is as others have said tax free.  The remainder can be used to buy an annuity or if you have a healthy pension pot go into what known as drawdown, which is worth reading up on.

Like I say these are current rules, by the time most of us retire there will be plenty more rules and regs to take into account, no doubt.

4D, more than happy to help.

Send me a PM and we can sort something out.

Depends what type of pension it is. If the cash was higher than 25% pre April 2006 then it may be protected and you might still be entitled to more than 25%. Allied Dunbar were big in the exec pension market and if it's one of those you have then chances are the tax free cash entitlement may be higher than 25%.

Again, if you want me to take a look, more than happy to help.