Consolidate your pensions

Yes, you can combine a pension that your employer contributes to. However, it's important to check if there are any valuable benefits or guarantees in your existing pension before transferring.

Luckily, finding lost pension pots are not as difficult as you may think.

• Use the government’s pension tracing service to search a database of 320,000 schemes for free and find contact details to reconnect with your lost pension. Afterward, contact the scheme’s administrator to verify if you have a pension and its value.
• If you know your pension provider, contact them directly with details like your address, policy number, date of birth, and national insurance number to check if they hold your pension and request an up-to-date statement.
• If you're unsure who your provider is, ask your former employer for details about the pension scheme you were part of, including the scheme type and the contact information for the provider or administrator.
• Reach out to former colleagues who might have useful contact information or insights that could help you track down your lost pension.

Pensions with valuable benefits and guarantees, such as defined benefit or final salary schemes, are usually best left where they are. Transferring these can mean losing those guarantees, which might result in missing out on important benefits.

If you're unsure about the type of pension you have, take a look at your paperwork or talk to your current pension providers. If you do have a pension with guarantees, you’ll likely need to consult with a regulated financial adviser before considering a transfer.

Defined benefit pension schemes offer a guaranteed annual income in retirement. It is rarely beneficial to transfer out of a defined benefit pension as you will lose a guaranteed income for life. 

It is usually possible to transfer your workplace pension to the ii Personal Pension.

If you’re still paying into the workplace pension you want to transfer, you should check that your employer can make contributions to a SIPP instead.

Read our guide on workplace pension transfers.

Consolidating small pension pots could reduce your overall costs. It could also make managing your pension easier. However, it may not be worthwhile if your current provider charges large exit fee. Even with a small pension, there may also be benefits – such as the age you can access it and how much can be taken tax free – which may be worth keeping. Some providers also require a minimum transfer value to accept a transfer. There is no minimum transfer value requirement if you are transferring to the ii Personal Pension. 

Deciding whether to merge your pension pots depends on several factors. If you only have two pensions both with the same or similar benefits, but one has higher fees, then it may well be worth combining them into the lower fee option.

Start by gathering all the details, using a tracing service if needed, to compare the benefits and costs of each pot. Doing this will help you determine if merging would benefit your retirement savings, or if a pot you currently manage has its own valuable perks. If you’re still unsure, seeking financial advice’s a good idea. If you only have two pensions both with the same or similar benefits, but one has higher fees, then it may well be worth combining them into the lower fee option. But if consolidating means you'll lose a key benefit or access to a particular investment, it may be worth sticking with what you've got.

Combining your two pensions could simplify your retirement savings, especially if one has higher fees or less favourable investment options. However, if any pension has valuable benefits or guarantees, it’s important to seek advice before transferring to avoid losing those benefits.

There’s no limit to how many pensions you can have. You can have multiple pensions from different employers, personal pensions, or other retirement plans. However, managing multiple pensions may become complicated, so consolidating them into one pension could make it easier to track and manage your savings.

With ii, if you transfer your pension as a cash payment, it usually takes between 2 – 6 weeks to complete. For cash transfers, you must sell your existing investments before transferring. 
If you’d like to keep your existing investments, the transfer will take longer. It usually takes 8 – 12 weeks but it depends on the type of investments you hold. 

The length of time the transfer takes will also be reliant on how quickly your current provider works with us to complete it.  If you are transferring defined benefit pension or a Small Self-Administered Scheme (SSAS), the time frames shown are not representative. For these schemes, given the increased level of due diligence that providers are required to carry out, transfers may take considerably longer. 
 

You can't combine your pension pots with your partner's pension directly, as each pension is linked to the individual who owns it.

Consolidating your pensions won't automatically make them grow more, but it could give you more control over your investments. By combining your pensions, you may have access to better investment options, lower fees, or more efficient management, which could potentially help your savings grow faster over time.