Research your UK Pensions
It’s important for you to be able to ask the right questions of your pension provider and ensure you gain as much information as possible about your pensions. Pensions can be complex. In order to understand your benefits, there are lots of technical questions to ask.
A financial adviser can conduct all pension policy research on your behalf using a ‘Letter of Authority’. If you’re not yet comfortable with someone else looking through your financial information, use our toolkit to conduct your own research to the standards of a financial adviser.
Research your UK pension plans
Conduct your own pension research to the standard of a financial adviser
Our pension research toolkit aims to help you gain all the right information you need. This will help you understand your pensions, engage in your planning and prepare to take advice.
Our research toolkit includes:
Template letters and emails
We provide you with template letters and emails for you to use when contacting a pension provider or scheme. Our template letters are used by financial professionals so the information you receive will be highly detailed. This will ensure you receive back everything an adviser would need to analyse a pension.
We ensure you conduct pension research to the standard an IFA would. That way, if you gain a guaranteed CETV or current valuation, you will also get the supporting information you need in order for a full pension analysis to be conducted.
This is really important as a guaranteed CETV comes with a 3 month guarantee period. Delays in obtaining information have led to members missing guarantee dates and being ‘stung’ by a lower recalculation.
Technical questions to use to research your specific pension policy
Our templates include questions to cover all types of UK pension or QROPS. We ensure you are able to gain information about hidden costs, benefits and drawbacks to your pension plan. We ask about inherent plan guarantees, transaction histories and any benefits which may be lost if you make changes or transfer away.
A copy of our jargon buster guide
The jargon buster guide will help you understand the questions you ask, and the answers you get.
Our pension jargon buster is a comprehensive A to Z glossary of terms you might read on a pension statement. We want you to fully understand the technical jargon used by pension companies. If you spot any terms or acronyms not listed in our jargon buster, just let us know! Visit our blog for fuller explanations on planning terms and pension types.
Contact details for your pension scheme/s
Just let us know who you worked for or the name of your pension scheme if it’s not already in our database. Many private pensions providers have changed names and ownership over the years.
If you’re unsure of your current pension company, find the most recent statement, or consider the years you worked at your former employer and get in touch. We would be happy to help you trace any lost pensions.
Research your pension plans, you might be surprised at how much you have in retirement savings!