Three things to consider when looking to save on the costs of transferring pensions

Let’s face facts — there’s scarcely been a worse time than now, to accumulate wealth.

After all, not only has real wage growth stalled across multiple industries, but inflation peaked at a little under 3% during the latter stages of last years. This has sent household savings plunging to record lows, while there’s no indication as to when the economic climate will improve.

With this in mind, it’s important that you strive to maximise your pension funds for the longer term. This will mean reducing the cost of managing your funds, particularly in instances where you want to transfer numerous plans into a single scheme. So, here are some tips to help you reduce the cost of transferring pensions:

1. Recognise the risks

When it comes to managing costs, the most important thing is that you recognise the associated risks of transferring your accumulated funds. These relate almost entirely to your existing service provider, as some may well apply exit penalties should you choose to cancel your policy.

This value of this fee could ultimately cancel out any perceived financial benefit of transferring to a new provider.

Similarly, transferring your funds may cause you to miss out on potential bonuses, which some service providers offer to long-term investors.

Once again, you’ll need to determine the value of these bonuses before deciding when or whether to transfer your accumulated funds.

2. Choose a provider that can reduce the cost of transferring funds

Even if you decide that the financial risk of transferring pension funds is worth pursuing, it’s still important that you actively strive to reduce costs wherever possible.

One of the best ways to achieve this is to select the right provider, with firms such as Bestinvest offering a relevant case in point.

After all, this company does not charge a fee to transfer funds into a self-invested personal pension (SIPP), while they can also offer access to a wider range of domestic and international asset classes.

Not only this, but Bestinvest also pledges to pay up to £500 towards any exit fees that you do incur from an existing provider. This can tip the balance when making a decision about your pension plan and determining how you go about consolidating your funds.

3. Time your transfer well

On a final note, it’s important to remember that timing is everything when transferring your existing pension funds.

We’ve already touched on the fact that some providers offer bonuses to loyal investors, for example, so if you are due to receive a cash injection it makes sense to delay your plans to consolidate funds.

Similarly, those who are nearing retirement also need to give careful consideration to when they complete the transfer, as moving funds could expose your capital to significant market shocks (particularly in the current climate).

This means that you’ll have little time to recover and recoup your losses, leaving you with less capital to spend in the future.

Featured image: PaelmerPhotoArts via Pixabay

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