ARE YOU KEEPING TRACK OF YOUR PENSION?

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2020 :: RMTnews 21 There is so much to fit in to our busy lives and things like pensions can slip right off the radar. Nowadays many people have several pensions as we tend to change jobs a number of times during our working lives. You are likely to be receiving annual communications from the pension scheme you are contributing to with your current employer, so you may have a recent statement or newsletter to hand should you need to contact the scheme. Have you checked whether the address they hold for you is correct? And what about any changes to your personal circumstances such as a new partner? While your current scheme is important, you shouldn’t forget about those pension benefits with former employers. Do you have previous statements filed away safely so you would know how to contact them? Can you remember who you worked for 20 or 30 years ago and if there was a pension scheme? And have you got what the pensions industry calls a ‘deferred’ or ‘preserved’ pension with that scheme? We tend to move house several times over our lives, so that company you worked for 30 years ago might not have your current address. Did you update them when you last moved house? And did you tell them about any change in partner? When we move house, updating our pension providers about a new address is often not top of the list of things to do, and many people don’t realise that they need to do it. But it is important that we do this, like we would update our bank of a change of address, so the administrators of the current or previous schemes know how to contact us when we’re approaching retirement, or if the trustees want to send us important information about our benefits. If you have lost track of your pension, there is a useful website called https://www.gov.uk/find- pension-contact-details that you can go on to find out who to contact for your previous employers’ pension schemes, as long as you have details of the name of the company you worked for. Your HR department will know who to contact for your current scheme. ‘EXPRESSION OF WISH’ And what about that ‘Expression of Wish’ form that you filled in when you started working for your current employer, or the one you completed 30 years ago when you joined your then new employer’s pension scheme? Maybe you nominated your parents or siblings to receive any lump sum on your death, but have since been in a relationship for a while? Maybe you were in a relationship before but have changed partners? Did you update your wishes when your personal circumstances changed? And if so, did you do this just for your current pension scheme? What about your previous pensions? When a pension scheme member dies and there is a lump sum payable, the trustees of the scheme must decide to whom to pay the lump sum. While trustees are not bound by your Expression of Wish form and the person(s) you nominated, it can assist them in making their decision, but only if it is up to date. The beneficiary(ies) named on your historic Expression of Wish forms may not be the people you would want a lump sum to be paid to now in the event of your death. A common example of this is where an historic Expression of Wish form has the deceased member’s ex-spouse or partner as the beneficiary, but the member’s personal circumstances had changed and they had a new partner at the time of death. The member would likely want their current spouse / partner to be the recipient of any death benefits. However, in this case, trustees would have to gather full information relating to the member’s current circumstances to be able to reach the right decision. In such cases where there are death benefits payable, trustees have a duty to gather all relevant information relating to a member’s current circumstances, and close family members and colleagues can assist them in establishing the current position. However, this can take time and can be very difficult for relatives and friends when dealing with a bereavement. So, the solution is: 1. keep your address and Expression of Wish form up to date with your current employer, 2. find your previous pension schemes, update them with your current address and complete an up-to-date Expression of Wish form for them too. You can also contact the Pensions Tracing Service to find old pensions at: Pension Tracing Service Telephone: 0800 731 0193 Address: The Pension Service 9 Mail Handling Site A Wolverhampton WV98 1LU Carolyn Stanton of First Actuarial has some solutions ARE YOU KEEPING TRACK OF YOUR PENSION?