Case Studies

Case Study 1

As a successful marketing consultant Mark K had accumulated several pension pots over a period of 12 years. His career included periods as an employee as well as periods of self employment. Like most people Mark realised the importance of making provision for income in retirement but his various annual statements made little sense to him. With Marks’ written consent we were able to obtain all of the necessary information directly from the five different organisations holding Marks pension savings.

We were able to demonstrate to Mark how he could consolidate four of his individual plans in to a single plan without incurring any penalties on the plan values if he moved the funds elsewhere. This action dramatically reduced the charges levied on his pension savings meaning more of his funds would be invested on his behalf for him each year, resulting in a potentially higher level of income in retirement.

Mark also elected to go ahead with our recommendations concerning a choice of investment funds .In doing so his projected pension fund at 65 could be up to £63000 higher than if he had done nothing.

Case Study 2

Christine, H a legal secretary in Winchester had read an alarming article in the press about the devastating impact on pension funds caused by the banking and investment crisis .Having contributed to an employer sponsored pension plan for over nine years she was concerned by the decline in the value of the pension funds which her employer had selected when the scheme had been set up.

MyPensionSavings were able to establish that Christine’s pension savings had been invested in a pension “With Profts” fund. These funds were extremely popular at the time but have been in perpetual decline over recent years and the credit crunch has made returns in these funds even worse. Our research revealed Christine would face a £13000 penalty on her pension fund if she elected to transfer it elsewhere. We recommended that Christine leave the funds where they were for the time being and we would review the situation with her on a quarterly basis until these unreasonable penalty charge were lifted.

On a more positive note we were able to identify additional investment options within Christine’s existing plan and we have now arranged for all her future contributions to be invested in funds more appropriate to her needs which she has been able to access with our assistance.

Case Study 3

Mike C approached us following a recommendation from his brother. Mike had recently been made redundant from a large law firm where he had working been for five years. Fortunately, Mike managed to find a new position relatively quickly. His new employment package did not offer anything more than a basic Stakeholder Pension scheme without any employer contribution.

Mike had made contributions over the years to three different pension plans but had no idea what they were worth or even where the funds were invested. Following our research we discovered that the value of the three plans were over £87000 but because the policies were set-up more than ten years ago the plan and investment charges had become relatively expensive and the investment funds performance had been declining over the last 3 or 4 years.

High charges and prolonged poor investment performance had meant less of mikes money was actually being invested for his retirement.MyPensionSavings were able to arrange consolidation of the three plans without penalty into a new plan offering lower charges, greater flexibility and top performing investment funds which when combined should result in a significantly larger retirement fund than would have been the case if Mike hadn’t sought expert advice.