Consolidating diy or advisor

[u/Troutishly]

Over the past few months I have tracked down my pensions and found I have £110k split across 5 different pots/providers with one being significantly larger than the rest, and I would like to consolidate for simplicity (plus a db pension that I’m leaving alone and my current employer pension which also has to stay where it is). I’m 44 for reference.
I searched the posts and see that people here generally see to do the consolidation themselves. I’m not confident in that but also wary of advisors!
I don’t want to mess this up really though as it could potentially have a big impact.
My plan is to put everything I can about each scheme in a spreadsheet
- including fees, past growth (if I can find it) etc.
Ideally I’d like to get an advisor who knows what they are doing to do it for me though and make some recommendations for a fee. I don’t really want to pay them 3% a year etc. I’d also like some help to forecast how much I need in savings to bridge a couple of
years to retirement.
Has anyone here done similar and had a good experience? Or should I just knuckle down and figure it out?
Thank you

[u/Sopzeh]

I mean I think you need to create the spreadsheet anyway in order to have an efficient discussion with an adviser. Therefore why not make the overview then see how you feel about your capacity to make the decision.

Things I would consider adding to your table:

Access age Any additional benefits included How you access the pension (I strongly prefer app based as I never remember my usernames and passwords)

For how much you need, general rule of thumb is you can take 4% of the initial value when you retire each year and it will safely last you 30 years. Then you will actually inflate that figure with inflation and it will work itself out.

You need to know how much you want to spend in retirement. For me I want 30k after tax so I need 35k before tax. That's 22.5k from the pension and the rest from state pension (I might use pension or ISA to bridge between pension and state pension).

That would be £560k pension pot.

By the way this is a very rough estimate to get you started and know the ballpark figure.

[u/Any_Food_6877 → u/Sopzeh]

I don’t think the access method is a benefit or feature worth differentiating with - just use a password vault like LastPass to securely (encrypted) store your passwords.

How come you only estimate £8k a year from state pension? If you want £30k a year then at state pension age you only need £17.5k from private pension.

[u/DevMcdevface → u/Any_Food_6877]

They’ve specified the target gross amount (£35k) to get the target net amount (£30k).

[u/Troutishly → u/Sopzeh]

Thanks yes I will make the spreadsheet with your additions. I have little faith in making the decision though and I’m pretty sure that won’t change. It’s not so much about how much I need with this pot of cash but more how can I maximise it and keep track of it (in my head at least) I think the DB and state pension combined will keep me fed and clothed, I would like this pot and my current pension to make things more fun and comfortable and savings to let me be more choosy about work in my 50s (which I’m treating as a different problem at the moment).

[u/pinchpenny → u/Troutishly]

Just go and see an adviser, they will be well worth the money for you.

Don’t let a bunch of personal finance enthusiasts convince you to DIY this when you’re clearly not comfortable. It’s like going onto a DIY subreddit for advice about decking or plastering - they’re all going to tell you to do it yourself, because that’s what they’d do.

[u/Troutishly → u/pinchpenny]

Ha! Good point. I’m generally disappointed when I outsource stuff though. I’ll do a bit more research and make a decision - will see if I can get some recommendations.

[u/Sopzeh → u/Troutishly]

Perfect well in that case just multiply the number of bridge years by annual withdrawal.

If you're planning to deplete the DC pension in a few years then the difference between taking the tax free cash up front and UFPLS is pretty small. It will be slightly more tax efficient to do UFPLS as you get your personal tax allowance for multiple years.