"Lola" <Lola[at]Ihatespam.com> wrote in message news:<X9Lzb.1803$Dh5.1366[at]newsfep4-winn.server.ntli.net> ...
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It is the right term.


When he leaves his pension will be frozen at it's current
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Yes.


True it is a good
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if the company goes bust, it is likely that the future pensioners will
get much reduced pensions (but you need advice from a fee-only planner
IFA who does not have an incentive simply to sell you a product).


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In general they can walk away.


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Please see my other post.

Speed is important and you need a fee-only financial planner. I tried
to find a list online (see my other post) but the best ideas I could
come up with are in my other post.

good luck!

D.


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"Lola" <Lola[at]Ihatespam.com> wrote in message news:<X9Lzb.1803$Dh5.1366[at]newsfep4-winn.server.ntli.net> ...
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1. yes he has the right to transfer to a personal pension. In some
cases, his new employer may allow him to transfer his accumulated fund
to buy benefits in their scheme (rare these days).

2. yes the scheme can be insolvent even if the owners are not: this is
precisely what happened in the case of Maersk/ Sea Containers. In
such situaitons, and in the bankruptcy of the parent company, the
existing pensioners are given priority over deferred pensioners (ie
people not drawing pensions yet). There may be very little left for
the deferred.

One way around this is to start drawing your pension *now*, even
though with the age discount it will be a relatively small amount,
there is a much higher chance that those benefits will be paid.

(the legislation is changing around all of this at the moment to try
to prevent the abuses described above but it is not yet in place, as
far as I know).

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A corporation and a pension fund are separate legal entities, a
company and its owners are separate legal entities. So an insolvency
by one does not mean the other is liable *unless* (speaking very
generally) it can be shown that the directors acted negligently
against their duty to the best interests of the company.

Directors and pension fund trustees are liable for illegal acts
regardless of the corporate form. However, in a case like this it
might be quite difficult to show they actually did something which was
illegal (particularly as winding up the pension scheme by the trustees
is an act of prudence). In general, I am afraid, corporate execs get
away with all but the most gross of fraud and negligence.

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you need a professional adviser re transfer. One fee-only planner I
have knowledge of is Advisory and Brokerage
Serviceshttp://www.advisorybrokerage.co.uk/contactus.htm

they are not cheap (but you can offset their fees against product
commission if you buy through them) but very reputable (they work with
a lot of the legal community, given their location next to the law
courts).

There are other fee-only financial advisers, it should be possible to
find a reputable one in your area which is cheaper than a central
London one (but this is such an important decision you should not be
afraid of paying for advice):

http://www.pensionsorter.co.uk/independentadvisors.cfm


The Saturday editions of the Guardian, Independent, Times, Financial
Times also have lists of fee-only financial advisers, or you could
write to say the personal money section of the Guardian and ask.

Broadly, if you are advised to switch to a personal pension, the
choice you should consider are so-called 'Lifestyle' funds: these
switch more money from equities (shares) to bonds (fixed income) as
you get closer to retirement, and so reduce the risk to your
retirement income. You want one offered by a large, financially
stable insurance company like Norwich Union, Legal and General,
Prudential. You also want to minimise costs of management (for
example, I have my personal pension in a UK Tracker fund with Standard
Life, which simply follows the UK FTSE All-share index of shares, and
which has very low management costs). You also want a unit-linked,
not a 'with profits' policy, the hidden charges in the latter (which
all go on commission) have made them a very poor investment long term.
Their alleged benefit (security of your capital) can be achieved more
cheaply using either protected value funds or by putting some of your
money into bond funds (whose prices go up and down less than stock
funds although right now they are rather risky because their prices go
down when interest rates go up).

Get professional advice quickly is the best advice I can give you.

good luck

D.

My husband is to be made redundant after Christmas after 19 years with the
company. He has been a member of their final salary pension scheme for 17
of those years, all of which was non-contributory (I think that's the right
term, what I mean is the employer made all the contributions, he didn;t have
to pay anything). When he leaves his pension will be frozen at it's current
level. Can anyone tell me if it is possible to transfer out of this type of
pension fund into a stakeholder or other pensions scheme? True it is a good
pension, he stands to get 2/3 of his final salary when he retires (he is 43
by the way) BUT the company is not in a good way and he is worried that if
the company goes under, the pension will go with it.

The company is a privately owned limited company, owners have all their
money in the Caymen Islands and are not resident in the UK. They are very
rich though - so another question is whether they would have to keep the
pension going because they ARE rich, or would the fact that the company is a
private limited co, mean that the owners would not be liable over and above
what cash could be attributed to the company.?

Hope all that makes sense! I know little about company law and nothing about
pensions, but we do need some answers, so hope some kind soul can understand
my questions enough to offer some advice/thoughts on the matter.

Thanks!
Lola