We can help you with your pensions said the caller!

I was intrigued and shocked over the week-end when a telephone caller said they wanted to help me sort out my pension affairs. Thankfully I am up to speed with the pension legislation (ok automatic enrolment, final salary schemes and my own defined contribution scheme) but I know enough to know when I am receiving a bogus call. The caller said they had all my pension pots information; another words my pensions from previous employments that I didn’t transfer into any one single pension. So I calmly asked them to advise me of what I had. To my surprise they did know the detail of two, which lead me to thinking my data has been sold but the information was limited so very little data sold if it was at all. What was worrying, were the questions they were asking; they could have quite easily have obtained so much more from me and pieced together enough to potentially steal my identity. I recall speaking to a colleague, Matt Slessor from our financial planning arm earlier in the year about the latest scams and I was shocked at how common they are and, at the time thankful I hadn’t been caught in the net; oh how times change. So the point of this blog is “know your pension provision before someone else pretends they do”. Over the last few years a number of changes to pensions including much more flexibility has taken place and it is important to seek advice if you are unsure of what you have or even more important what you want. Within the payroll service we have such a diverse range of clients and pension schemes and with automatic enrolment employers whether kicking and or screaming must comply.

Our tools page has a couple of links to The Pensions Regulator website, including finding out your staging date and what the main obligations are ; check it out if you are unsure of your employer obligations or to look into the many scams on the go.

Should you want any financial advice I mentioned our financial planning arm (I personally found them so helpful) click here, or alternatively go to our helpful useful tools page.