in retirement savings<\/a>.<\/p>\nNew FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n
Ms Frankel, who has worked in finance for over 20 years across Germany \u2013 where she is originally from \u2013 the US, and the UK, said: \u201cI\u2019ve been in the UK since 2014 and while I changed jobs somewhat frequently, three of my pensions are from the same employment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first as a temp, then permanent, but then after the first month, the company changed ownership and with it, its pension plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
She knew she had another pension pot, but just wasn\u2019t sure where.<\/p>\n
Speaking to The i Paper, she explained: \u201cI went hunting for one pot and then I found another one I didn\u2019t realise I had.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the pensions she had forgotten about was worth around \u00a3500. The other she found contained around \u00a34,000 from a job she had between 2014 and 2015.<\/p>\n
Her experience reflects a growing trend in the UK, where many workers struggle to manage multiple retirement funds.<\/p>\n
According to research from Opinium, commissioned by Hargreaves Lansdown (HL), nearly a third of Brits have at least two workplace or personal pensions, while a quarter, like Ms Frankel, have three or more.<\/p>\n
Around 4 per cent admit they are unsure how many pensions they hold or even where they are located.<\/p>\n
When she lived in the US, she also used to have a 401(k) \u2013 a US employer-supported retirement savings plan \u2013 which she contributed to for a few years but sold her investments and withdrew the cash when she left the country.<\/p>\n
She added that she also has a state pension entitlement in Germany, although this will be small as she didn\u2019t pay long into the system there.<\/p>\n
Keeping track of multiple pensions has not always been straightforward, so she is planning to consolidate them within the next year.<\/p>\n
This is something she has considered more than once. She explained: \u201cHaving so many pots with various providers, while I can see returns on some being better than others, the situation has left me feeling overwhelmed. I worry I\u2019ll move it to the wrong place.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to be a financial adviser in Germany, and I worked as a relationship banker in the US, but there are so many choices, it gets tough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at HL, warned that losing track of pensions could seriously affect retirement income.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cMany of us are juggling multiple retirement pots and there\u2019s a real risk we could lose track of one or more and leave ourselves worse off in retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morrissey highlighted that small oversights, such as not updating contact details after moving house, can make tracking pensions difficult.<\/p>\n
Research from the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) shows that there are more than 3.3 million lost pension pots in the system, so it\u2019s \u201creally important to keep track of what you have\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n
How to find a lost pension pot <\/p>\n
For those unsure about their pensions, you can contact the Government\u2019s pension tracing helpline. If you have the name of either the pension provider or the employer, they can give you contact details so you can try and track it down.<\/p>\n
Consolidation can also help simplify retirement planning, though careful consideration is necessary.<\/p>\n
Having an overarching view of what you have can make a big difference to your retirement planning because people tend to view one larger pot in a different way to several smaller ones, which they might be tempted to take as cash and spend, she explained.<\/p>\n
Calculations using HL\u2019s pension calculator show that someone with a \u00a360,000 pension at the age of 55 would be on track to accumulate a pension pot worth \u00a3125,000 by the age of 67.<\/p>\n
But if they were to discover a lost pension of \u00a314,000 \u2013 the average size of a lost pension pot is \u00a313,620 amongst the 55 to 75 age group, according to PPI \u2013 and consolidate it with their current pension, they would have a pension worth \u00a3144,000 by the age of 67.<\/p>\n
She cautioned, however, that consolidation is not always the right move, so people should ensure they aren\u2019t exposing themselves to costly exit fees by consolidating or forfeiting important benefits such as guaranteed annuity rates.<\/p>\n
Morrissey added: \u201cIt also seldom makes sense to transfer a final salary pension.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sylvie Frankel, 40, has around seven pension pots which she says are extremely hard to keep track of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,4176,4178,4174,4175,4204,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-378032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-pensions","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-retirement","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}