Less than a third (30%) of employees do not know the total value of their pensions, according to research by retirement, workplace savings and protection solutions provider Aegon.
Its survey of 909 individuals aged 18 and over also found that 22% of respondents with multiple pension pots have lost track of one or all of their pensions.
The research also found:
- 64% of respondents have multiple pension pots.
- 27% of respondents would be interested in moving all their pension savings to one provider if there were financial benefits.
- Of those respondents who would not move all of their pensions to one provider, 46% do not want all their savings in one place, compared to 27% of respondents who are not aware of the benefits of moving all of their pensions together and 27% who do not want to pay for an adviser.
Kate Smith (pictured), head of pensions at Aegon, said: “It’s very hard to plan for retirement without a full view of [an employee's] savings and an understanding of what [their] state pension entitlement is likely to be. Without the bigger picture, people might be setting themselves up for a retirement fall without a clear idea of what their savings are worth.
“Pensions consolidation won’t be right for everyone, there are merits to not keeping all your eggs in one basket. And some older style pensions will have valuable benefits which may be lost on transfer.
“Looking to the future, the launch of a pensions dashboard in 2019 should simplify the process of finding lost pensions, and has the additional bonus of seeing all pensions, including the state pension, in one place. The hope is that by making all pensions more visible, people will gradually become more interested in pensions, and in time start to make more active decisions to start to get them ready for retirement.”
