I left IBM in July2002 at age 49. I am now 50 and am considering transferring out of the N-Plan (yes I know - defined benefit!) into a Self Invested Personal Pension for several reasons:
1. It then becomes *MY* pot of money - anything that IBM then does is irrelevant
2. I can nominate my partner (not married) as a beneficiary AND
3. Providing I keep doing income-drawdown until I am 75 rather than buying an annuity my partner can get 100%! of the benefit as a pension of less 35% tax as a lump sum.
The transfer value that IBM UK is quoting is less than what you would have to pay for an equivalent pension SO:
a. Has anyone challenged the transfer value (OPAS?)
b. Has anyone looked at SIPPs and found a flaw in the benefits above other than I may lose out (5-10%?) on the transfer.
BTW This is the first time I have even seen this site - very good and I may try to answer a question or two - I wrote a SPEAK-UP in 1982 about the introduction of the C-Plan and took it "all the way to Portsmouth!" - they NEVER PUBLISHED MY SPEAKUP even though it would have highlighted some of the problems that this Web Site addresses... I'll see if I kept a copy of the reply.