How combining your pensions works

Our service helps you find and transfer eligible pension pots into your current Legal & General plan. It’s easy to set up and we’ll keep you updated along the way.

  1. Register

    Once you’ve decided that you want to use the service you can register by providing some basic personal information. We’ll then ask you to review and sign a digital letter of authority. This allows us to get information about your pensions from your old employers and pension providers.

  2. Tell us about your old pension plans

    Tell us what you can about your old plans, such as the name of your pension provider or who you were employed by. We’ll get to work finding your old pensions and keep you updated by email. You can also view progress on your dashboard.

  3. Review

    Once we’ve located an old plan, we’ll notify you by email and add all the information to your dashboard so that you can review it.

    We’ll tell you whether your old plan has any:
    -   Guarantees, protection or other benefits that you will lose if you transfer.
    -   Features that may mean we are unable to transfer it. See ‘Pensions you may not be able to transfer’ in the ‘Important Information’ section below.
    -   Transfer penalties.

  4. Transfer

    Once you’ve reviewed the information you’ll need to confirm if you’re happy to proceed with the transfer of your old plan. We’ll then keep you updated during the transfer and you can check progress on your dashboard.

    It usually takes about 4-16 weeks to locate and transfer eligible plans but this will depend on how quickly your old pension providers respond and if they need any more information.

Important things to consider

The decision to transfer a pension may not always be a straightforward one. Whilst there can be advantages, there are risks that you need to consider too.
  • You should check if the fees and charges of your current Legal & General plan are higher or lower than your old plan. The charges that are deducted affect how your pension fund grows. Make sure that charges in your Legal & General plan justify transferring from your old plan.
  • Check if your old plan has any guarantees, protection or other benefits that you will lose if you transfer. For example protected tax-free cash, a protected retirement age or certain death benefits. We’ll let you know if any apply.
  • Check if there are any transfer penalties for leaving your old plan. We'll show you if one applies and if it’s more than £10 we'll also notify you.
  • Your current Legal & General plan may have features, conditions and retirement options that are different to your old plan, for example, investment choice. You should check that you’re comfortable with these.
Your transfer payment will be invested in the same investment fund or funds as your regular contributions in your current Legal & General plan. If you’re not currently paying contributions, your transfer value will be invested in the same proportions as your existing fund or funds. You should check that you’re happy with your transfer payment being invested like this and that the funds are suitable. You can change your investments at any time after the transfer is completed.
For further information we recommend that you read our Guide to pension transfers
We also recommend you read the important scheme documentation for your Legal & General plan before you decide to transfer. You can find them on your scheme website.
The value of your pension pot(s) isn’t guaranteed and can go down as well as up. Your pension savings will be invested in one or more investment funds.
It’s up to you to decide whether transferring a pension is right for you. If you’re unsure we recommend you speak to a financial adviser. You can find one in your local area at www.unbiased.co.uk
Pensions we may not be able to transfer
You may not be able to transfer a pension if any of the following apply:
  • Your old plan has benefits that are classed as safeguarded benefits;
    – You are in a defined benefit pension scheme (also known as ‘final salary’);
    – Your scheme has a guaranteed annuity rate (GAR);
    – Your scheme has a guaranteed minimum pension (GMP);
  • You are invested in a with profits fund.
If the above applies to your old plan we may accept a transfer if you have received financial advice and the outcome of that advice is a specific recommendation to transfer.
You may be able to transfer from a defined benefit pension scheme without advice if the value of your transfer is under £30,000. You should be aware of the risks of transferring from a defined benefit pension scheme and understand the consequences of doing so.
We won’t accept a transfer if your old plan is in Income Drawdown or Flexi-Access Drawdown. This is where you have taken tax-free cash from your plan and left the rest of your money invested for you to take as regular or occasional income.
We may not be able to transfer most government pensions, for example an NHS or teacher’s pension, or an international pension.

While your transfer is being completed

While your transfer is being completed there could be a short period of time when your money is not invested. This is the time between when your old pension provider sells your investment units held with them and pays your transfer to Legal & General.


If the market rises during this period, an element of investment growth may be missed out on. However, the opposite can also happen and markets could fall between the encashment of the units held with your old provider and when the cash is received at Legal & General. In this scenario your cash transfer value will purchase more units in the new investment fund or funds your new plan invests in.


For this to have a considerable impact, the market would probably need to move significantly, although it’s still a risk that you need to be aware of.

How much the service costs

We won’t charge you any fees for using the service. The normal annual management charge and the applicable fund management charges on your existing Legal & General pension pot(s) will apply to any pension pot(s) you transfer over. Please see your Member booklet and scheme documentation for more information. These can be found on your scheme website.

Changing your mind

You can choose to cancel any pension transfers that haven’t started. Simply contact us using the details below.

For completed transfers you’ll have 30 days from the date of us allocating each transfer payment to cancel and ask us to return this transfer payment to your previous plan. This money can’t be returned directly to you. The amount that we’ll return will reflect any fall in the value of the investment fund or funds that your pension pot was invested in.

Please bear in mind that the administrators of your previous plan don’t have to accept the transfer back. If they don’t, any money that you transferred will remain in your Legal & General plan.

The value of your pension pot(s) isn’t guaranteed and can go down as well as up. Your pension savings will be invested in one or more investment funds.
Nothing on our website or in any communications from us should be construed as pensions, financial, regulatory, legal, tax or investment advice. You must make your own investment decisions as to whether to make any pension transfers.
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