How do you consolidate pensions from multiple TV productions?

If you've been working in broadcast or production for fifteen years or more, there's a reasonable chance you've ended up with a collection of pensions you've half-forgotten about.

A workplace scheme from the BBC contract you did in 2009. A different scheme from the indie you worked at between 2013 and 2016. A SIPP you set up when an accountant suggested it. A small pot from the company you contracted to in 2019 that auto-enrolled you for six months before you went limited again. And then whatever you've been doing through your own company more recently.

Most senior people in this industry are sitting on between three and seven different pensions. Few of them know exactly what's in each one. Almost none have ever seen the total in one place.

This is normal. It's also worth fixing.

Why scattered pensions are a problem

There's nothing inherently wrong with having multiple pensions. The problem isn't the structure, it's the fog.

When you don't know what's in each pot, you can't make decisions about any of them. You can't tell whether you're invested appropriately. You can't tell whether you're paying duplicate fees on small balances that aren't earning enough to cover them. You can't tell what your real retirement income is going to look like, because the calculation depends on numbers you don't have.

More practically, when something does need to happen - you want to draw down some money, you want to take a break, you want to consolidate so a partner can manage things if something happens to you - you suddenly need to find every login, every annual statement, every provider. Often the providers have changed names, been bought out, or merged. Some of the original contact details no longer exist.

Sorting it out at sixty-five, in a hurry, with imperfect records, is harder than sorting it out now while everything is still findable.

A mess of paperwork is not helping you sleep at night

What "consolidating" actually means

Pension consolidation simply means moving multiple pensions into a single pension - usually a SIPP (Self-Invested Personal Pension) - so everything sits in one place under one set of investment decisions, with one provider, one statement, one login.

It doesn't mean cashing anything in. The money stays in pension form, retains its tax benefits, and continues to grow. You're just rehousing it under one roof.

The benefits are practical: visibility, lower combined fees in many cases, simpler investment management, and one set of contact details for the rest of your life.

The risks are real but specific: some older pensions have valuable guarantees attached - guaranteed annuity rates, protected tax-free cash entitlements, or guaranteed minimum pensions - that would be lost on transfer. These need checking before any decision is made. Defined benefit pensions in particular almost always need expert advice before a transfer, and in many cases shouldn't be transferred at all.

How the process works

The actual mechanics are straightforward. The decision-making is not.

The mechanical steps:

A financial planner traces every pension you have, contacting each provider for a current valuation, fund details, and any benefits or restrictions on the policy. This usually takes four to six weeks because pension providers move at the pace of pension providers.

Each policy is assessed individually. What's it worth? What's it invested in? What does it cost? Are there any guarantees that would be lost on transfer? What are the early exit penalties, if any?

Based on that assessment, a recommendation is made. Sometimes consolidation is straightforward and clearly beneficial. Sometimes one pension should stay where it is because it has a guarantee that's worth more than the simplification. Sometimes a partial consolidation makes sense - three pots merged, two left alone.

If consolidation goes ahead, the new SIPP is set up, the transfers are initiated, and the old pensions close. From that point on, you have one pension, one set of investment decisions, and one annual review conversation rather than seven.

The mistake most people make

The mistake isn't choosing the wrong option. It's putting the decision off indefinitely because the admin feels overwhelming.

The longer it sits, the harder it gets. Pension providers fold or merge. Old paperwork gets misplaced. The contact you had at the company that ran the scheme moves on. People you contracted with twenty years ago retire and the records become harder to retrieve.

The right time to do this is when you still know where everything is. That's usually now, not later.

What to do next

If your pensions are scattered across years of different productions and you've never seen everything in one place, that's the place to start. Not the consolidation itself - the picture.

A proper financial plan begins with tracing every pension you have, valuing each one, and laying out the full picture so you can see what you're actually working with. From there, the consolidation conversation either makes itself or becomes irrelevant. Either way, you've stopped guessing.

If you'd like to see what your full pension position actually looks like, the first conversation is free and takes about an hour. There's no preparation required and no obligation either way.