Why do you need to review your pension?

Helen McGinty, Head of Financial Advice Distribution
15 September 2025

No spoilers please. When it comes to what might lie in store for our retirement, a lot of us seem to prefer waiting and seeing rather than finding out how prepared we might be.

And sure, it can be nice to store up surprises if you can guarantee they’re of the good kind. But when your future is at stake, it might be best to avoid any unwelcome plot twists.

Especially if the reason you’re avoiding thinking about retirement is because you fear you’re not doing enough to be financially ready for it. Taking some time now to think about what you want to do with your pension, and if you’re on track to afford a fulfilling retirement, could make all the difference.

So let’s come out from behind the sofa. And let’s talk about pensions. Because being more aware about your pension plans has so many benefits, not least in helping you to plan for a blockbuster of a retirement.

If you don’t like thinking about your pension, you’re in good company

According to research published by the Money and Pensions Service in November 2024, over a third of adults who have contributed to a pension have never engaged with it.

If all of this sounds like you, welcome to the club. And believe me, it’s more common than you think. In my role at Skipton Building Society leading our team of financial advisers, I see and hear so many stories of customers not knowing where they stand with their pension. Whether they’re doing enough. And what sort of retirement they could expect to have.

The conversations we have with customers in this situation are so important. Sometimes we might have to break the difficult news they need to start doing a bit more. But if they speak to us sooner rather than later, we could get them back on course by building them a personalised plan to make more of pensions.

On other occasions, we’ve got good news that can lift the weight off their shoulders. My personal favourites are those ‘wow’ moments, where we get to tell a customer they can afford to retire sooner than they expect.

We’ll talk more about the ways we could help you later. But first, let’s look at why it’s a good idea to get closer to your pension. And why it might not be as scary as you think.

How often should you review your pension?

September sees a national campaign on Pension Awareness, and a really good idea it is too.

According to the campaign, you should get into the habit of giving your pension a once-over every year. Perhaps even more often when you get closer to your retirement.

I’d agree with all of that. A lot can change in 12 months, from your personal circumstances to the performance of your pension. Knowing where you stand will help you keep on track.

What do you need to check with your pension?

There are a lot of factors that will shape your financial capability in retirement. If you find any of the following questions difficult to answer and you’re a Skipton Building Society member, we could help you for free. More on that later.

1. How much is your pension on track to be worth?

Your annual pension statement should give you a rough idea of how much your pension is likely to be worth when you reach retirement age.

2. Are you contributing enough into a pension?

It’s likely you’re paying a set amount of money into your pension each tax year as part of your salary arrangements, with your employer paying in too.

There are some great tax benefits available for paying in even more, if you can afford to. So if it looks like your pension isn’t on track to be worth as much as you’d hope, it might be worth arranging to contribute more into your pension.

3. How is your pension invested?

If you’re in a defined contribution pension, your pot is invested on your behalf with the aim of growing its value.

If you’ve never considered this before, the chances are you’re invested in your provider’s standard default fund that everyone is placed into. This might not be a bad thing, but you may also be missing out on big opportunities – so you should really find out. There might be other fund options available that might better suit your circumstances, and which could earn you higher investment returns.

It’s important to consider your appetite to risk and reward – financial advice could help you make an informed decision.

4. Do you have old pension pots that could boost your future?

It’s not just about the pension you’re paying into now. If you’ve changed employers over your career, you might have old pensions you no longer pay into. These could be worth a considerable amount – and put you in a much stronger financial position in retirement.

Many people unfortunately lose track of their old pensions and never benefit from the money they save into it. According to the Pension Awareness campaign, there’s an eye-popping £26.6 billion currently sat in lost pensions.

If you’ve lost track of any pensions, the government operates a pension tracing service that might help.

5. Is it worth consolidating your pensions?

Those old pensions don’t need to sit on the shelf gathering dust. It might be worth bringing your different pots into one place, to get them working harder towards your financial future. 

This is something called pension consolidation – and it could have all sorts of potential benefits.

• It’s easier to manage your pensions as they’re all in one place.
• You could build a better overall investment strategy for your future.
• It could save you money, rather than paying lots of different pension provider fees.
• That said, you do need to be careful before moving old pension pots over – some may have valuable financial guarantees that are worth keeping for when you retire.

Okay, I appreciate we’ve gone from 0-60 pretty quickly here. But taking steps to review your pension is such a great opportunity to start looking forward to retirement. And of knowing when you might be able to give up work and the kind of lifestyle you’ll be able to leave.

Because if you can’t look forward to retirement with confidence, why pay into a pension in the first place?

It’s why all of this really matters. Ignoring your pension will do your future self no favours.

And besides, you don’t have to do any of this alone.

Get your free Pension Health Check

If you’re a Skipton Building Society member, we can offer you a free Pension Health Check. All you need to do is gather information about your pension arrangements and tell us a bit more about your retirement aspirations. We’ll get to work on reviewing where you stand.

• You’ll get clear information on how much you currently have in your retirement savings and what it’s on track to be worth.
• We’ll let you know if you’re set to have enough money in retirement for your objectives.
• If it looks like you might need to do more to prepare, we’ll discuss the options available to you.
• This might include recommending you arrange an appointment with one of our financial advisers for personalised financial advice. Our advisers can help in all sorts of ways, including assessing if it’s worth consolidating your pensions.

As I say, our Pension Health Check service is completely free to our members (and if you’re not yet a member, you just need to have £1 saved with us to become one). The conversation should take no more than 30 minutes of your time.

Spoiler alert – we could help you feel more confident about achieving a fulfilling retirement.