Economic trends: it is time to transfer defined benefit pensions?

Nathan Long, senior pension analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, considers the pros and cons of defined benefit transfers for pension holders

Should I stay or should go? That was the question posed in the song by The Clash. If I go, there will be trouble and if I stay it will be double. It appears some members with defined benefit pension schemes are suffering a similar quandary. The financial services regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, estimates 92,000 people transferred out of a defined benefit pension in 2017 and this is up 50% from the year before.

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