I started a SIPP in my forties and put in any spare cash.
I did consider transferring a small public sector type of pension into the SIPP as a cash sum but was advised against this by an IFA during a free introductory interview. He said he didn’t have to do any significant research to tell me that the public sector pension should be kept. From memory, mainly because it was inflation proofed and offered some other benefits.
Twenty years later, that pension is paying out reliably and will transfer to my wife if I die before her.
The SIPP has also done very well, but has suffered from volatility so has dropped up to 30% in value in 2000 and 2008 when markets crashed. The benefit of the SIPP is that although I take some income, it will transfer, tax free, to one of my children (the other will gain in a different way).
My conclusion is that, if you are lucky to live into your seventies or eighties or more, given that the economic situation of the UK is similar to today, your Police pension will be valuable in predictably paying out every month. A SIPP or possibly an ISA which you have contributed to may also be valuable, but it may have suffered from volatility. So if it were me, I’d go for both, accepting that the SIPP/ISA will be smaller than if you put all your cash into it now.
So I wouldn’t have opted out of a Police pension. I see that this matches much of the advice given above.
As a society I guess that the majority of us value our Police service highly and so governments will have to ensure that retirees are looked after.
Good luck in whatever you decide.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
Howard