Defined benefit pensions

A defined benefit (DB) pension promises you a specific, guaranteed income for life, calculated from your salary and years of service, rather than depending on how much you saved or how investments performed. Once the standard workplace pension across the UK, DB schemes have become rare in the private sector, though they remain the norm across most of the public sector. If you have one — perhaps from an earlier job, or through current public sector employment — it's likely one of the most valuable things you own, even though there's no visible "pot" balance to check. These guides explain how DB pensions are calculated, the difference between final salary and career average structures, what a transfer value actually represents, and the serious, carefully-regulated decision of whether transferring out is ever the right choice.