Transfer Value Calculator
A sum that moves in ten years is not worth what it is worth today, and a single growth assumption changes the answer by thousands. This calculator takes a current value, one annual growth rate and a number of years, and returns the future value of that single sum under annual compounding. Read the warning in the next section before you use the result for a pension: a real pension transfer value is an actuarial figure, and this tool does not compute one.
The result is a projection from the rate you entered, not a quote from any provider. It includes no contributions, fees, taxes or inflation adjustment.
Quick Answer
A $10,000 sum growing at 5% a year for 10 years is worth $16,288.95 at the transfer date, a gain of $6,288.95 over the starting sum. The math is $10,000 × (1 + 0.05)10. Those three figures are pre-filled in the calculator above, so clicking Calculate reproduces them exactly.
Read this before you use the result for a pension
A real pension transfer value, called a cash equivalent transfer value (CETV) for a defined benefit pension, is an actuarial figure set by the scheme. It reflects the promised benefits, discount rates, mortality assumptions and scheme rules, and it is usually guaranteed for three months. This calculator computes none of that. It answers a narrower question: if a single sum grows at one fixed rate for a set number of years, what is it worth at the end? Use it for that question only, and ask the scheme itself for a CETV when a pension move is on the table.
- Quick Answer
- How to use the transfer value calculator
- The transfer value formula
- Worked example: $10,000 at 5% for 10 years
- How the answer moves with rate and time
- What competing calculators miss
- What this tool is not
- Choosing a growth rate without fooling yourself
- Frequently asked questions
- Add This Calculator to Your Website
- References
How to use the transfer value calculator
Enter three numbers and read one result. The results stay hidden until you calculate.
- Enter the current value: the sum as it stands today. The worked example has $10,000 pre-filled.
- Enter the expected annual growth rate: a percent, such as 5 for 5%. This is an assumption you choose, not a rate any provider has promised.
- Enter the years until transfer: how long the sum grows before it moves. Ten years is pre-filled.
- Click Calculate: the result line shows the estimated transfer value, and the formula line shows the substitution so you can check it by hand.
Blank or negative entries are rejected with a message under the field: a blank or negative current value, a blank or non-numeric growth rate, and a blank or negative year count. A negative growth rate is accepted on purpose, since a shrinking sum is a real scenario, and a zero current value or zero years is accepted too.
The transfer value formula
Transfer value here is the future value of a single sum under annual compounding. Each year the balance is multiplied by one plus the rate, and that multiplication repeats for every year in the horizon.
Worked example: $10,000 × (1.05)10 = $16,288.95
Compounding once a year is the whole model. There is no monthly compounding option, no contribution added along the way, and no deduction for fees. If your real account compounds monthly or takes regular contributions, this page understates the mechanics, and the net future value calculator is the closer fit, since it handles contributions and an inflation adjustment. The exponential growth calculator covers the same exponential form in abstract terms, and the compound interest doubling time calculator answers the reverse question of how long a sum takes to double.
Worked example: $10,000 at 5% for 10 years
The pre-filled figures run as follows. Year one turns $10,000 into $10,500. Year two applies 5% to $10,500, giving $11,025, and the same step repeats. After ten multiplications the balance is $16,288.95, so $6,288.95 of the final figure is growth and $10,000 is the starting sum. The calculator shows the same substitution in its formula line, which is the fastest way to catch a typing error: if the substituted rate or years do not match what you meant to enter, the answer cannot be trusted either.
How the answer moves with rate and time
Time does more work than rate in this formula, because every extra year multiplies an already grown balance. The table below holds the starting sum at $10,000 and varies one input at a time. Every row is a run of this calculator.
| Scenario | Rate | Years | Transfer value | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cautious, decade | 3% | 10 | $13,439.16 | $3,439.16 |
| Worked example | 5% | 10 | $16,288.95 | $6,288.95 |
| Short horizon | 5% | 5 | $12,762.82 | $2,762.82 |
| Long horizon | 5% | 20 | $26,532.98 | $16,532.98 |
| Stronger rate, decade | 7% | 10 | $19,671.51 | $9,671.51 |
| Flat, decade | 0% | 10 | $10,000 | $0 |
| Shrinking sum, decade | -2% | 10 | $8,170.73 | -$1,829.27 |
Two readings matter. Doubling the horizon from 10 to 20 years at 5% more than doubles the growth, from $6,288.95 to $16,532.98, because the second decade compounds on the first decade’s gains. And a rate that looks modestly higher, 7% instead of 5%, adds $3,382.56 over ten years on the same $10,000, which is why the rate deserves a sensitivity run rather than a single optimistic guess.
What competing calculators miss
Future value tools online tend to fall into a few camps, and each leaves something out for this specific question:
- Appreciation calculators (Calculators.sg): the same compound formula, plus a linear model and an inflation adjustment, with a year-by-year table. Strong on presentation, but framed for assets such as property, not for a sum being moved, and the extra options can bury the single-sum answer.
- Full future value calculators (Calculator Soup, Size.ly): they solve every direction, including contributions, compounding frequency and present value. Genuinely powerful, but the single-sum case sits inside a larger tool, and a user who only wants one number must wade past inputs that do not apply.
- Contribution-led tools (RedCrab, Calculator City): built around monthly payments, so the headline answer mixes the starting sum with years of deposits. That is the right tool when deposits exist, and the wrong frame when they do not.
- Textbook explanations (OpenStax, CFA notes): the formula is derived cleanly, with worked numbers, but there is no tool to test your own figures against.
- The gap this page fills: the single-sum, no-contribution case stated plainly, with the CETV warning up front instead of buried, so a pension reader does not mistake a compound projection for an actuarial transfer value.
What this tool is not
The honest limits, in one place. It does not compute a pension CETV, it does not deduct transfer or exit fees, it does not add contributions, it does not adjust for inflation, and it does not compound monthly. A fee charged at transfer comes off the final figure in real life, so if a provider quotes one, subtract it from the result by hand before comparing offers. Inflation cuts the other way: a nominal $16,288.95 in ten years buys less than $16,288.95 today, and this tool says nothing about that gap. The old page on this site got this badly wrong, presenting the output as a pension cash equivalent value and inventing a transfer-fee input the tool never had. That framing is dropped here and not repeated.
Choosing a growth rate without fooling yourself
Run at least three rates: a cautious one, a central one and a stronger one, and look at the spread before deciding anything. The rate is the least certain input on the page, since no future return is guaranteed, and a single optimistic rate turns a planning exercise into a sales pitch. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau explains compound interest the same way this tool computes it: interest earned on earlier interest, year after year, which is exactly why small rate differences compound into large final differences. If the decision at stake is a pension transfer, the rate question is secondary anyway: get the scheme’s CETV and regulated advice first, and use this calculator only to sense-check how a lump sum of that size might grow afterwards.
Frequently asked questions
It computes the future value of a single sum under annual compounding: current value × (1 + growth rate)years. A $10,000 sum at 5% for 10 years gives $16,288.95. It does not compute a pension CETV, deduct fees, add contributions or adjust for inflation.
No. A CETV for a defined benefit pension is an actuarial figure set by the scheme from promised benefits, discount rates, mortality assumptions and scheme rules, and it is usually guaranteed for three months. This tool grows one sum at one fixed rate. Ask the scheme for its CETV before any pension move.
Because $75,000 × (1.04)5 is $91,248.97, not $91,200. The old page rounded the growth coarsely and then subtracted a $1,000 transfer fee the tool never accepted as an input. This page uses the tool’s own output and drops the fee step.
Yes. A negative rate is accepted, because a sum can shrink. At -2% for 10 years, $10,000 falls to $8,170.73. A negative current value or a negative year count is rejected instead.
No. This page is the no-contribution, single-sum case on purpose. If you add money along the way, use the net future value calculator, which handles contributions and an inflation adjustment.
No, it compounds once a year. Monthly compounding would give a slightly higher figure for the same nominal rate. The formula line shows annual compounding, so the assumption is visible on every result.
Zero years returns the current value unchanged, since (1 + rate)0 is 1. A zero current value returns $0 at any rate and horizon. Both are accepted, not treated as errors.
Yes. It runs entirely in your browser, needs no account, and stores nothing. Copy the result with Copy Results or send it to another app with Share results.
Add This Calculator to Your Website
Embed this calculator on your own site with the code below. Pick a size to preview it live, then copy the code.
Powered by Calculator Zilo
References
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How does compound interest work? (interest on savings plus interest on earlier interest; $1,000 at 5% becomes $1,050 after one year and $1,102.50 after two). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- OpenStax, Algebra and Trigonometry. 6.1 Exponential Functions (compound interest formula A(t) = P(1 + r/n)nt; annual compounding is the n = 1 case used here). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- OpenStax, Contemporary Mathematics. 6.4 Compound Interest (computing compound interest, future value and present value). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- OpenStax, Contemporary Mathematics. Chapter Review (compound interest practice, including future value after 20 years and effective annual yield). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- IFT World, CFA Level I notes. Time Value of Money, Part 2 (future value of a single cash flow, FVN = PV(1 + r)N, with the $100 at 10% example giving $110 after one year and $121 after two). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- University of Waterloo, CEMC Open Courseware. Lesson 4: Compound Interest (compound interest as interest earned on interest; worked balances over 10 years). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- Pressbooks, Introduction to Financial Analysis. Future Value and Compounding (FV = PV(1 + R)n derivation and the compounding-frequency adjustment). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- MoneyHelper. How to combine defined benefit pensions (ask each provider for a CETV; a CETV is usually valid for three months; transfers are not possible in all cases). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- MoneyHelper. Transferring your defined benefit pension (CETV meaning, three-month validity, and the requirement for regulated financial advice above £30,000). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- MoneyHelper. Pension statements explained (how to see a pension transfer value on a statement or by asking the provider). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- M&G for Advisers. Pension Scheme Transfer (defined benefit CETV calculation: preserved pension revalued to retirement age, capital cost of buying that pension, then discounted back to the present on actuarial assumptions). Accessed October 24, 2026.