I can help a little with the UK part of the question.

Your friends company schemes are likely to be either final salary or defined contribution schemes.

The advice I have had is:

Final salary schemes. If these were accrued whilst working for established companies (think ICI etc) then HOLD onto them. They are not as vulnerable to market forces unless the company itself raided the pension scheme.

Defined contribution schemes. This is where both you and the company invest money in a scheme set up by a third party on the companies behalf. For every 100,000 pounds you put into this pot, this will give you a pension of roughly 6,000 pounds per annum. If your friend has a number of these schemes it may be worth consolidating them by transferring them to the best performing schemes.

Also they will need to look at their state pensions.

Add all these things up and you will get an idea of what the total pensions will be and in my case be shocked at how little it will be. ( In my first job I worked for ICI for 3 years and will have a pension of 2000 pounds per year and then have a defined contribution pot from a further two schemes which will generate a pension or 8 to 10,000 pounds per year.)

The daily telegraph website finance pages are a good place to search for advice

Best

Annie