This may be an opportunity rather than a problem:
Key differences between DB and a personal pension are:
1. With a personal pension you need to estimate when you / wife will die. This is so you can decide how much to pull out in drawdown each year. If you pull out too much each year, the fund will run out after a [hopefully long] while, leaving you with no personal pension! In a DB scheme, the payments just continue till you / wife die. But if the size of your personal pension pot is enough to see you through till 110, you can spend the lot! calculating the amount to take out each year to leave the drawdown pot empty when you would turn 110. [i.e. not only spend the 4 or whatever percent per year, but also the capital]. Careful judgement needed here to make sure you don't run out!
2. If you have a good sized pot that will keep you well till you pass on to the great retirement home in the sky, you can leave it to your kids. Not possible with DB.
This is what I would do. I am not qualified in anything financial [am an engineer, so can do sums and have half a brain...], so this is just in my honest opinion. [do your own research etc..] but I have had to sort out my own messy pension situation, and seem to have done ok:
a. Get a quote from the DB scheme for the amount of the lump sum it would transfer to you. Unless it's ridiculously small and you might be better if the government took over [heaven knows how you make this judgement!] take it and put it into a Self Invested Personal Pension. [SIPP] You may well find that your DB scheme will insist you have professional advice from an advisor before you can get the money out. Consult friends / relations to see if they know a good one. Otherwise google "good independent financial advisors" and read carefully!
I opened a SIPP with Hargreaves Lansdown {am not am employee and don't have shares!} I have not yet gone into drawdown, but have the funds in a few Investment Trusts. These are funds that have shares in many companies. The management spend their time buying and selling shares to maximise the value / income from the fund. They are very keen to do well with it because they have bonuses based on how well the fund does. And they want a big Merc next year! So they have incentive to perform well.
To find a good Investment Trust google "Best Performing Investment Trust 2018". Pick maybe 3 and invest a third of the money in each. Every January 1st, do the same goggling and transfer your SIIP investments based upon the latest performance figures.
You can choose aggressive growth trusts [high risk] or safe and sound trusts [low risk]
Happy to respond further.............have been studying pensions for 25 years after I discovered I had no pension entitlement at age 42! [changed jobs a lot and had the stupid belief I would die early like my dad....daft]. Now 67 and things are fine financially.