Company Pension transfer problems

dunstonh

I spoke to a colleague who recommended Hargreaves Lansdown. I called them and they seemed perfectly happy to transfer my company pension into a stakeholder or a SIPP. I double checked I wouldn't need to go down the "advised" route, and they seemed surprised that this had been suggested to me before.

Thats strange as someone posted very recently that HL wouldnt do it.

Also - why would a stakeholder pension be recommended rather than a SIPP?

Stakeholder is cheaper and has a cap on charges. Unlike a SIPP where you are likely to see an increase in charges come in 2012.

laurasplog

Thank you. I just called HL to double check, and both their Aviva and Standard Life stakeholder pensions will let me transfer on a non-advised basis.

Thank you for all your help.

dunstonh

laurasplog wrote: »

Thank you. I just called HL to double check, and both their Aviva and Standard Life stakeholder pensions will let me transfer on a non-advised basis.

Thank you for all your help.

Ahh, the difference is that you are using them as IFAs and not product provider. i.e. you are not using the HL SIPP. Instead you are doing execution only via the IFA side. So, in effect the provider is getting an application via an IFA and therefore the liability is with the IFA not the provider.

laurasplog

Interesting - and certainly clears it up. But why, in that case, aren't HL charging me a whacking (or indeed any) fee for sorting it out as an IFA?

dunstonh

laurasplog wrote: »

Interesting - and certainly clears it up. But why, in that case, aren't HL charging me a whacking (or indeed any) fee for sorting it out as an IFA?

If its execution only you will sign something to say that there was no advice etc. That way you reduce the liability they have. As a transaction, execution only is fairly easy in most cases so it would only really generate a very small fee. However, execution only isnt risk free so some areas many firms will not transact. In your case it is easy. However, lets say you were past the point you could keep the pension with the scheme, that would be a different matter.

jamesd

laurasplog, if HL's SIPP interests you then they are likely to be happy to take a transfer into that as well. If you'll use the extra investment options or find that say the HSBC FTSE All Share Index tracker at 0.27% annual charge is cheaper than the Stakeholder options this may be the better option for you. Check the costs for the investments you want. HL has no problem in general accepting transfers from defined contribution workplace pensions into their SIPP on their normal execution only basis and I've discussed with them doing a partial transfer from my own workplace pension scheme.

ffacoffipawb

dunstonh wrote: »

Thats strange as someone posted very recently that HL wouldnt do it.

Don't see why they wouldn't accept the money really, it's coming from a crappy DC scheme with no guarantees and not a gold plated DB one.

SIPPDEAL had no issues when I did the same (even though I could have kept the money in the old scheme in my case), took a month to transfer the money across, easy!

Rather do my own investing buy / sell trading than relying on a boring managed fund. In retrospect it was a good decision.

dunstonh

Don't see why they wouldn't accept the money really, it's coming from a crappy DC scheme with no guarantees and not a gold plated DB one.

How do you know that unless you have done an analysis?