serps top up

shiredeon

having opted out of serps and now opted back in , is there any mileage in topping up the serps shortfall to increase my pension later. or does it not work like that.

EdInvestor

PPs with Serps (protected rights) money in them are in a bit of a limbo in one important respect at the moment.They are in many ways treated now like normal PPs - you can vest them at 50 and take TFC, there are no funny annuity rules etc.But you still can't put them in a Sipp although you can in principle do drawdwon, but not normally in practive either becvause the fund is too small or the charges too high outside a Sipp.

The plan seems to be to allow them in Sipps from next April when Sipps will be regulated.

I would thus wait until then before taking a view on any topups, and/or on moving the fund.

dunstonh

You can do drawdown with them in a personal pension or hybrid SIPP. As the charges in a hybrid SIPP are usually the same or lower than the discount SIPPs you see getting mentioned on here, there cost issue isnt a problem.

EdInvestor

Interested to hear if that can be arranged at low cost.Usually the minimum size of fund and the fees are too high to make it worthwhile but things may be changing.

Please report back.