Cost of information........

The_Economist

Is there any guidence on how much a company can or should charge for information. I want to get a transfer value from my final salary pension but the company that does the admin wants to charge mega money. I thought this info would be free or at worst a nominal fee would be charged.

RichandJ

You should be entitled to one free quote in any 12 month period, additional quotes less than a year after a previous request can be charged for.

The_Economist

RichandJ wrote: »

You should be entitled to one free quote in any 12 month period, additional quotes less than a year after a previous request can be charged for.

I've never asked for one before and i have been in the pension for over a decade. I got told its not part of there contract with the company i work for to issue transfer value info just because its been requested, or words to that effect. I want to get a copy so i can make an informed choice to stay in it or to come out off it.

MrChips

Are you still an active member of the scheme, or have you left, leaving behind a deferred pension? The previous poster is right, in that you have a right to a free quote once a year if you are a deferred pensioner. I wouldn't expect a second quote to cost more than around £500 (hopefully less). If you are still an active member, you wouldn't be able to transfer our unless you left the scheme.

Loughton_Monkey

Final Salary Schemes are costing companies the earth. I guess they also try to keep the admin costs down.

Remember that a transfer value from a FS scheme is an individual calculation, performed by highly paid Actuaries. I suspect they find themself doing them for 100's of people, only to find the obvious - that it all comes to nothing since the vast majority of people can't transfer them, since no-one will professionally sign off the transfer as good advice.

Think of it this way. By transferring a Final Salary Pension, you are going to lose up to tens of thousands of pounds [depending upon value]. So 'losing' another, say, £50 to get a quote is relative peanuts. Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.

If over 55, you could always intimate that you want to vest the pension early. Possibly they don't charge for early vesting illustrations, but they either include the transfer value as a matter of course, or it can be worked out from 4X the lump sum.

RichandJ

MrChips wrote: »

Are you still an active member of the scheme, or have you left, leaving behind a deferred pension? The previous poster is right, in that you have a right to a free quote once a year if you are a deferred pensioner. I wouldn't expect a second quote to cost more than around £500 (hopefully less). If you are still an active member, you wouldn't be able to transfer our unless you left the scheme.

Of course. I assumed OP was a deferred.

If you're still active OP you don't have a statutory right to a TV (except in divorce cases). There is work, and therefore cost, involved in producing these figures and the Trustees of your scheme would appear to have decided that they will not pay this cost for active members.

This is because a transfer value as an active member is virtually meaningless, it is the guarantee of a defined benefit that is important in a FS scheme.

As MrChips says you would have to leave the scheme to be able to transfer out.