CSPS to Private Pension

SuperAllyB

Wonder if anyone can help or advise.

Having been in a work pension scheme for 10 years, the IFA used by my employer has now moved us all into individual pensions schemes (group scheme had been closed to new entrants and a new member of staff qualified for contributions).

We had to fill in a Financial Ltd questionnaire before the transfer was done and all future contributions now go into the new Skandia Collective Retirement Account.

I had hoped (purely for simplicity) to move my Civil Service pension fund (value £4800 about 9 years ago) as well, but have been advised that this would have to go through Financial too, and while it may be beneficial to move it, it was unlikely to benefit enough to offset the £400 cost of getting Financial to analyze the transfer.

My question is whether I can arrange the transfer myself without going through the IFA or Financial (saving the £400).

I have quite an aggressive attitude to risk as my pot is relatively small at the moment (in my early 40s but only started about 9 years ago) and would like to take the gamble on outperforming the CSPS.

Any recommendations welcome, but I am mainly wondering if it is possible rather than advisable lol

Cheers

Linton

It is theoretically possible but practically very difficult. A transfer from a final salary scheme into a contribution based one is very likely to be financially a foolish thing to do and so is very risky for the accepting insurance company as it could be treated as a mis-sale. Therefore they will not do it unless it is underwritten by an IFA who will take on the risk. The FSA provide tight guidelines of the analysis that an IFA should carry out - see here. That level of work isnt cheap.

dunstonh

I had hoped (purely for simplicity) to move my Civil Service pension fund (value £4800 about 9 years ago) as well, but have been advised that this would have to go through Financial too, and while it may be beneficial to move it, it was unlikely to benefit enough to offset the £400 cost of getting Financial to analyze the transfer.

My question is whether I can arrange the transfer myself without going through the IFA or Financial (saving the £400).

No. Skandia will not accept it and nor will any other provider without an IFA signing off on it first. It would be a high risk transaction and the IFA is statistically likely to recommend you do not transfer it.

SuperAllyB

Thank you both for your advice.

As i said, the idea was purely to keep things simple as its hardly going to be worth much.

atush

You don't want to keep this simple really.

Simply, you will be better off keeping the old FS pension going where it is, and adding to your new DC pension. It will be worth far more in the end, and as everyone said above you are unlikely to find an IFA foolish enough to take the risk (that you will be worse off transferring it).

SuperAllyB

I meant simple as in having everything in one pot.

I appreciate now that it would be very complicated to move, and likely to be worth more where it is.

I just felt slightly fobbed off by my IFA and was looking for reassurance that his advice was accurate, even if not very detailed.