SIPP - any advice?

gkerr4

Hi Folks, like a lot of you, i have a mixed bag of pension funds going back 24 years with various employers.

i am looking into opening a SIPP and transferring older funds from various investment houses (scottish widows and the like) and self-managing. There are a number of reasons for this - I'm an experienced share trader / investor and i wonder if I could do any worse than the 'professionals', i'd like to save on the fund-erroding fees and also, payments into a SIPP reduce my tax burden and could bring me back into line for part or all of the child benefit payment. (reduction of HICBC)

firstly - I'd like to know if anyone has any general tips on how to open one etc?

but also, mainly, i'm curious to know how well protected they are? - for example, I'm looking at opening the SIP with iii.co.uk - which is where my trading account and S&S ISA funds are currently held. These total around £50k and (hopefully) growing. I am conscious of the FSCS protection limit and i wonder if SIPP funds are included in this? or as part of the SIPP process, do you open a trust which is indemnified n some way from the trading platform provider?
I guess I am looking to see - if iii.co.uk went pop, would i be left potless??

thanks in advance!

srcandas

I did this and am so glad I did

I don't think it is "I wonder if I could do any worse than the 'professionals'". I do not believe that the 'professionals' were focussed on my best interest. I am

However check every pension pot for hidden/forgotten benefits. Of my four pensions two had guarantees that would have been lost had I transferred them.

All my detailed research led me to believe that if in my case HL went bellie up all my funds would be secure :cool:

Although HL was not the cheapest host for my SIPP they offered good web access security and seemed a very sound organisation. Price isn't everything.

:beer:

grey_gym_sock

the risks of losing pension through fraud/maladministration are pretty remote. it should all be in segregated accounts, so it doesn't matter if the provider goes bust. it's only a problem if they both fail to put it all in segregated accounts and then go bust so they can't fully compensate you.

that said, i would be inclined to keep ISAs and pensions with separate providers, especially if those are your 2 big pots of investments.

gkerr4

GGS - why do you think that? simply due to the risk of having all the eggs in one basket (so to speak?) or a technical reason?

sracandas - I totally agree on "no-one acts in my best interests except me!" - i also agree on the 'price' thing - iii. charge £120 a year, which seems about average, certainly nothing great. I do like the setup at iii though - the online trading is a decent platform. The £20 quarterly on the trading account / isa makes no odds to me as i trade far more than twice a quarter.

Thanks again folks.

Tell me also - did you encounter any difficulties or resistance from the providers when you went to transfer the amounts? or did it move pretty easy?

g

Ark_Welder

http://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/security-of-pensions

+++

Just on the 'eggs in one basket' theme. I do use different platforms for ISAs and other taxable holdings. I do this just in case there is a glitch for some reason when withdrawing income. Unlikely ever to be a problem, but the unlikely does seem to be happening a bit more of late.

srcandas

gkerr4 wrote: »

Tell me also - did you encounter any difficulties or resistance from the providers when you went to transfer the amounts? or did it move pretty easy?

gkerr. Completed some forms and sent them to HL. Opened SIPP account online. The money just arrived in short time and I started investing. Totally smooth.

I once had a query about fund types and sent an email. The phone rang within a minutes of me pressing send. Query answered. Sure other suppliers are just as keen to look after clients with money

Great feeling to have it all under my control :cool:

kidmugsy

We've found transferring to SIPPs (from Personal Pensions, Stakeholder Pensions and a Retirement Annuity Policy) entirely straightforward. One slight frustration is that one of us has an AVC that doesn't allow transfers.

We keep our S&S ISAs with different firms from our SIPP providers, on the eggs/baskets argument.

tali

I was thinking of opening a HL Sipp as they claim they are the best ever in world and the most low cost - but reviews suggest otherwise?
They are very good customer wise as i have all my investment ISAs with them
I am not in it for trading.So is HL no good for me?

"You're a long-term investor who buys shares to hold. You trade perhaps once or twice a year

Top picks: Sippdeal

Keeping fixed costs low is key for keeping your costs down. Sippdeal has no annual charge and each online trade will only cost £9.95 each; such a cost-effective charging structure makes it hard to look elsewhere."


Hargreaves Lansdowne
"Pros: It has efficient customer service and excellent online tools, especially portfolio analysis.
Cons: Annual charges are high as the company keeps all marketing commission payments from the funds (on Isas it hands some back to investors). That will have a significant impact on your pension pot over the long term versus the Alliance option above. Hargreaves also charges 0.5 per cent on any investment trusts and shares you hold, capped at £200 a year."

"If you're not bothered about the bells and whistles on a site like Hargreaves, Alliance Trust is easily the best option."

Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-1712426/How-cheapest-low-cost-Sipp.html#ixzz2NoXaQpsD
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Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-1712426/How-cheapest-low-cost-Sipp.html#ixzz2NoXMq2g9
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook"

grey_gym_sock

gkerr4 wrote: »

GGS - why do you think that? simply due to the risk of having all the eggs in one basket (so to speak?) or a technical reason?

eggs in baskets. i'm thinking both of risk of loss, and of delay in getting access to investments if a provider goes under and it takes a while to sort everything out.

tali wrote: »

Cons: Annual charges are high as the company keeps all marketing commission payments from the funds (on Isas it hands some back to investors).

since january, HL have started handing back part of the commission for SIPPs, the same as they were already doing for ISAs. however, it's still not a very high proportion of commission - a typical equity fund with 1.5% AMC might pay HL 0.75% of that, of which they will perhaps pay you 0.25% at most.

for that kind of fund - 1s with big commissions - it might be cheaper to use cavendish (at least for a ISA - i think their pension offerings are not quite comparable), or alliance trust, or interactive investor.

for funds not paying commission (e.g. vanguard), HL are decent value if you only have 1 or 2 such funds (charging £24 per year per fund). if you have more, you'd probably be better off paying a fixed charge which enables you to buy as many commission-free funds as you like - e.g. from interactive investor, alliance trust, bestinvest, or sippdeal.

for shares rather than funds, sippdeal are the only provider i know of to offer a SIPP with no annual charge. (more providers offer that for ISAs.)

gkerr4

wow - sippdeall - no annual fee and £9.95 trading - there has to be a downside to this - is there?

thats a good deal isn't it? - I don't need a flashy website as i have access to trading information on other sites - just a straightforward execution service.

i was going for iii as said before - but the temptation to save a £10 a month is a strong one!

bigfreddiel

srcandas wrote: »

I don't think it is "I wonder if I could do any worse than the 'professionals'". I do not believe that the 'professionals' were focussed on my best interest. I am

absolutely correct - no professional can possibly look after you and his 100+ other clients as well as you can just looking after yourself

professionals won't take responsibility for any lack lustre performance - they can't because they don't know any better than you whats going to happen, so what value do they add?

simple, they will read all the small print legal stuff for you and hopefully maximise your pot - mowif thats worth 3%+ in fees every yea then go for it - if not start reading and learning - its fun and profitable

if you can post here then you have the skills tolearn how todo it yourself

jfdi

see ya!

fj