Transfer of Personal Pension Plan

Ralpherdog

I have just received a Personal Pension Plan Statement from NPI for which my previous employer and myself contributed. Since leaving my previous employer three years ago the sum is just sitting in the Unit Linked Property Fund with no contributions being added, is it straight forward to transfer the sum into my newly created StakeHolder Pension Scheme or is it possible to even gain access to the cash and transfer it to a savings account?

dunstonh

Is it possible? - yes
Is it advisable? - possibly
Will the Stakeholder be cheaper/better? - Possible but not always.
Can you get cash out? - No

Best_Investor

It would be very straightforward to transfer away from NPI to a stakeholder pension and if the contract does not provide any guarantees at your chosen retirement date it is probably adviseable. You wont be able to get your hands on the cash.
NPI position within the UK is a little uncertain due to the parent company AMP pulling out of the UK.

My advice is to seek advice from a IFA specialising in pension. <Edited by Board Guide to remove advertising>.

Hope you find this useful

telly-addict

I transferred my pensions over from an occupational scheme and a personal pension scheme into stakeholder pensions with Scottish Equitable and Standard Life without an IFA. It was easier with the latter than Scot Eq, who seem to generate an awful lot of paper and were not as familiar as dealing with policy holders directly. Of course you have to provide all the money laundering info which is a bit of a pain, but you would do that with an IFA anyway. I personally couldn't see the point in an IFA getting commission for advising me which company to choose. With all the mis-selling cases for endowments etc recently, no doubt their engagement letters would restrict any responsbility so you wouldn't have comeback if they gave you dodgy advice anyway, IMO.

EdInvestor

Hi Ralpherdog

Looks to me like it's a good idea to transfer this one,NPI being a rather moribund outfit these days. Its performance is pretty poor compared with its peers;

http://www.trustnet.com/pen/funds/perf.asp?sec=pty&status=all&def=1&submitbutton=Go&txtS=&txtSS=&sort=4&page=0&ss=0&columns=

Scroll down to see it, it's No 50.

Property is a good asset class to have part of a pension fund in these days IMHO, as you can see from most of the returns on the list above.You might like to check the performance of your stakeholder provider's Property fund on the list and if it's any good, transfer the pension into that.

There's no need to involve an IFA: just ask NPI for a transfer value and then instruct them where to move it to (your SH provider and account no) plus tell your SH provider it's coming, and what fund you want it invested in.

dunstonh

telly-addict wrote:

I transferred my pensions over from an occupational scheme and a personal pension scheme into stakeholder pensions with Scottish Equitable and Standard Life without an IFA. It was easier with the latter than Scot Eq, who seem to generate an awful lot of paper and were not as familiar as dealing with policy holders directly. Of course you have to provide all the money laundering info which is a bit of a pain, but you would do that with an IFA anyway. I personally couldn't see the point in an IFA getting commission for advising me which company to choose. With all the mis-selling cases for endowments etc recently, no doubt their engagement letters would restrict any responsbility so you wouldn't have comeback if they gave you dodgy advice anyway, IMO.

An IFA probably wouldnt have recommended a transfer out of an occupational scheme. The majority of cases would be inappropriate.

At least you only have yourself to blame this time for a potential mis-sale.

NPI position within the UK is a little uncertain due to the parent company AMP pulling out of the UK.

NPI havent been part of the AMP group for over a year. They have just changed hands again with HHG feeling rather pleased with itself for dumping NPI onto a venture capital company.

Looks to me like it's a good idea to transfer this one,NPI being a rather moribund outfit these days. Its performance is pretty poor compared with its peers;

How can you say that without knowing anything about the pension plan itself? NPI impose massive penalties and depending on the remaining term, it may not be possible to recover those fees. Of course, it may be possible and I have transferred a number in the last year. However, I have also recommend hold on a few occassions as well due to the size of the penalty.

EdInvestor

Hi DH

How can you say that without knowing anything about the pension plan itself? NPI impose massive penalties and depending on the remaining term, it may not be possible to recover those fees. Of course, it may be possible and I have transferred a number in the last year. However, I have also recommend hold on a few occassions as well due to the size of the penalty.

This is a unit linked pension not WP, so Ralpherdog might not be subject to a big penalty (and nor of course will he be likely to have any valuable guarantees). Of course if it is one of the old style high charging pensions with capital units etc, he may indeed be charged for future fees now.It should be obvious when he gets the transfer value, at which point he should report back.

The pension is invested in the property fund which is performing very badly compared with competitors - indeed if he had transferred into a decent property fund three years ago when he left the job, he would have been almost certain to have made up the penalty (if there is one) already.

Ralpherdog needs to find out more information before he can make any decision and he may well want to consult an IFA before proceeding. But it's always useful to understand the issues first, don't you think?

dunstonh

It is important to understand the issues but we know very little about this pension. NPI offered a number of versions of pensions over the years. Even if it is unit linked, it will still have a penalty and as NPI have a range of unit linked funds, it may be cheaper to switch into the alternatives than to leave it where it is.

I'm just being the cautious one here making sure that a transfer doesn't take place based on what is just typed on this thread. Everything you have said Editor is potentially correct but could be potentially wrong. I'm just making sure the OP doesnt act without knowing the facts.