Friends Life won't offer me anything but an annuity

eddiethecat

I retire next January and FL will only offer an annuity, take my pot in one go and pay a load of tax or transfer it to another provider. Aviva will accept a transfer but will not tell me whether they will offer drawdown or anything else until I make the transfer. Also, I don't understand the complex transfer forms they have sent me and don't have answers to some of their questions. All very well for Osborne to say it is my money to do with what I want but that is being disingenous. Access to my pension pot is entirely dependent on the whims of pension companies. Has anyone got any advice, please?

Nearlyold

Pension companies don't have to offer all possible options but you are free to transfer to another company that offers the options you require. Do you actually know what you want? If not you may be best going to a professional pension adviser to run through the options (some may not be available/practical anyway depending on the size of your pension pot and how the fund was made up)

torbrex

eddiethecat wrote: »

I retire next January and FL will only offer an annuity, take my pot in one go and pay a load of tax or transfer it to another provider. Aviva will accept a transfer but will not tell me whether they will offer drawdown or anything else until I make the transfer. Also, I don't understand the complex transfer forms they have sent me and don't have answers to some of their questions. All very well for Osborne to say it is my money to do with what I want but that is being disingenous. Access to my pension pot is entirely dependent on the whims of pension companies. Has anyone got any advice, please?

My IFA moved my pot away from Friends life and I now get a drawdown from a SIPP opened with Standard Life.

dunstonh

I retire next January and FL will only offer an annuity, take my pot in one go and pay a load of tax or transfer it to another provider.

Seems fairly normal for legacy plan providers.

Aviva will accept a transfer but will not tell me whether they will offer drawdown or anything else until I make the transfer.

I dont believe Aviva do drawdown on non-advised cases as I know an adviser recently that had issues as he had a client with Aviva and they refused to do drawdown without an adviser being involved and approving the transaction (i.e. advice saying that it was the right thing to do) and he was not prepared to give that advice as he did not think it was suitable.

Also, I don't understand the complex transfer forms they have sent me and don't have answers to some of their questions.

If you are referring to the discharge forms, then most of the questions are filled in by the receiving scheme. Not by you.

All very well for Osborne to say it is my money to do with what I want but that is being disingenous.

That is not correct. You are free to make choices. The fact you dont understand some of the things or are trying to use product providers that dont offer those options complicates things but that is easily resolved by using a provider that retails direct to consumer or by getting an IFA to do it for you.

Access to my pension pot is entirely dependent on the whims of pension companies.

Rubbish. It is down to you. You want a product that does a particular function. So, you buy a product that does that function. Not a product that was never designed to offer that function or one that you have not researched correctly so dont know if it will do it.

The transaction you want to do is an absolute doddle with providers that offer the product you want. So, the advice is to improve your research and pick a provider that offers direct to consumer and offers drawdown. Remember that drawdown has been available for nearly 10 years. Its not a new option. However, products have to support drawdown to offer it. Not all do.

xylophone

Rubbish. It is down to you. You want a product that does a particular function. So, you buy a product that does that function. Not a product that was never designed to offer that function or one that you have not researched correctly so dont know if it will do it.

An unnecessarily harsh comment. We cannot all be among the called and the chosen to whom pensions are an open book.....

OP, you might start here for a general overview, even book an appointment for a general discussion.

https://www.pensionwise.gov.uk/

You might have a look at this http://www.money.co.uk/pensions/income-drawdown-pensions.htm

If you need an IFA https://www.unbiased.co.uk/

dunstonh

An unnecessarily harsh comment. We cannot all be among the called and the chosen to whom pensions are an open book.....

Look at the comment I responded to. In isolation it looks harsh but when the person is having a bit of a rant the context of my response is fair. (i.e. saying its disingenuous and its at the whim of companies).

If you dont have the knowledge then you either learn about it or you get someone to do it for you. Ranting about things you know nothing about when you are wrong achieves nothing. Ranting about something when it is fair to is a different matter.

kidmugsy

eddiethecat wrote: »

All very well for Osborne to say it is my money to do with what I want but that is being disingenous.

No it isn't; it's just that you are being slack. There have been dozens upon dozens of threads on this forum explaining how to solve your problem. Put in the effort to read them instead of whinging.

zagfles

eddiethecat wrote: »

I retire next January and FL will only offer an annuity, take my pot in one go and pay a load of tax or transfer it to another provider. Aviva will accept a transfer but will not tell me whether they will offer drawdown or anything else until I make the transfer. Also, I don't understand the complex transfer forms they have sent me and don't have answers to some of their questions. All very well for Osborne to say it is my money to do with what I want but that is being disingenous. Access to my pension pot is entirely dependent on the whims of pension companies. Has anyone got any advice, please?

Have a look at HL, they're very helpful with transfers. They may not be the best/cheapest option for you depending on size of pot and what you want to invest in, but their CS is pretty good and they tend to explain things in plain English unlike a lot of other financial institutions who seem to delight in trying to make you look like an idiot because you don't understand the jargon!