Had a good or bad experience with pensions advice or guidance?

atush

happyinflorida wrote: »

If he's a vunerable adult he may be able to have his finances looked after by the Court of Protection - it is complicated and you may need to get some advice from a solicitor but this would keep him safer.

If he was misinformed before it may be worth getting the Financial Ombudsman to look into what happened.

You can also get a note put on credit reference agencies advising that he should not get involved with any financial contracts due to his vunerability, but he has to agree to having this put on there.

I agree, you need advice PDQ. It sounds as if he was missold. If a uk registered company did this.

Name them for more help here, but in the mean time go to age concern, CAB- a solicitor.

atush

happyinflorida wrote: »

I don't trust the government nor do I trust financial advisors.

To me pensions are like going in a casino and gambling your life savings away, I haven't got a large pension coming to me because I've always been too scared of losing my money by putting it in a pension - especially after losing money when I got an endowment mortgage and that turned out to be an absolute rip off - the endowment company made lots of money and I lost £thousands.

So when I finally retire my pension/s will be very small and I'm worried about this and now I'm learning that the current government is mucking up the access of getting pensions, that's an even bigger nightmare. Our government is corrupt to the core so to be charged for accessing information to be able to get ones very small pension is disgusting and typical of this government.

It's all very frightening and worrying.

I am sorry, but this is one of the silliest posts I have ever seen here.

You dont understand pensions, so you wont have one. You dont trust the govt (which you elected if you vote?) because you Chose to buy an endowment. Which you weren't forced to do.

You should not trust financial advisers. You should trust INDEPENDENT financial advisers.

You pensions will be small if you dont pay into a pension outside the state. Dont be afraid to do so.

Access to pensions has not been restricted. Unless you are talking about DB pensions (never under the new rules) or unfunded public service pensions (again never under eh new rules).

Other restirctions are just because some pensions have valuable guarantees attached to their pensions they dont understand or know about. So need advice before trying to sell one (at a loss)

OWAIN

I have 4 DC pensions and contacted each pension company for information.

I was constantly being told that I MUST seek advice from an IFA, that the amount of tax that I would pay would be extortionate and that it would take months to process. I was kept on the phone for up to an hour at a time by some of the companies who all were clearly trying to put on the 'frighteners' in order to deter me from accessing my pension.

Obviously, I had researched the subject and talked to as many people as I could who were in a similar position, or may have been able to help in some way, so knew my rights and how the process should work. This however did not deter the pension companies from continuing with a stream of misinformation, time delaying tactics and downright inane questions such as 'do you realise that if you withdraw all of your money then you won't have any left" As the saying goes 'No sh*t sherlock' !!!

Once I had finally got the information needed from them I arranged a face-to-face meeting with PensionWise. The PensionWise person I saw basically confirmed everything that I had already researched but did inform me of something that I wasn't aware of i.e. that HMRC uses a month 1 tax calculation to work out the amount of tax due on the pension being withdrawn.
I then contacted HMRC who confirmed how the month 1 tax calculation works.

Armed with this new information it is a fairly simple process of being able to work out the amount of tax that will be paid on the pension AND the amount of tax that you should pay for the year including my salary.

I then contacted Prudential to ask for the forms needed to withdraw my pension. Well, surprise. Even though I made it clear that I knew what I was doing i.e I had done my research, I had spoken to PensionWise and to HMRC, I was once again subjected to the same tactics as before. They then informed me that it would (not could) take up to 5 weeks just to send out the forms and that it would take up to 12 weeks to finally have the money transferred to my bank account. They kept me on the phone for over an hour which resulted in being charged £18 by my mobile provider for that one phone call.

Eventually the forms arrived, I duly completed the forms (which were actually very straightforward) and sent them back the same day, along with a formal letter of complaint. Two weeks later another form arrived requiring me to sign it to state that I was aware of all the implications of withdrawing my pension i.e all the same questions that I had previously answered in the phone calls with them. Why send the forms 2 weeks later? Why couldn't they have been included with the withdrawal forms?

It took eleven weeks from contacting them for the withdrawal forms to actually receiving my money. The ONLY thing in their favour in the whole process was that they did tax me the correct amount (as I had already worked it out with the month 1 calculator).

A week later I received a letter from them informing me that they had looked at my complaint and while they disagreed with some of the points that I made, they did agree with others and offered me £300 compensation.

What I learned from the process:

You do NOT have to take advice from an IFA; if unsure about anything do your research and then speak to PensionWise.

If your pension pot combined with your salary is under 31,785 before tax (after taking off the standard £10,600 tax allowance on your salary and 25% tax free element of pension) then you will not pay a higher rate of tax.

More than likely (though not necessarily), because of the month 1 tax calculation that HMRC uses you WILL over pay tax for the year. However, HMRC have told me that when you have your P60 at the end of the tax year, all you need do is to phone them and they will look at your figures on the phone and arrange any rebate due (or you can download the forms to reclaim any overpaid tax from their website, at any time).

That ALL the pension companies that I spoke to were guilty of the most appalling misinformation, used deliberate time-delaying tactics, did everything they could think of to put me off accessing MY money.

The whole experience was nothing short of disgraceful!

Fortunately, I fall into the category of 'the more you mess me about, the more determined I will become'. I appreciate that not everyone can put up with the levels of stress/pressure the pension companies try to exert but do not let them get away with it. Know your rights, it's your money.

Nissan1959

I have moved some pension pots to drawdown already but a small scheme with defined benefits I was forced to take financial advice costing a minimum of £1,500! This advice consisted of comparing the pay out to the cost of buying an annuity! No consideration of discounted cash flow! Basic investment technique! Give us proper freedom for God's sake! We are not idiots and this advice was absolute rubbish!

onesixfive

I intend to retire at 55 next year. I have a DB pension. Council Current statement shows annual pension at 2021 would be £9300, & retirement grant would be £28k. I left the Local Govt Pension Scheme in 2006, My current employer wont have a pensions scheme until Aug 2016 (by which time I hope to be gone).
I was advised by the council "Because you deferred your benefits before April 2014 the earliest that these can be released as a pension is age 60.
Your other option is to transfer benefits to a scheme that provides 'flexible benefits'."

Since then I have made enquiries & been told by the Council Pensions dept:
"The 85 Year Rule is being removed from the scheme but it allows members who's age and service in whole years totalled 85, to take their benefits after the age of 60, unreduced. However as you mentioned below under freedom and choice you have the option of transferring to a scheme that is a defined contribution scheme that provides flexible benefits for you to access at 55".

I therefore received my transfer value from the LGPS with aim to transfer to a DC scheme.
The current transfer value to a registered pension scheme is £185k. this would only give me approx £5000 pa. + 25% lump sum.

I am advised by independent adviser that
Most DB Schemes will allow early retirement (subject to Trustees approval which is rarely withheld) . But if you are taking benefits early , they are by nature , going to be paid for longer so the Scheme Actuary will reduce the amount of pension , typically by 5% for each year that you retire early.
In my case , she has an accrued pension of approx. £9,268 up to today’s date , this will increase a little further to my 55th birthday next year so if I was to take my pension at age 55 , I would receive approximately £7,000 per annum of Index Linked Pension .

So I am now making enquiries as to retaining the DB scheme instead of transferring to a DC scheme at 55, and instead I am now asking about early retirement, and what the terms would be for me at 55.

I feel like I am being bounced around & being passed from pillar to post when all I want is to draw (albeit a reduced) DB pension at 55

jem16

sng165 wrote: »

So I am now making enquiries as to retaining the DB scheme instead of transferring to a DC scheme at 55, and instead I am now asking about early retirement, and what the terms would be for me at 55.

You may need your former employer's permission.

http://www.lgps.org.uk/lge/core/page.do?pageId=101769

greenglide

I feel like I am being bounced around & being passed from pillar to post when all I want is to draw (albeit a reduced) DB pension at 55

You want to draw your LGPS pension before the normal scheme date of 60 (in your case).

If the rules say you can't (and for certain groups you cannot do this) then the scheme rules don't allow this.

The scheme must go by the rules. Why should they not? You are a deferred member, bound by the rules at the point at which you left.

jem16

greenglide wrote: »

If the rules say you can't (and for certain groups you cannot do this) then the scheme rules don't allow this.

The scheme must go by the rules. Why should they not? You are a deferred member, bound by the rules at the point at which you left.

According to the link I posted, the scheme rules do allow it with employer's permission.

onesixfive

I understood all pension rules had changed - all except the governments OWN pension schemes! - we are being told by the Govt that everyone can now take pensions at 55.
I appreciate I wont get as much as when I am 60 - so in what circumstances will my ex-employer give me permission & "allow" me to draw my own (or what now appears to be THEIR) Pension.

jem16

sng165 wrote: »

I understood all pension rules had changed - all except the governments OWN pension schemes! - we are being told by the Govt that everyone can now take pensions at 55.
I appreciate I wont get as much as when I am 60 - so in what circumstances will my ex-employer give me permission & "allow" me to draw my own (or what now appears to be THEIR) Pension.

The new pension rules only apply to Defined Contribution schemes. They do not, and were never intended to, apply to Defined Benefit schemes. These are subject to scheme rules and have to act in the best interests of all its members. If allowing you early access harmed other members' pensions that would be fair either, would it?

It's unlikely that your ex employer would withhold permission but no-one can answer that for you. In the case of the ex employer having to pay out something to make up the shortfall then permission could be refused.