Work pension and a SIPP

GoingonholidayI

I know I will need to contact my pension provider for a definitive answer but before I do that thought it was worth asking here if what I would like to do would be possible!

I work for a large ftse100 company and I pay into the defined contribution pension scheme and they contribute. I have a SIPP that I nolonger contribute to. Am I likely to be able to transfer out what's in my employers DC scheme into my SIPP and continue to contribute to the employers scheme? Ideally I would transfer out every couple of years!

The reason I ask is because the employers scheme has very limited fund options and I am not happy with the performance.

Thanks

dunstonh

Am I likely to be able to transfer out what's in my employers DC scheme into my SIPP and continue to contribute to the employers scheme?

Some do. Some dont. You will need to check with your scheme administrator.

AnotherJoe

I know I will need to contact my pension provider for a definitive answer but before I do that thought it was worth asking here if what I would like to do would be possible!

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You will need to contact your pension provider for a definitive answer and thus it's not worth asking here if what you would like to do would be possible.

peterg1965

I am in a similar situation, I haven't even asked if I can transfer my ongoing Company DC pension (run by Standard Life) into my SIPP. I believed the answer would be no, as by doing so it would be possible to crystallise the transferred portion of the pension at 55 at the same time as still working for them and making ongoing contributions to the Company scheme. Interesting that Dunstonh indicates that some schemes permit this.

My plan is to transfer the DC pension into my SIPP as soon as possible after retirement in order that I then crystallise the SIPP rather than have two separate pots.

AnotherJoe

peterg1965 wrote: »

I am in a similar situation, I haven't even asked if I can transfer my ongoing Company DC pension (run by Standard Life) into my SIPP. I believed the answer would be no, as by doing so it would be possible to crystallise the transferred portion of the pension at 55 at the same time as still working for them and making ongoing contributions to the Company scheme. Interesting that Dunstonh indicates that some schemes permit this.

My plan is to transfer the DC pension into my SIPP as soon as possible after retirement in order that I then crystallise the SIPP rather than have two separate pots.

Theres another thread knocking around where this is discussed specifically re SL. It depends on the agreement between employer and SL. My employer allows it as long as you leave (from memory) £5k in the company DC scheme. Others have variants on this from not allowed at all, through to restrictions on how many transfers.

ScottyLP

I work for a pensions administrator and we don't advertise partial transfers but if enquired about tell the scheme member that it's a business decision, unless the employer who set the scheme up states as part of their t's & c's they're not allowed to do it at all.

The only people we seem to stop are people who do it frequently and any QROPS transfer.

peterg1965

Really useful, thank you. I am going to make some enquiries with the Company scheme administrators this week. If allowed, I am minded to make 6 monthly, or annual partial transfer into my SIPP

jamesd

Don't be unduly pessimistic about it either. The reason SL offers it for my scheme is because I asked when it was being set up. There's now a scheme-specific rider in the conditions.

If they don't allow it and the scheme is used for auto-enrolment the next option is to ask how long must elapse between opting out to allow a trransfer and opting back in again. Likely to be a month or two before the usual time when new benefit selections are made in a salary sacrifice scheme.You'd just adjust the contributions up to compensate for the occasional time outside the scheme.

peterg1965

That is something I wouldn't do, temporarily opt out and rejoin. Rejoining is discretionary and could be refused and also I would lose the scheme benefits (6 times salary life cover) and 'free' money (8% of salary in my case). I have 14% of my annual salary going into the scheme, if I am not permitted partial transfers it stays put in SL funds whichi think are substandard to the HL funds selected for my SIPP.

pathtofreedom

Why do you want to move it to the sipp? Are the funds in the work pension not varied enough or are the fees for the work pension a lot more than the sipp?

peterg1965

pathtofreedom wrote: »

Why do you want to move it to the sipp? Are the funds in the work pension not varied enough or are the fees for the work pension a lot more than the sipp?

There is a choice of about 15 funds in the Company DC scheme run by SL, an HL SIPP has thousands more to chose from. Having recently paid for some one off HL portfolio advice for my SIPP which has £120k invested, it would makes sense to combine with my smaller (£8.5k) company pension.