Qs re transfer out of Equitable Life pension

albert101

Hello All,


Request some help here -


I am 44 YO. I have a relatively small pension with EL, worth perhaps 8% of my total pot.


I have not made contribs to it for a long time, and it has been going nowhere fast for a while. I took it out originally in around 1998.


I have decided to move it into a SIPP, and take a slightly more aggressive strategy within that, since it is a fairly small part of my overall pot. (EL no longer charge 5% for transfer out)


2 Qs:


1. The transfer docs say "Your transfer funds will therefore all be treated as non protected rights in the SIPP" - does this matter?


2. re Benefits on transfer, it asks "are benefits to be taken immediately or deferred"


What should I do? (I assume deferred - I am 44 - but am not sure here)


Appreciate all help here,


Albert

LHW99

Protected rights have been effectively non-existent for some years - they get treated the same as the rest of the SIPP fund now, whereas once they were separate - think in your case they would represent the Government bonus for contracting out (of SERPS?).
There used to be restrictions on how they were invested / transferred / taken, which could be different to the main fund, but its all the same now.

albert101

Thanks LHW

QQ on my other Q:

Re Benefits on transfer, it asks "are benefits to be taken immediately or deferred"

What should I do? (I assume deferred - I am 44 - but am not sure here)

coyrls

I assume you have a With Profits policy? The difference between “taking benefits immediately or deferred”, is that taking benefits immediately means that you will get the full maturity value of your policy, if you defer, you will get the transfer value. Sometimes that’s not going to matter because the transfer value will be higher than the maturity value (at maturity you get the higher of the transfer value or the maturity value) because of the incentive Equitable Life are paying, in other instances the maturity value will be higher than the transfer value.

[FONT=&quot]Given your age, you have no choice but to say the benefits will be deferred, as you will not be eligible to take the benefits until you are 55. You will need to look at your latest statement or ring them to find out the transfer value and the maturity value of your policy. I rang them to discuss this very point, although I was able to say I was taking benefits immediately (for one of my two policies the maturity value was higher than the transfer value). I found them helpful on the phone, so I would suggest ringing them.[/FONT]

albert101

OK - thanks coyrls - good advice there.