Taking a pension as two small pots

acc

I have a small pension of about £12500 that I would like to take in two lump sums, say £4800 gross using up £3600 tax allowance this tax year, and £7700 gross using £5775 tax allowance next tax year, but the current pension provider allows only buying an annuity.

Can you pensions experts please advise me on other pension providers that allow flexible drawdown and preferably that allow an incoming pension transfer to be split into two separate pensions that can be taken in different tax years?

What sort of transfer-in, ongoing and closure charges would be involved?

Linton

You dont need to split the pensions, but rather use drawdown with UFPLS over 2 years. This will provide exactly what you want. If your current pension/provider doesnt support this you will need to transfer your pension to one that does. Any main stream SIPP provider would be suitable.

The transfer-in could be free, the ongoing charge for £12500 would typically be around £50/year and taking the money may be 0-£100. H-L may be the best bet as drawdown is free but they will charge £295 for closure if the pension is held for less than 1 year. Otherwise the charge is £25. You will need to check the providers charges yourself.

acc

Thanks for your useful advice, Linton.

I'll contact H-L for more details as you suggest.