Transferring advised AEGON pension to CSD SIPP

fun4everyone

I had a personal pension plan opened through a financial advisor 8 years ago, the plan is with AEGON. Having taken control of my own finances gradually with more free time on my hands I am now wishing to move the money and DIY this retirement fund. AEGON's fees are high and the chosen investments are all underperfoming. I also wish to ditch my advisor as he ignored some previous communication from me. I have chosen CSD as my preferred platform destination.

Does anyone have experience with doing this with AEGON? Specifically if/what they will charge me for doing this? I still have the original documentation for this plan (including the computer disk that came with it!) and have been through it with a fine tooth comb. No mention of exit fees anywhere. I have also searched their online help from all possible directions thoroughly. No mention of exit fees anywhere. Their customer service is absolutely terrible and can take 14 business days to reply (and sometimes they dont even bother). They also show a total lack of understanding about issues when you call them. I was hoping to get the answer from the T&C but there doesn't appear to be one. I have spoken to CSD at length and they were great but of course could not help on that front.

1) Does anybody know what fees AEGON charge on transferring my pension out?

2) Does anyone know if AEGON will demand forms to be filled out/My advisor will have to be involved? CSD told me to start the process I just fill out their form after making a SIPP account and I am hoping that is all that will be required.

CSD appear not to be on the list here http://www.origo.com/customers/customers.aspx which AEGON reference here https://retiready.co.uk/content/dam/retiready/documents/request-to-transfer-to-another-provider-instruction.pdf

Thanks for reading and any useful pointers.

Malthusian

I still have the original documentation for this plan (including the computer disk that came with it!) and have been through it with a fine tooth comb. No mention of exit fees anywhere. I have also searched their online help from all possible directions thoroughly. No mention of exit fees anywhere.

That was a waste of time, to be quite honest. The quickest and most reliable way of finding out is to ring them up and say "is there any penalty for transferring out". Aegon are almost certainly able to answer that one over the phone. No-one here will be able to.

2a) Aegon probably will require a transfer form filled out since CSD is not on Origo. Since you are managing the process yourself they will send you this in the post and send it to Charles Stanley (as they also need to sign it as the receiving scheme).

2b) No, your adviser isn't involved at all. You can simply tell Aegon over the phone to remove the servicing rights from the current advisor if you don't want him to be notified that you are transferring the plan away. They will be only happy to as they like to poach clients off advisers.

xylophone

https://www.charles-stanley-direct.co.uk/Our_Services/SIPP/transferring_your_sipp/

https://retiready.co.uk/content/dam/retiready/documents/request-to-transfer-to-another-provider-instruction.pdf

may be of interest.

mgdavid

I had a Group Stakeholder with Aegon via my last employer, and transferred it to my CSD SIPP on retirement.
You have to get a set of blank discharge forms from Aegon; complete these and post them to CSD.
Also complete a CSD Transfer request form, you can do this online through the CSD dashboard.
I had a small delay in getting an up to date valuation from Aegon, which I needed to calculate the PCLS amount for completing the Taking Benefits form. Once done, the actual transfer was managed by CSD and achieved in under 2 weeks.
As far as I'm aware there was no charge for the transfer.
Do feel free to PM me if you think I can be of further help.

PS - this was the back end of 2014, I'm not aware of any process changes since.