Excited but Nervous - Transferring Final Salary Pension

ianthy

hmmmm 3.5% seems high. I am in the UK and as mentioned just nearing the end of my transfer process. I paid £6k or approx. 0.7% in total for the transfer and setting up of investments on £937k. I agreed .8% ongoing fees on the element that will be under management with my IFA. This is higher than your .5% but I am happy to pay .8 based on performance/track record.

Before deciding to use my existing IFA, I did a lot of searching/talking with IFA's and fees varied wildly as much as £30k for transfer only, with setting up of investments requiring further fees. My feel from conversations is that IFA's were pricing in risk depending on if you were existing customer and known to them or completely unknown and possibly a higher risk from an advice perspective.

Thrugelmir

blisteringblue wrote: »

but the flip side my current work DC pot has grown almost 60% in the past 6 years and that is on cautious / balanced funds (also Scottish Widows btw),

That's the inherent danger of becoming over confident when it seems risk free to invest. Markets have been benign for some time now. Volatility will return. Much in the same way interest rates will normalise over the years to come.

wjr4

Cat_House wrote: »

Bostonerimus - Yes 3.5% - Is that too high?

I don't have to pay this upfront, it will come out of the pension.

Ongoing advisor fees 0.5%

Fund fees not known yet. Have only had initial meeting.

Understand the plan is very cautious and we also have 2 other pensions.

Personally, I think that 3.5% is high! I'm surprised people can still get away with those fees!

Cat_House

What percentage should I be expecting then?

I haven't signed anything yet, so can always try to get this figure reduced...

sandsy

£9.5k is horribly high. That's nearly a year's worth of your income.
How would you feel if markets fell substantially and you had to reduce the income you took?

bostonerimus

I'd certainly shop around. Being in the US it still amazes me that in the UK you need to pay someone to get advice on what to do with your own money

bostonerimus

ianthy wrote: »

I am in the UK and as mentioned just nearing the end of my transfer process. I paid £6k or approx. 0.7% in total for the transfer and setting up of investments on £937k. I agreed .8% ongoing fees on the element that will be under management with my IFA. This is higher than your .5% but I am happy to pay .8 based on performance/track record.

That 0.8% will probably turn out to be 25% of your income drawdown....that's far more than I'd want to pay.

p00hsticks

Cat_House wrote: »

I have another 160K DC and hubby has 120K DC and we also have savings and a couple of ISAs.

Have you considered the option of using these to fund your retirement until your DB and state pensions kick in, rather than cashing in the DB pension ?

Cat_House

Hi P00hsticks, that was our original intention to live off the TFLS, but I am currently looking at a higher income, without touching these pensions. Are we maybe making a mistake?

gibbo888

Hi Cat house

My figures are higher than yours but my transfer was 1% including the TVAS report.
with a 1.1% ongoing fee, including platform/costs/ifa ongoing.

shop around as 3.5% seems very high.