Pension Drawdown - Scottish Widows or Aviva?

Puffytat

I have just turned 55 and was made redundant last year. I am currently not working and due to health reasons I can only work part time.

I have two DC pensions schemes, one with Scottish Widows which has approx. £145k and a small DC with Aviva which has £10k in. The SW has gone into lifestyling so is not making much money.

I'm thinking of using a drawdown pension to take out money as I need it to live off until I can get my state pension and a DB pension scheme which comes out when I get to 65.

I'm confusing myself reading all the information out there about drawdown - does anyone have a view on whether it would be best to stay with SW or maybe transfer that pot to Aviva?

xylophone

Does either scheme permit you flexible access or will you have to transfer out to one that does, a SIPP for example?

dunstonh

I wouldnt go near SW for drawdown (or any pension unless it was workplace related). Aviva wont support drawdown on most of their legacy pensions (even though they say they do. They only support lump sum options. Not regular income).

So, based purely on what you have asked, I doubt either would be right.

Albermarle

I asked a similar question recently . The answer from one of the professional posters was that although some websites of the main personal pension companies give the impression they offer full flex drawdown , in fact they do not. Apparently when you start the process with Aviva, they have to transfer you to one of their own SIPPS before anything can be done. He also was not very positive about SW who have not spent enough money on website functionality etc.
I am with Standard Life and they do seem to be fully geared up for drawdown for their personal pensions + I think most of the SIPP providers are

xylophone

https://www.hl.co.uk/pensions/sipp

Above might be worth a look.

Puffytat

Thanks for the advice.
The SW website certainly looks as if it allows pension drawdown. I would be looking at taking the 25% tax free and leaving the rest invested. I would then take out smaller amounts when needed. I need to investigate with SW further.

If I met with an IFA would they give one off advice on the best thing to do? I don't really want to pay someone to manage for me.

dunstonh

The SW website certainly looks as if it allows pension drawdown.

They do. They have an in-house salesforce (that you pay for) that will move you into their rather clunky product that supports it.

If I met with an IFA would they give one off advice on the best thing to do?

Yes. Although some have business models that do not want transactional clients. Most do.

I don't really want to pay someone to manage for me.

The fact you are on old products which are likely to be obsolete and probably more expensive and that you are considering rather naff alternatives suggests that maybe having someone could be a good idea.

Puffytat

Thanks dunstonh.
The more I look into this the more confused I become.

I thought that perhaps IFA's won't be interested in managing a small pot like mine, given that I may need to start taking money out in the shorter rather than medium term so am not happy to take too many risks.

I think paying for some advice is the only way forward for someone as incompetent as me!