Moving Private Pension to a Drawdown

AlanP_2

segovia wrote: »

One of my pensions is a very old personal pension Series 920 and the other is an Aviva Personal Pension. As far as I am aware neither have a drawdown capability, only by transfer.

So you will need to transfer then, and probably to a SIPP.

segovia

AlanP wrote: »

So you will need to transfer then, and probably to a SIPP.

Yes, that is looking extremely likely.

I currently pay £750.00 pm into my personal pension to maximize my personal tax relief, I am already thinking that I could pay this into a SIPP instead to get the ball rolling.

Any thoughts?

J

dunstonh

segovia wrote: »

If all goes well I'll have nothing left by the time I die (;-)

I am not eliminating an IFA, it's just that we have trodden that path before and not been very comfortable with the recommendations and the fees being quoted. In fact, most said our pension arrangements are solid, but not great and suggested that if we wanted a higher return we could transfer into Joe Bloggs Fund recommended by them for fees in the region of £10,000.00. So when I asked would I get my £10,000.00 fees back or more, hey said there are no guarantees. Needless to say, we stayed put.

Was it even an IFA? Over half of people seeing insurance agents or restricted FAs think they are seeing an IFA when they are not.

A fee of that size is not consistent with a normal IFA. Fees around £2000-£3000 or less would be. The big figures tend to come from the likes of St James Place and those tagging themselves as "wealth management" firms.

newatc

Segovia, you sound like you are in a similar position to me re: IFAs. I've only used IFA once and it was an expensive and stressful experience because of his investment choices. Although I accept I was unlucky in choice of IFA, it has made me make my own investment choice while at the same time realising my investments could be more balanced and indeed more profitable. If I lose money because of poor choices at least I'm not left with the double whammy feeling of also paying someone for those poor choices..

I think there will be a time (not that far away) when I will use an IFA because of help with strategy to get where I want to get to (making it easier for my wife when I depart) but wouldn't use one purely for fund choice (would probably accept the fund choices because accept that their knowledge is greater).

segovia

dunstonh wrote: »

Was it even an IFA? Over half of people seeing insurance agents or restricted FAs think they are seeing an IFA when they are not.

A fee of that size is not consistent with a normal IFA. Fees around £2000-£3000 or less would be. The big figures tend to come from the likes of St James Place and those tagging themselves as "wealth management" firms.

It was an IFA that was recommended via our company accountants and they are independent. We engaged with another a few years ago, I can't even remember their name to check. The same type of fees, £7000.00 to transfer my main pension to another provider. The value of the transfer was only about 120K at the time.

atush

segovia wrote: »

We have two personal pensions, I have no plans to transfer either into a SIPP unless there is a benefit in doing so? I am assuming I'll be going straight into a drawdown agreement.

If you have done enough research already about investmenta you want to use you would find that many personal pensions esp older ones, dont have whole of market access. So investments such as investment trusts and even ETFs would be unavailable to you.

So i guess first start is asking both your pension companies do they support drawdown, and their costs if they do. If they dont you will have to transfer.

segovia

atush wrote: »

If you have done enough research already about investmenta you want to use you would find that many personal pensions esp older ones, dont have whole of market access. So investments such as investment trusts and even ETFs would be unavailable to you.

So i guess first start is asking both your pension companies do they support drawdown, and their costs if they do. If they dont you will have to transfer.

I agree I think I have already accepted that I will need to transfer. The question was to what and by whom and I think I have the answer to that. Thanks

MK62

It also has to be said that there are various levels of DIY......you can make it quite simple, with just a few funds on a single platform, or quite complex, with many funds across several platforms/accounts.
I would argue that the former is within the grasp of most people with a modicum of financial awareness and interest in doing a little bit of reading/research, while the latter takes quite a bit more time and effort.

segovia

MK62 wrote: »

It also has to be said that there are various levels of DIY......you can make it quite simple, with just a few funds on a single platform, or quite complex, with many funds across several platforms/accounts.
I would argue that the former is within the grasp of most people with a modicum of financial awareness and interest in doing a little bit of reading/research, while the latter takes quite a bit more time and effort.

I have had a brief look at SIPP platforms, I may start another thread nearer the time.

I noticed Iweb is competitive, operated by Halifax and uses AJ BELL as their SIPP platform. All of which have their own SIPP platform should be an interesting exercise!

atush

Knowing in advance, some of the investments you would choose will help re charges.