Fees for transferring DB pension

gemma888

Hi All,
does anyone have experience of the average fees in transferring a DB pension of £250K?
I have been quoted £9000 which seems a bit excessive, I appreciate it's not a simple task but even so.

Albermarle

There are numerous threads on this forum in this subject , so might be worth a search.
The figure of £9K looks a bit on the high side but there is a limited number of IFA's doin this kind of work. . Maybe it could be less, but probably you would have to sign up for ongoing investment advice at the same time .
Probably more important is that you have to be sure that transferring is right for you, as it is a very big financial decision .

xylophone

You need a pension transfer specialist and not all IFAs have the necessary qualifications.

https://www.pruadviser.co.uk/knowledge-literature/knowledge-library/pension-transfers-conversions/

The fee you have been quoted is in line with

https://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/pension-transfer-charges/

“We have seen a lot of charging at 3 per cent or 4 per cent,



but other posters have been quoted less or more.

https://adviserbook.co.uk/

You could check the above ( tick "confirmed independent" and "pension transfer") when the menu comes up.

mcc100

Five months ago I paid a total of 1% to transfer my £365k pension, whilst early last year my partner paid just under 2% on her pot of £312k.

tacpot12

Looks expensive to me. I paid £1000 for advice on transferring two pensions worth £70K about three years ago. Even allowing for the fact that this form of advice has increased significantly since I had mine, I would expect a figure closer to £6000.

You need to shop around.

SonOf

Only around 1 in 10 advisers had the permissions to do a DB last year. Earlier this year, following a change in the rules a number of PI insurance providers, withdrew their coverage of DB pension transfers. This was about half the market. Some of the advisers would look for new cover whilst others would just give up doing DB transfers. In all cases, the cost of insurance has gone up if you do DB transfers. And its not just a single year cost. It is an increased annual cost of their rest of the time that company is trading or the rest of the adviser's life if they are self-employed or a partnership.

There have been a number of factory line style DB transfer services that did it on the cheap. However, most of these have fallen foul of the FCA or are in the process of doing so.

So, overall, the number of advisers doing DB transfers has fallen significantly and the risks increased massively. So, it is no surprise to see costs rise. DB transfers are amongst the highest risk transaction an adviser firm can carry out.

I may have considered £9k far too much a year or so ago but today, I am less inclined to feel that way given the risks.

SeniorSam

Have a chat with Hargreaves Lansdown. They are very easy to listen to and helpful with people who don't understand how things work. They will not try and sell anything to you, but their help may be just what you need.

Officer_Dibble

I used Tideway last year who charged 1%. Very happy with the process. They used to have a minimum transfer amount of £400k I think, but I can't see it mentioned on their website, so they might have dropped it if they're not as snowed under as they were.

SonOf

Officer_Dibble wrote: »

I used Tideway last year who charged 1%. Very happy with the process. They used to have a minimum transfer amount of £400k I think, but I can't see it mentioned on their website, so they might have dropped it if they're not as snowed under as they were.

https://www.ftadviser.com/your-industry/2018/11/20/tideway-relaunches-pension-transfer-service/

Officer_Dibble

Hi SonOf - that's their service for advisers rather than going directly through them. I don't think they ever stopped dealing with customers directly.

Mcdomic

Hi Gemma,

I used Tideway for my DB transfer in December 2018, the fee,s charged are 1% of total value of your DB CETV . I was happy with the DB transfer using Tideway which was all done in around 4 weeks which was exceptional, normally six to eight weeks or longer, good Tideway software package used to show you how the transfer progresses and ticks all the boxes. Good communications, very thorough and professional process. I have a Tideway wealth manager managing my Tideway SIPPS draw-down account, so far the returns have been very good and in line with what was predicted but these do come at a cost which is factored in. I can check my funds online at any time with clear information on current fund values, investments and fees, quarterly email on how the funds are doing, regular discussions with wealth manager as and when their are any area,s of change in circumstances.
I believe they do most transfers over 400K although I know of one case that they did for under the 400k mark. The performance of my managed SIPP is doing well and on target with what was calculated net of ongoing management fee. It is still early days as I am around 9 months in to my pension portfolio and everything is inline with what was predicted, certainly during these uncertain times. The have great calculators on the website to give you an insight of how your SIPP will perform over your life time at various rates and draw-downs, I hope this helps in what was for me a real learning curve, especially on what companies will charge you. I may add, Tideway will not charge you anything at the discussion process before the transfer, once the transfer is done, that fee comes off immediately and is a one off charge.

Good luck