Who will accept a DB to SIPP transfer from "insistent client"

Tony4625

omelettesandeggs said:

Quick update from our transfer:
I found an IFA willing to give us advice at the end of Dec 2020. The IFA was Cobens wealth management who have been very prompt and helpful. They were able to provide a positive recommendation to transfer my DB into a SIPP based largely on my need to have the ability to invest my pension in suitably ethical funds / companies. The advice and transfer cost £3250 in total. Transfer has been actioned within the 3 month CETV deadline. 

If they couldn't provide a positive recommendation then our back plan was to transfer the DB pension into a youinvest SIPP with AJ Bell (no initial fees) and then onto our SIPP provider of choice (investacc).

Thanks for update , glad you got what you wanted . Was the fee a fixed price or % of your CetV ? Interesting that you got a positive recommendation on your need for an ethical place to invest .

HappyHarry

squirrelpie said:

I'm curious. I was interested enough to go find the Cobens wealth management website https://www.cobenswealth.co.uk/ and from their about us page I followed to check their registry entry https://register.fca.org.uk/s/search?q=484450&type=Companies but I was very surprised by what it says:

We’ve found 1 firm matching 484450

Astute Financial Management UK Ltd

Reference number: 484450

Now the contact email given for Astute is chris.poole@cobens.co.uk so apparently there is some connection, but I always think that in connection with financial companies and registrations we should be very picky about the spelling of names etc. No?

If you click on the link within the FCA register, you will see that Cobens are listed as trading names of Astute Financial Management UK Ltd.

Still worth calling the telephone number on the FCA register to check though.

squirrelpie

HappyHarry said:

If you click on the link within the FCA register, you will see that Cobens are listed as trading names of Astute Financial Management UK Ltd.

I'm surprised that a firm doesn't mention on its website that it is a trading name of some other entity, especially when referring itself to the other entity's registration. The page is called 'About Us' and clearly doesn't give anywhere near a full picture. Moreover, that page claims to be about a limited company that is not mentioned on the FCA page, so again one is left wondering whether details matter.

Contador

soonretire said:

Albermarle said:

soonretire said:

Thanks everyone. I am going to make some calls next week to Fidelity and AJ Bell and double check. I have seen posts on the Citywire forum to say this process works ie. using Fidelity to show I have taken advice and then transfer to AJ Bell. This is what Fidelity say about fees, their status and the process:
www.fidelity.co.uk/fidelity-retirement-service/#frs-fees
www.fidelity.co.uk/approaching-retirement/transferring-final-salary-pensions
From what I can see Fidelity wont sign a form, they will give me a certificate and that is what AJ bell want to see. But I will confirm to be 100% sure!

The DB scheme you are transferring from will also need to have the right piece of paper before they will release the money .
Again a negative recommendation is not an issue as long as you can prove you have had the correct advice. The DB schemes are less fussy than the receiving schemes about negative recommendations, as they are keen for transfers to go ahead and to to get the liability off their books .

Thank you for the feedback. My CETV from BT Pensions is dated 8 Jan 2021 and is valid for 3 months. I still need to get the Fidelity advice / certificate. Do you know if this is enough time to get the transfer over to AJ Bell please? I have read some reviews they are a bit slow.

Quick Question for soonretire.....Does the BT PS transfer out state that they require positive advice to transfer out? I think its clear AJ Bell will accept, many of the posters on here rightly support their individual right to choose, and there has been some very helpful discussion around different IFAs to seek value for money, but if a reasonably priced IFA for £3500 =vat gives a nice report that says "computer says no",will the BTPS accept the AJ Bell SIPP decision and act upon it, or are they obliged too?

soonretire

Dear Contador, the BT Pension team are not bothered whether its positive. Their email states: In order to secure the transfer value, we would require the correctly completed Transfer Acceptance and Financial Advice Declaration form. This would then allow for the Receiving Scheme Declaration form to follow and provide us with additional time to complete the transfer. We do not have to complete the entire process within 3 months.
Since my last post I cant really see the point of paying Fidelity £3500 +VAT to get a letter saying NO which takes them 12 weeks to produce. Other posts have suggested names of other IFA's for £3200 inc VAT which I am planning to explore. Hope that helps.

hyubh

soonretire said:

Dear Contador, the BT Pension team are not bothered whether its positive.

It's not that the administrators are 'not bothered', it's that they would be breaking the law to outright reject a transfer request for a preserved pension more than 12 months away from the scheme's normal pension age. The only valid reason for doing so would be a reasonable expectation of a scam being played on the member.

Albermarle

In any case normally DB pension scheme trustees/administrators are keen for you to transfer out, to get the liability of potentially paying you an inflation linked pension for 30 years off their books .

omelettesandeggs

Tony4625 said:

Thanks for update , glad you got what you wanted . Was the fee a fixed price or % of your CetV ? Interesting that you got a positive recommendation on your need for an ethical place to invest .

In the end it was fairly straight forward in that I presented my case for wanting to transfer and they agreed it made sense. It was a mixture of the need for ethical investing and wanting to use a SIPP to purchase commercial (farm) land in order to set up my agricultural business. The return from market set rent values on the land just about stacks up against what the DB would have achieved at retirement (i'm 38), so I got the nod.

The Ethical justifications are pretty robust and indisputable tbh (and in my case genuine i'm hastened to add in that if you want to invest your pension into ethical / sustainable funds / companies then you can only achieve this by transferring out and choosing your own investments. Pleased that was granted due consideration and weight.

Took a lot of research to make a decent case beyond that and a LOT of ringing IFA's (probably more than 20) before I found one which would even provide the advice (positive or negative). Getting positive advice was a real bonus in the end as my preferred SIPP provider (investacc) won't accept insistent clients so we would have had to transfer in and out of another that would.

It can be done.

As far as Cobens are concerned we have only good things to say, they're really on it and take the various deadlines seriously. Their communication was top drawer with no chasing required.

Contador

soonretire said:

Dear Contador, the BT Pension team are not bothered whether its positive. Their email states: In order to secure the transfer value, we would require the correctly completed Transfer Acceptance and Financial Advice Declaration form. This would then allow for the Receiving Scheme Declaration form to follow and provide us with additional time to complete the transfer. We do not have to complete the entire process within 3 months.
Since my last post I cant really see the point of paying Fidelity £3500 +VAT to get a letter saying NO which takes them 12 weeks to produce. Other posts have suggested names of other IFA's for £3200 inc VAT which I am planning to explore. Hope that helps.

Thanks very instructive. And thanks hyubh & Albemarle too. so we have a receiving entity (AJ Bell YouInvest, and it seems DB schemes will allow xfer out post IFA review even if advice is NO, and I am now glued to the upcoming episodes of this gripping tale (& I am being serious), on the search to obtain a fairly priced IFA review. Will be making my own enquiries in the new tax year as well.

Tony4625

omelettesandeggs said:

Tony4625 said:

Thanks for update , glad you got what you wanted . Was the fee a fixed price or % of your CetV ? Interesting that you got a positive recommendation on your need for an ethical place to invest .

In the end it was fairly straight forward in that I presented my case for wanting to transfer and they agreed it made sense. It was a mixture of the need for ethical investing and wanting to use a SIPP to purchase commercial (farm) land in order to set up my agricultural business. The return from market set rent values on the land just about stacks up against what the DB would have achieved at retirement (i'm 38), so I got the nod.

The Ethical justifications are pretty robust and indisputable tbh (and in my case genuine i'm hastened to add

Took a lot of research to make a decent case beyond that and a LOT of ringing IFA's (probably more than 20) before I found one which would even provide the advice (positive or negative). Getting positive advice was a real bonus in the end as my preferred SIPP provider (investacc) won't accept insistent clients so we would have had to transfer in and out of another that would.

It can be done.

As far as Cobens are concerned we have only good things to say, they're really on it and take the various deadlines seriously. Their communication was top drawer with no chasing required.

Good luck to you in the future, thanks for reply.