IFA advice on pension transfer

John17Mal

I want IFA advice on transferring a Prudential Annuity to a SIPP. I want to be aware of any pitfalls. I do not want a full blown assessment of my financial status. I am prepared to pay a reasonable fee for the former but I am being quoted large fees running to £3-4K  for the latter!

xylophone

Are you attempting to transfer a pension with  a Guaranteed Annuity Rate?
See  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-benefits-with-a-guarantee-and-the-advice-requirement
and https://www.pruadviser.co.uk/knowledge-literature/knowledge-library/pension-transfers-conversions/ under Guaranteed Annuity Rates.

SonOf

[quote]I want IFA advice on transferring a Prudential Annuity to a SIPP.[/quote]
You cannot transfer an annuity to a SIPP.  Do you mean personal pension or an retirement annuity contract?
Does it have safeguarded benefits?
[quote] I do not want a full blown assessment of my financial status.[/quote]
In which case, you are going to limit your options as an adviser is there to give advice.   When it comes to retirement income provision, the adviser is required to advise on the most suitable options for your objectives and situation.   So, you would expect full medical information disclosure, current and future financial position, needs and objectives now and in retirement amongst other things.
[quote]I am prepared to pay a reasonable fee for the former but I am being quoted large fees running to £3-4K  for the latter![/quote]
If the pension has safeguarded benefits, then a transfer to a SIPP would be a high risk transaction and you would expect to pay more than without.  (It is a transaction that many PI insurers need to be notified of at renewal on an individual case by case basis).  You havent mentioned how much the value is. So, we cannot tell if the fee, in context with the value, is good value for money or not.  Or it could be that the adviser doesnt want to deal with you and is pricing high to act as a passive blocker.

edit: quote option isnt working on the new forum layout.  So, bolded your text.

sandsy

Advisers don't have much choice in this. The regulator has made it pretty clear that if advisers give advice on giving up a guaranteed income, they have to take into account all your other financial information and personal circumstances before they can make a call on whether guaranteed income or flexible income works best for you.

LHW99

SonOf said:

[quote]I want IFA advice on transferring a Prudential Annuity to a SIPP.[/quote]
You cannot transfer an annuity to a SIPP.  Do you mean personal pension or an retirement annuity contract?
Does it have safeguarded benefits?
[quote] I do not want a full blown assessment of my financial status.[/quote]
In which case, you are going to limit your options as an adviser is there to give advice.   When it comes to retirement income provision, the adviser is required to advise on the most suitable options for your objectives and situation.   So, you would expect full medical information disclosure, current and future financial position, needs and objectives now and in retirement amongst other things.
[quote]I am prepared to pay a reasonable fee for the former but I am being quoted large fees running to £3-4K  for the latter![/quote]
If the pension has safeguarded benefits, then a transfer to a SIPP would be a high risk transaction and you would expect to pay more than without.  (It is a transaction that many PI insurers need to be notified of at renewal on an individual case by case basis).  You havent mentioned how much the value is. So, we cannot tell if the fee, in context with the value, is good value for money or not.  Or it could be that the adviser doesnt want to deal with you and is pricing high to act as a passive blocker.

edit: quote option isnt working on the new forum layout.  So, bolded your text.

If you toggle HTML after selecting a post to quote (</> button) you can edit the text between the commands ............. blockquote class="Quote" .......... and............... /blockquote .............. to put in what you want ............... but note both these must be enclosed with < at the start & > at the end ( I can't add those else when I flip back the html text becomes a "quoted" section, and note - no ........ required!)

Mr.Generous

LHW99 said:

[quote]I am prepared to pay a reasonable fee for the former but I am being quoted large fees running to £3-4K  for the latter![/quote]

They will just ask you to tell them about your circumstances and money. You don't have to be completely truthful if you don't want to disclose everything - but then the advice will be based on what you do tell them. They won't give a stuff about your circumstances it's just a job to them. If you want a decent service you need to be straight with them and expect to pay a fee. My pension transfer value is just over £800k and the fee will be about £4k.

cloud_dog

If you toggle HTML after selecting a post to quote ( button) you can edit the text between the commands ............. blockquote class="Quote" .......... and............... /blockquote .............. to put in what you want ............... but note both these must be enclosed with < at the start & > at the end ( I can't add those else when I flip back the html text becomes a "quoted" section, and note - no ........ required!)

So in order to do refined quotes and separate comments within sections of the quoted text we now need to become HTML editors.  Grand

cfw1994

cloud_dog said:

If you toggle HTML after selecting a post to quote ( button) you can edit the text between the commands ............. blockquote class="Quote" .......... and............... /blockquote .............. to put in what you want ............... but note both these must be enclosed with < at the start & > at the end ( I can't add those else when I flip back the html text becomes a "quoted" section, and note - no ........ required!)

So in order to do refined quotes and separate comments within sections of the quoted text we now need to become HTML editors.  Grand

And on an iPad I cannot type this in below a quote without going full screen.......then I have to shrink back to actually post.  The threads list shows about ½ what the old style did.
Where is the thread to batter the f*wits who came up with this Grand Design?  Awful!   This could reduce my input to forums here....back to Pistonheads finance sub-forum 
(sorry to derail, OP - on your topic, you HAVE to have proper advice to move from a DB scheme to a DC one: it’s the law!)

jamesd

John17Mal said:

I want IFA advice on transferring a Prudential Annuity to a SIPP. I want to be aware of any pitfalls. I do not want a full blown assessment of my financial status. I am prepared to pay a reasonable fee for the former but I am being quoted large fees running to £3-4K  for the latter!

Which of their annuity products do you have? Income Choice Annuity, perhaps?

While ordinary annuities can't be changed at all after purchase, Prudential have some annuity products that keep an investment pot and you may well have one of them.

Many people don't know that flexible annuity products exist, so don't be worried about replies saying annuities can't be moved that are probably assuming that you have the far more commonly encountered lifetime annuity type..

LHW99

Mr.Generous said:

LHW99 said:

[quote]I am prepared to pay a reasonable fee for the former but I am being quoted large fees running to £3-4K  for the latter![/quote]

They will just ask you to tell them about your circumstances and money. You don't have to be completely truthful if you don't want to disclose everything - but then the advice will be based on what you do tell them. They won't give a stuff about your circumstances it's just a job to them. If you want a decent service you need to be straight with them and expect to pay a fee. My pension transfer value is just over £800k and the fee will be about £4k.

I think the quote at the top of MrGenerous's post, wasn't from me, but by the OP??

John17Mal

The pension in question is an old style Prudential personal pension plan "with profits" and with a "valuble pension guarantee". It is presently worth £124K.
Last year I transferred a Clerical Medical pension worth £105K into my SIPP with no questions asked. It took about two weeks.
My wife transferred a pension scheme worth £135K from Aviva to PensionBee in a similar manner, no problems.
Because my Prudential pension scheme is an old type with a "valuble pension guarantee" I am hitting a brick wall. It seems that the law says I have to under go a full financial assessment costing between 3 and 4% (plus VAT). 
I understand that investing in a SIPP has down sides but a prefer to have a fund that can at least in part be passed on to my heirs on my demise.