Can I sell or give away an inherited SIPP?

BobWelham

If I inherit a stocks&shares SIPP must I then either drawdown from it until it is exhausted/annihilated or leave all/some of it to a further beneficiary upon my own death?
I assume that I am a willing beneficiary of the SIPP and that I accepted ownership of it when the donor died.
Am I then committed to irrevocable ownership of the inherited SIPP, as I am with my own SIPP?
Or, is the inherited SIPP a tradable asset which I can give away while still living, or even sell?

Albermarle

If I inherit a stocks&shares SIPP

There is no such entity . Within a SIPP you can hold various investments , including cash , so best just to refer to it as a SIPP .

You will not have to drawdown from it if you do not want and you can just leave it alone, and/or drawdown some of it . Then any funds left will go to the beneficiary you name on the 'expression of wishes' form ( you do not include pensions in your will ) 

Am I then committed to irrevocable ownership of the inherited SIPP, as I am with my own SIPP?
Or, is the inherited SIPP a tradable asset which I can give away while still living, or even sell?

I would be 99% sure you can not sell a SIPP to somebody else. In fact in legal terms you do not own the SIPP at all , ( whether it is yours or inherited ) as they are held in trust by the pension provider trustees. So even to give the money away, you would have to take it from the SIPP first and pay any appropriate tax on it .

bowlhead99

BobWelham said:

If I inherit a stocks&shares SIPP must I then either drawdown from it until it is exhausted/annihilated or leave all/some of it to a further beneficiary upon my own death?

Yes, that's the basic position. Take the money out within the normal tax rules, or die and let someone else have it.

Or, is the inherited SIPP a tradable asset which I can give away while still living, or even sell?

If you didn't want it when you were about to inherit it, a discussion could be had with other potential recipients about who should get it and approach the SIPP trustees with an explanation about who the beneficiary should have really been. The trustees might reconsider their decision to give it to you, especially if there wasn't a clear expression of wishes from the dead person.  Then you wouldn't get it, which is a similar effect to giving it away but without actually getting it and giving it away.

Once it passes to you, you can't really give it away because it's not entirely yours. It is run by a pension trustee and you are the beneficiary.  The fact that it's not fully yours is one reason the contents haven't been taxed - they only go through income tax once you access it. You can give them an expression of wishes of who should get it it if you pass on.   You can't officially sell it because the government have clear rules to stop people 'liberating' cash from their pensions without following the usual rules (such as meeting the age requirements and paying tax on the untaxed assets that had built up in the pension). 

One legal way to get rid of it while still being alive is to marry someone and then divorce them and have them take it or part of it under a pension sharing order.  Then its theirs. You can marry people of either sex these days so there is greater flexibility than there used to be. Maybe in the divorce they get your pension and you get their house or their cash. Somewhat flexible then, if you and your spouse are amicable.  Later if you decide you liked them after all, you could always remarry.