Transfer Utmost (old Equitable Life funds) to Vanguard SIPP anyone?

christurnerchris

Has anyone out there transferred their old Equitable Life now Utmost pension money to the new Vanguard SIPP.  
How did it go? Is it possible? 
I am paying into work pension (Aviva) so I wont be putting in any regular payments from salary. 
Also I have lots of other funds so I don't need to draw down anytime soon. 

christurnerchris

Its about £32k.  I have ISAs with Vanguard
I have looked through the Vanguard SIPP thread - no one seems to have actually completed the process ? 

New_World_Man

I completed my online Transfer Form with Vanguard on 23 Feb. Still showing as pending. Vanguard do state that in most cases it can take up to 30 days (although with computerisation and modern tech in general that does still seem like a long time). My Utmost funds were held in cash.

christurnerchris

so has anyone managed to get their money out of Utmost yet? 

SoftCentaur

On Feb 19th. via the Vanguard website, I requested to transfer my Utmost pension to them. After reading this thread, I thought I would check the progress as my Vanguard account was still showing zero. I called Utmost only to be told that although they had received a transfer request from Vanguard, they were still waiting for me to send them a transfer request as well.  I had no knowledge of these forms I needed to send to Utmost. The Vanguard site told me that if any other forms were needed, I would get a secure message from them. I had no such message. Utmost also told me that even if I returned these forms to them, the transfer could not be actioned because Vanguard had not sent them a form confirming they would accept the funds, and to which bank account they should be paid. Utmost also informed me that Vanguard had requested certain information via letter, but Utmost don't reply to letters and Vanguard should phone them for this info !

So.… ( still with me ? )  I got back to Vanguard.  They told me that they wouldn't tell me about the forms I needed to send to Utmost as Utmost told them that THEY had sent out the forms to me in the post on 28th. February.  I never got these elusive forms. 
Today, I have downloaded the transfer forms I need to send to Utmost from their website and they should have them by Wednesday. Utmost have a record on their systems that these forms WERE posted to me at the end of February - but have no idea why I did not receive them as my address details are correct.

Vanguard are going to phone Utmost to get the info they requested by letter - and they too are amazed Utmost "don't reply to letters".  How are Vanguard expected to know they are expected to phone in for this info ?

Hopefully, by the end of this week, Utmost will have received the forms from me, Vanguard have phoned Utmost to exchange all the info needed at both ends, and my pension transfer at least started!  God knows how long it will take to be completed, but all this buggering about has delayed my transfer by at least 3 weeks - and the last 3 weeks has cost me a lot of money !

xylophone

Vanguard are going to phone Utmost to get the info they requested by letter - and they too are amazed Utmost "don't reply to letters".  How are Vanguard expected to know they are expected to phone in for this info ?

This seems ridiculous.

If you hit more problems, you might do well to phone TPAS concerning making a formal complaint.

https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/pension-problems/making-a-complaint

dunstonh

 I called Utmost only to be told that although they had received a transfer request from Vanguard, they were still waiting for me to send them a transfer request as well. I had no knowledge of these forms I needed to send to Utmost.
That is highly unusual nowadays.  There are very few providers that need this.

Utmost also told me that even if I returned these forms to them, the transfer could not be actioned because Vanguard had not sent them a form confirming they would accept the funds, and to which bank account they should be paid. Utmost also informed me that Vanguard had requested certain information via letter, but Utmost don't reply to letters and Vanguard should phone them for this info !
It sounds like Utmost are looking for discharge forms.  Something that most providers stopped using years ago.  However, discharge forms are dealt with postally.  So, maybe not.  
I cant see that Utmost use the Origo transfer system (paperless and quick).  However, the old method used discharge forms and paper exchange.   
The process for the old non-Origo method was to obtain discharge forms from the ceding scheme, you send them to the receiving scheme who then send them to the ceding scheme along with their details and that they will accept the money.

Utmost are new to this on this scale. So, it is probably a learning experience for them.   However, it sounds like their methods are from the 90s (ok, to be fair discharge forms started to be phased out by around 2008).  Hopefully, they will learn and adapt to follow industry standards of today and not a decade or more ago.   NEST were similar when they launched but, to their credit, they listened and changed.