Re: Legal and General outsourced employer scheme - Protection status and use of master trusts

gm0

Employer scheme (previously outsourced elsewhere) moving into L&G for admin.  It is mostly their funds offered in the scheme anyway from when it was setup in the early 1990s. Will now support flexible access drawdown, mobile apps/modernised investor education flummery etc. as L&G choose to provide. 

I am told that access to drawdown will involve the individual member transferring "to an L&G master trust".  I do not (yet) fully understand the significance of this point.

My question is this - from a pension protection perspective -
Is this still an "occupational" pension ? or does it at that point become a "SIPP" ?
Or a "life company" pension ? Or a "personal pension" ?

Basically boiling down to the $64k question - Is it 90% fund value protected or 85k protected.  Or does that depend upon "which kind of L&G master trust" you are transferred to in going into drawdown.

Implication - clearly if it is "just a SIPP" then it's likely to be one with restricted investment choice, a fairly credible counterparty as platform, a reasonable declared platform scheme admin cost and customer service which is tbc.  My earlier thread asking about the latter turned up zero response to how good bad or indifferent they are on the phone or in drawdown in the "new" L&G pensions business (vs Reassure transfer threads ibid).

I can of course get a SIPP elsewhere at similar money with more investment choice - Vanguard, Fidelity iWeb, AJBell etc.
But if it is "not a SIPP" then perhaps it retains 90% vs 85k protection then that has a value and the equation changes. 
Vanguard comparable prices, 90% protection. Might choose to stay in it - so long as a suitable portfolio can be built which is trickier but not impossible with the current choices.

So a question for anyone with the specialist regulation + trust knowledge.  Do you know how this works or how I can best phrase the "level of protection" question with greater precision to L&G.  Their employer scheme web site sample documents did not help.  I phoned and was routed eventually to a small employer scheme new business section where I was told "all the pensions in this part of the business are DC and "workplace".   But I did not get a confident sounding answer about my protection question in drawdown so I remain unconvinced at the moment that what I have been told so far is definitive

Any help appreciated with understanding the "Life", "Employer" and "SIPP" protection category rule sets and how pension master trusts fit into them.
I know I am being a tad detail focused about this but the difference between 90% and 85k seems material all else being broadly equal - so i am mildly surprised it is not an easy question and in documents or a FAQ.

Any thoughts either about the answer or how best to "ask" formally vs legislative/regulatory backdrop are appreciated.