Closing a sipp

iansands

Hi all, both me and my wife have been mis-sold pension investments which has all been sorted by the FSCS. It has left us though with approx £2000 each in our respective sipps. I am over 55 so can close mine and get the benefits but they are charging over £600 as an exit fee. Is this normal? My wife can't take hers as she is 50 so she either has to pay £290/year +vat for the next 5 years which wont leave enough for the exit fee or pay £588 now but it has to go into another SIPP which no doubt has charges. Does this all sound right and would anyone be able to offer any advice on what we could/should do?
Thanks everyone.
Ian.

zagfles

Who is the SIPP provider? See

https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-introduces-cap-early-exit-pension-charges

iansands

Thanks for that info, do you know if that is a percentage of what is left in the sipp as the FSCS have actually taken the investments from us now so there is only a couple of grand in each.
The sipp provider was Guardian but they have gone to the wall and Hartley Pensions have taken over.

Thanks

Dox

Why does it have to go to another SIPP? A stakeholder pension would almost certainly be cheaper for such a small sum.

iansands

I'm using the wrong terminology by the sound of it. What is a stakeholder pension?

zagfles

Might be worth you having a chat with TPAS 

https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk

Albermarle

I'm using the wrong terminology by the sound of it. What is a stakeholder pension?

Sipp , stakeholder, personal pension etc are all pensions and subject to the same rules . A stakeholder is simpler to operate than a SIPP , which is why it was suggested.

iansands

Spoken to the FCA about early exit charges but they aren't able to interpret their own info, they advised I contact CAB. I spoke to pension advisory service hoping they could tell me what exit fees are based on but they told me I should contact my provider again, which I have and am awaiting a response. Any other advice?