Embark Platform

Peter314

Alliance Trust Savings have emailed to give notice that my SIPP is to be moved to Embark Investment Services Ltd, with fees being approximately the same. The move will happen no earlier than the end of July 2020.

I hadn't heard of Embark before this. The fee levels should be fine but I would be interested to hear comments from anyone who has used them, on the quality of their customer service and ease of use of their online platform.

I no longer have an IFA, in case that makes a difference...

Albermarle

For retail/non advised customers of ATS , they were transferred over to Interactive Investor platform last year .
Advised investors are going to Embark later this year .
As you were advised, but not anymore you seem to fall inbetween the two . Maybe worth calling ATS to clarify as you do not really want to get transferred to Embark and then later they say you have to transfer out again. From their website it looks like they only deal with clients who have a financial advisor.

Peter314

They do cater for formerly advised clients, but it's a personal pension not a SIPP, and from the excerpt below it seems they want to discourage such clients from switching.
in the absence of positive reviews from others here, I'm going to look into switching now, maybe to ii.

"What if I no longer have a financial adviser?

You may wish to consider moving to a service that’s designed for those who are making their own investment decisions and managing their own investment portfolios.

If you wish to close your account(s) we will not charge you an exit fee. You will need to send us an instruction or if you are transferring to another provider, we will need to receive completed transfer out forms. We have instructed in the letter when we need these by.

Otherwise, your account(s) will move. Embark platform will set you up with the relevant access to your existing account(s), but you will not be able to open any new account(s) in the future."

nergelag

I was transferred too from Liberty SIPP.  I'm finding Embark's service truly awful.  Replies to emails take weeks and I've already had to claim for compensation for a failure to act on an investment instruction.