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Scottish Widows drawdown - any good?

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  • michaels
    michaels Posts: 29,091 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited 19 June 2020 at 9:03PM
    Thanks - I need to investigate running a sipp alongside to reduce the charges.  The SW fund I am in looks to be fairly high equities and overly UK focused and of course the charges are not great if you choose a non-SW fund.  Do you initiate the partial transfer from within the SIPP?  Can I ask which platform you chose for this and why?
    I think....
  • Albermarle
    Albermarle Posts: 27,762 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Seventh Anniversary Name Dropper
    michaels said:
    Thanks - I need to investigate running a sipp alongside to reduce the charges.  The SW fund I am in looks to be fairly high equities and overly UK focused and of course the charges are not great if you choose a non-SW fund.  Do you initiate the partial transfer from within the SIPP?  Can I ask which platform you chose for this and why?
    Yes you would ask the SIPP provider to initiate the transfer. Sometimes the ceding scheme will want you to sign something but often not . All the usual mainstream SIPP providers should do this with no problem. There are even cashback schemes offered from time to time for transferring pension funds. 
    Just be careful about charges and do not assume a SIPP will always be cheaper than an 'old fashioned' pension. Suggest you first double check the charges on your workplace pension . Sometimes the employer discounts are not obvious.
  • dunstonh said:
    Legacy personal pensions at SW do not offer drawdown.  They either need to be already in their retirement account or you pay them for tied advice to use the retirement account.    As its not the best option available, paying for tied advice would be pointless.
    I have been reading this forum for a few months now, as I'm 55 next May, and I really value your insights. I have a legacy Workplace Pension with SW and I have been in contact with them in the past month and they have informed me 

    "This policy does not offer flexi-access drawdown. We are able to offer an internal transfer to a flexi-access drawdown policy without advice being required if the policy value is over £10,000 and the policyholder is of retirement age."

    I have a pot with SW, another with Aviva to which my employer and I are both contributing and a small FAVC from many years ago with SLOC, so I'm researching options for consolidation or not, so the SW position is of real interest.

    I'm fortunate that my first job built up a modest DB pension which I can access at 60 and I have full NIC contributions of over 35 years (I'd overlooked the payments made from age 16 for 3 years even if still at school). What I do with my pension pots is my key focus,  aligning the LTA tax position, when to crystallize and whether or not to access the TFLS. I find this forum an excellent source of debate and pointers on where to research further.  

     
  • Albermarle
    Albermarle Posts: 27,762 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Seventh Anniversary Name Dropper
    The first thing I would find out , is the charges for the new SW pension on offer.
    Workplace pensions are often discounted and quite competitively priced. Even though it as an ex workplace pension you should still have the benefit of any discounts . However this might not be the case after you transfer.
    Second point would the new pension offer a reasonable choice for funds. This type of pension will normally be limited to a couple of hundred pension funds , but that is fine for many people.
    Thirdly how do you get on with the SW website , I think it can be a bit clunky.
  • Dazed_and_C0nfused
    Dazed_and_C0nfused Posts: 17,524 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fifth Anniversary Name Dropper
    edited 14 November 2021 at 5:02PM
    Then check your State Pension forecast on gov.uk to see what you have accrued to date.

    As you are under transitional rules having over 35 years doesn't mean you will necessarily have reached the standard £179.60/week.
  • Then check your State Pension forecast on gov.uk to see what you have accrued to date.

    As you are under transitional rules having over 35 years doesn't mean you will necessarily have reached the standard £179.60/week.
    Thanks, I had and the forecast is for the full £179.60. It was whilst I was checking the forecast, I saw the contributions for the three years back in the 80's.
  • I've fair sized SIPP in Interactive Investor and my current company "personal pension" at Scottish Widows (about half the size of the II pension).
    I'm planning to retire soon (probably at the start of next year) and wondering what the drawdown experience is like with Scottish Widows or whether to move elsewhere.
    Clearly I could consolidate the whole lot at Interactive Investor but I'm not sure I want that many eggs in one basket.
    For those that know about these things, the SW pension appears to be what they call a "Group Personal Pension for the Employed."  The SW website doesn't provide much detail on drawdown options, though they talk about "flexible access" which presumably means some kind of flexible drawdown scheme.
    Me too!
    Current employment is a GPPP scheme with SW, and all prior pensions are in ii.
    I'm a couple of years behind you though, and will be going through the same thought process.

    Key factors:
    1. ongoing costs. ii is £20 per month all in
    2. risk. There could be complete failure of one platform, but I don't personally see that as reason to split across 12+ platforms to keep within the FSCS limit. The greater risk would be some sort of ongoing business interruption, so it would still be prudent to hold some monies at a second provider.
    3. features
    This is something I've not yet investigated in detail. I believe SW will require you to move your accumulation monies into a decumulation vehicle, from where you can withdraw. I don't know how flexible this is, and the costs of doing so.  Some providers charge per transaction; some are not really set up for monthly drawdown; some will struggle with auto calc of LTA etc.
    I suspect ii is a more modern offering than SW, based on the clunkiness of the latter.
    4. available funds. Not sure of your approach, but I'm expecting to be mostly in global trackers for at least the early part of my early retirement. ii has VWRL whereas SW has a few similar global trackers. I presume these will be available in the decumulation product as well as the accumulation side.

    i would be grateful if you might keep us abreast of your investigation. It will greatly help me in 2 years' time 
  • Albermarle
    Albermarle Posts: 27,762 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Seventh Anniversary Name Dropper
    2. risk. There could be complete failure of one platform, but I don't personally see that as reason to split across 12+ platforms to keep within the FSCS limit. The greater risk would be some sort of ongoing business interruption, so it would still be prudent to hold some monies at a second provider.

    I have a similar view, but an added point is that your pension with SW is 100% covered for compensation , regardless of the reason, as they are insured pension funds presumably, branded as SW ( even if the underlying fund is not actually a SW one ) . Same would apply for other similar companies like Aviva , Prudential etc .

    Whilst SIPP platforms have only restricted compensation.

    However the chance of a mainstream SIPP platform or a fundhouse collapsing is extremely small .

    Plus some of these pension companies are moving more towards SIPP type arrangements for new accounts , although in some cases they only offer their own pension funds , so not really a SIPP . As far as I know the compensation status here is not fully clear .

  • For what it's worth, I ended up transferring everything out of SW when I retired early this year and putting it in my Interactive Investor SIPP so I could manage flexible drawdown there.

    I have several years of spending in various savings accounts, so the temporary unavailability of II's systems, while annoying, would probably not be a disaster. 

    So far, generally happy. II's fees are low and the systems seem to work, and while they are nothing like as slick as Hargreaves Lansdown, they at least feel like they have been built sometime in the last decade, unlike the SW web stuff which seemed laughably antique. (I'm sure they have other systems which are better, but I can only report from my own experience).

    So far, so good.
  • Albermarle
    Albermarle Posts: 27,762 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Seventh Anniversary Name Dropper
    For what it's worth, I ended up transferring everything out of SW when I retired early this year and putting it in my Interactive Investor SIPP so I could manage flexible drawdown there.

    I have several years of spending in various savings accounts, so the temporary unavailability of II's systems, while annoying, would probably not be a disaster. 

    So far, generally happy. II's fees are low and the systems seem to work, and while they are nothing like as slick as Hargreaves Lansdown, they at least feel like they have been built sometime in the last decade, unlike the SW web stuff which seemed laughably antique. (I'm sure they have other systems which are better, but I can only report from my own experience).

    So far, so good.
    Another big pension company - Aegon, often attract even more negative comments about their website/systems than SW.
    Standard Life ( the retail bit now owned by Phoenix) and Aviva seem somewhat more advanced in my opinion and easier to use than say II or HL for an inexperienced investor.
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