How do I set up a SIPP for someone who does not speak English and can’t use a computer

bowlhead99

p00hsticks said:

Brynsam said:

Why does she (or you) need to speak at all? You can do everything online for her, or print out hard copy forms, fill them in and get her to sign.

This - I set up a personal pension online with Aviva, have transferred another pension into it, continue to contribute to it and have taken money out of it, all electronically and without having to speak to anyone. In my experience it's much quicker and easier than my OH's one with Hargreaves Lansdowne appears to be (e.g. my £240 monthly contributions get the £60 tax relief creditted straight away, and there's no need to fill in, sign or post any paper forms at any point)

Presumably OP is thinking that other people's examples of simply needing to click a few buttons online and it all working out really quickly and easily, may not be quite as easy when the pension being transferred from is not in her name but is instead someone else's pension being made available to her under a pension sharing order.

However assuming the ex spouse's pension has already been split into 'his and hers' by the previous pension provider, and she's only moving to Aviva SIPP because they offer features that the existing Provider X doesn't, then really what she's doing is equivalent to something that hundreds of thousands of people do every year - transferring one DC pension pot in her name at Provider A to another DC pension pot in her name at Provider B. This is something that the vast majority of those hundreds of thousands of people achieve without having to go through difficult phone calls, as providers usually have online forms or paper-based forms to accomplish this pretty easily. Pension firms handle billions of pounds worth of transfers every quarter.

So the concern may be unfounded.

[Deleted User]

xylophone said:

IFA would be a very good idea in this particular case. 

The amount in question is only £70,000 and the OP's mother wants to access around £40,000 of that  as soon as possible.

Exactly. She is clueless and the OP isn’t in a position to help. Money spent on advice will be well spent. 

dunstonh

sj15 said:

dunstonh said:

We looked at Hargreaves and my mum hadn't heard of them.

She probably hasn't heard of most of the big players.   Just some of the old fashioned insurers.

She was told about Aviva from someone she knows and we thought it's best to go with a household name. 

Most Aviva pensions are placed via IFAs.

If she cannot handle online then would a local IFA that speaks her native tongue be useful? 

We went on unbiased.co.uk and spoke to 2 IFA's initially who wanted 3% and 3.5% respectively. They did not speak any other languages and we didn't feel like we needed their service. Not knocking their services, it's just my mum knows what she wants. A tax free lump sum + additional amount (which we know is taxable) to get her back on the property ladder. With the leftover being invested in a fund later. 

Do you live an area with a high number of people that can speak her language?   Often there are IFAs in those communities that come from a similar background and can speak the same language.
IFAs charge but they do not have commission built into the products.   Even with the charge, they can be cheaper in the long run than some of the DIY providers being looked at.  They can also help avoid expensive mistakes.

You said in post 1: What pensions companies have branches to go in to?
So, you initially ask the question but now say you dont need their service.    IFAs are the "branches" effectively.   

Brynsam

Deleted_User said:

xylophone said:

IFA would be a very good idea in this particular case. 

The amount in question is only £70,000 and the OP's mother wants to access around £40,000 of that  as soon as possible.

Exactly. She is clueless and the OP isn’t in a position to help. Money spent on advice will be well spent. 

Why? Setting up an online SIPP isn't rocket science and few providers are likely to want to ring up and start chatting to mum. 

OP, good explanation here (ignore the bits about specialist SIPPs such as property SIPPS and scroll down towards the bit about setting one up): https://www.onlinemoneyadvisor.co.uk/pensions/sipps/set-up-sipp/

sj15

bigadaj said:

sj15 said:

Brynsam said:

Why does she (or you) need to speak at all? You can do everything online for her, or print out hard copy forms, fill them in and get her to sign.

This was my plan.. Get the money transferred in to a new pot and I could help her draw it down online. 
It's just I had a call with Aviva earlier and they were saying she needs to go online and do it herself and if they call her she needs to answer any questions herself. So I thought if they called her - we're screwed as she will struggle to answer.
I understand power of attorney is an option - just seems extreme. But I don't have many more options.  

Aviva won't deal with you without power of attorney. If you do things online with your mother they have no way of knowing that isn't your mother dealing with it, they wouldn't tacitly approve of this but if they don't know they can't stop it. The difficulty with a sipp is that it needs to be managed and invested by someone with a little knowledge. Have you calculated how much tax would be paid, it's likely to be fairly substantial. 

Yes I have read up on tax implications. I also understand her first couple of withdrawals might be emergency taxed. Which we can claim back from HRMC within 4 weeks. 

sj15

Brynsam said:

sj15 said:

Brynsam said:

Why does she (or you) need to speak at all? You can do everything online for her, or print out hard copy forms, fill them in and get her to sign.

This was my plan.. Get the money transferred in to a new pot and I could help her draw it down online. 
It's just I had a call with Aviva earlier and they were saying she needs to go online and do it herself and if they call her she needs to answer any questions herself. So I thought if they called her - we're screwed as she will struggle to answer.
I understand power of attorney is an option - just seems extreme. But I don't have many more options.  

The chances of any pension provider ringing to ask questions about such a simple set up must be pretty remote, but just use another provider - plenty of reputable ones available. HL is one, A J Bell another, both well established. 

As this is part of a pension sharing order from a divorce, and the money is coming from a Defined Benefit pension (which she is not able to stay in), this would be a bit more complicated (I assume) than a normal transfer.

sj15

bowlhead99 said:

p00hsticks said:

Brynsam said:

Why does she (or you) need to speak at all? You can do everything online for her, or print out hard copy forms, fill them in and get her to sign.

This - I set up a personal pension online with Aviva, have transferred another pension into it, continue to contribute to it and have taken money out of it, all electronically and without having to speak to anyone. In my experience it's much quicker and easier than my OH's one with Hargreaves Lansdowne appears to be (e.g. my £240 monthly contributions get the £60 tax relief creditted straight away, and there's no need to fill in, sign or post any paper forms at any point)

Presumably OP is thinking that other people's examples of simply needing to click a few buttons online and it all working out really quickly and easily, may not be quite as easy when the pension being transferred from is not in her name but is instead someone else's pension being made available to her under a pension sharing order.

However assuming the ex spouse's pension has already been split into 'his and hers' by the previous pension provider, and she's only moving to Aviva SIPP because they offer features that the existing Provider X doesn't, then really what she's doing is equivalent to something that hundreds of thousands of people do every year - transferring one DC pension pot in her name at Provider A to another DC pension pot in her name at Provider B. This is something that the vast majority of those hundreds of thousands of people achieve without having to go through difficult phone calls, as providers usually have online forms or paper-based forms to accomplish this pretty easily. Pension firms handle billions of pounds worth of transfers every quarter.

So the concern may be unfounded.

This is a transfer occurring from her ex-husbands defined benefit pension as part of a divorce pension sharing order. 
I hope the concerns are unfounded and that in the background it all goes smoothly. 

sj15

Deleted_User said:

xylophone said:

IFA would be a very good idea in this particular case. 

The amount in question is only £70,000 and the OP's mother wants to access around £40,000 of that  as soon as possible.

Exactly. She is clueless and the OP isn’t in a position to help. Money spent on advice will be well spent. 

Please expand on this.
My mother has a pension share coming her way from a DB pension and knows exactly what she wants to do with it.

I.e. take out the tax free lump sum, then some more (she understand the tax implication - and emergency tax needed to be claimed back). The rest she wants to invest and possibly pay in to later.

What makes it clueless? We've had initial consultations with multiple IFA's and told them our plan and they were happy to implement it for us. We're trying to save a few grand by doing it ourselves.

If you think there is something obvious we've missed then let us know. Presumably IFA's will hit the same language barrier hurdles with a provider like Aviva or HL or will they set it up with for us and happily deal with me instead of my mum?

Thrugelmir

sj15 said:

Deleted_User said:

xylophone said:

IFA would be a very good idea in this particular case. 

The amount in question is only £70,000 and the OP's mother wants to access around £40,000 of that  as soon as possible.

Exactly. She is clueless and the OP isn’t in a position to help. Money spent on advice will be well spent. 

 happily deal with me instead of my mum?

Providing you have the legal authority to do so. At the very least there's GDPR to be considered. 

sj15

dunstonh said:

sj15 said:

dunstonh said:

We looked at Hargreaves and my mum hadn't heard of them.

She probably hasn't heard of most of the big players.   Just some of the old fashioned insurers.

She was told about Aviva from someone she knows and we thought it's best to go with a household name. 

Most Aviva pensions are placed via IFAs.

If she cannot handle online then would a local IFA that speaks her native tongue be useful? 

We went on unbiased.co.uk and spoke to 2 IFA's initially who wanted 3% and 3.5% respectively. They did not speak any other languages and we didn't feel like we needed their service. Not knocking their services, it's just my mum knows what she wants. A tax free lump sum + additional amount (which we know is taxable) to get her back on the property ladder. With the leftover being invested in a fund later. 

Do you live an area with a high number of people that can speak her language?   Often there are IFAs in those communities that come from a similar background and can speak the same language.
IFAs charge but they do not have commission built into the products.   Even with the charge, they can be cheaper in the long run than some of the DIY providers being looked at.  They can also help avoid expensive mistakes.

You said in post 1: What pensions companies have branches to go in to?
So, you initially ask the question but now say you dont need their service.    IFAs are the "branches" effectively.   

To be clear, we want to set up and do a pension transfer.

As this may be a struggle online or over phone (language barrier/lack of computer skills), popping in to branch would be helpful.

But that's not an option by the looks of it. Would a financial advisor be able to work around this - i.e. they set up the pension for my mum directly with a provider? Or will they work out the best pension for her and she would still have to go online and set it up herself anyways?  Thus hitting the same hurdle?