Drawdown Pension Transfer Experience?

JamesP8

Interested to know whether a transfer of an existing drawdown arrangement (crystallised and uncrystallised) to an alternative provider would be a relatively simple process please, if at some stage this would be sought?  

Albermarle

I believe it should not be a big issue for most providers but probably you will not be able to do it simply on line and will have to talk to the receiving provider. I have a memory that my SIPP provider will only accept a minimum transfer of £50K in this situation. 

mrfluff1987

I am in the process of moving mine to Fidelity where I have my ISA, the move has been easy. Check that you don’t have to pay a exit fee to leave. I have just found out that if fidelity go bust it’s only classed as 1 account so would only get £85,000, so I will have to cancelled. 

Albermarle

mrfluff1987 said:

I am in the process of moving mine to Fidelity where I have my ISA, the move has been easy. Check that you don’t have to pay a exit fee to leave. I have just found out that if fidelity go bust it’s only classed as 1 account so would only get £85,000, so I will have to cancelled. 

I do not think you need to cancel anything .
Firstly Fidelity as the pension and ISA provider is covered for £85K .
The investment funds that you have within the ISA and SIPP are also covered - £85K per fund house . Bit more of a grey area for IT.s ; ETF' etc and any cash you hold on the site is held with a bank with £85K cover although maybe if you have cash in the same bank separately it might count towards the £85K.

However more to the point providers like Fidelity and fund houses are not banks ( that lend money that sometimes is not paid back ) and are extremely unlikely to go bust or to be subject to major fraud. If the financial situation was so bad that a company like Fidelity went bankrupt, then you would be behind the barricades defending your last tin of beans from looters and probably burning the pension paperwork to keep warm .
Many posters on this site hold hundreds of thousands of Pounds with companies like Fidelity without any worries.

dunstonh

JamesP8 said:

Interested to know whether a transfer of an existing drawdown arrangement (crystallised and uncrystallised) to an alternative provider would be a relatively simple process please, if at some stage this would be sought?  

Really simple.

TBC15

I’m potentially in the process of transferring from AJ Bell to Fidelity. From what I have read if both Pension providers use the origo system it should take 10 working days. If not up to 10 weeks.

hyperhypo

Me too..Aegon to Fidelity in progress..my uncrystallised part done easily and promptly online... crystallised section next up via a paper form...but straight forward. Either cash or in specie. Also.... they have current cashback offer on both types until November. I've only just found out about this...here on another post..it didn't influence my choice though but nice to have.

Albermarle

TBC15 said:

I’m potentially in the process of transferring from AJ Bell to Fidelity. From what I have read if both Pension providers use the origo system it should take 10 working days. If not up to 10 weeks.

Previously I have done Aviva to Fidelity which took less than 48 hours and SW to Fidelity - about two weeks but that was a partial transfer and I had to speak to SW about it as well so I guess that delayed things. 

garmeg

Albermarle said:

TBC15 said:

I’m potentially in the process of transferring from AJ Bell to Fidelity. From what I have read if both Pension providers use the origo system it should take 10 working days. If not up to 10 weeks.

Previously I have done Aviva to Fidelity which took less than 48 hours and SW to Fidelity - about two weeks but that was a partial transfer and I had to speak to SW about it as well so I guess that delayed things. 

Presumably that was cash and not in specie?

Partial transfers from my employer pension run by Aviva to my Hargreaves Lansdown SIPP take exactly 2 weeks from filling in the details on Hargreaves' website to the cash actually appearing in the SIPP. Not bad at all.

Albermarle

Presumably that was cash and not in specie?

Yes . In any case when you transfer out of a personal pension that only has the providers own insured funds , then it has to be in cash. 

dunstonh

Partial transfers from my employer pension run by Aviva to my Hargreaves Lansdown SIPP take exactly 2 weeks from filling in the details on Hargreaves' website to the cash actually appearing in the SIPP. Not bad at all.

Aviva suffer a reputation issue with regards to being slow.   On their legacy side (old historic pensions - often with unusual terms) they can be a bit sluggish.  On their more modern/conventional stuff, they are one of the fastest.