Does Anyone Have Experience of or Recommendations for ii SIPP in Drawdown?

tfc

Has anyone got views on the ii SIPP product with a portfolio in drawdown and taking income from it.

I am currently with Fidelity, and don't usually do more than 10 trades per year . Because of the portfolio value the Fidelity fees are much higher than would be the case with ii. (There's also the issue of the Fidelity platform still being very clunky in displaying information, and the snail's pace of any real development in their system.)

I am already an ii ISA user, so I am familiar with their system and methods of working there and generally satisfied with it.

How well does the ii SIPP payment system work?

Is it easy to make changes to payment amounts etc?

What are ii's SIPP team like dealing with SIPP queries?

Any pitfalls to watch out for?

Thanks

Joey_Soap

Your timing is good. From October 1st, II are ending their monthly fee for drawdown. A SIPP with them will cost £10 per month whether in drawdown or not. Their SIPP fees are effect halving for a drawdown account. I have my SIPP and ISA with II. They are just fine. The II website isn't the most polished in the world but given what you pay, it's  absolutely fine. Everything you need is there. They answer secure messages promptly from your account too if you ask them anything. I have never had to phone them, so can't  comment on that. Overall, given the very low cost for a decent sized sum, II are very good indeed and the best value out there in my opinion.

Algie

In general I agree with Joey_Soap. Amending regular payment amounts has to be done by downloading a form, completing and signing it and posting it back to them which is a little inconvenient, but hopefully something they will address in the future. Taking additional benefits also involves quite a lot of downloading and printing which is a bit laborious and a little slow. On the other hand, I did a transfer in from another provider and that was all completed in less than a week!

shinytop

I have a SIPP in drawdown an an ISA with II and they are fine.  Yes it's a bit unwieldy and manual but II seem to be trying to improve things, do more online, etc. I also have a SIPP with HL and tbh they are much the same.

tfc

Thank you for your input. I think I will make the move. Fidelity had it's chance with me (for too long!)

Albermarle

tfc said:

Thank you for your input. I think I will make the move. Fidelity had it's chance with me (for too long!)

Following quite a lot of updates , some very recently , I do not really find Fidelity's website clunky anymore.
Maybe I am just not a very demanding client !

TBC15

tfc said:

Thank you for your input. I think I will make the move. Fidelity had it's chance with me (for too long!)

I’m about to move to Fidelity what’s so bad about it?

unkle

I moved from Fidelity to ii
nothing wrong with fidelity’s platform, just simply the charges if you have a sizeable pot.

Ciprico

I moved to II a couple of years ago, not in drawdown yet, but they were running a promotion and I gained a few thousand pounds for doing something I was going to do anyway. I don't think they are doing a promotion now, but if you're not in a particular hurry could be worth waiting a bit and keeping your eyes open for next promotion...

Albermarle

unkle said:

I moved from Fidelity to ii
nothing wrong with fidelity’s platform, just simply the charges if you have a sizeable pot.

Fidelity are on the more expensive side for funds, but are very low cost if you hold mainly IT's/ETF's , especially for a SIPP
Some of the more cost conscious posters on this forum , hold  funds with II/iweb and IT's/ETFs with Fidelity.

StellaN

I'm with Fidelity for my SIPP and I find the new website good enough for my needs. In my opinion it is also great value for money for those who only hold IT's or ETF's in their SIPP because the charges are capped at £45 per annum. They used to have a limited number of IT's and ETF's on offer but this has grown substantially. In the past, I have also requested if they could add an IT or ETF and this has been done so no complaints from me.

Other bonus points to consider is that there are no exit fees (if you change your mind) and no charges for drawdown. They have specialist advisors for drawdown who are very good and are different to their regular customer services team. They also offer switch incentives on a regular basis so anybody with quite a big pot of money can earn themselves another tidy sum of money.