Sun Life don't offer regular cash withdrawals. What is my best option?

Belenus

Hello, I have a pension fund of about £55,000 with Sun Life. I want to withdraw some of that in the current tax year as cash. I don't want to withdraw it all as that would take me into the 40% tax bracket for this tax year.

Sun Life don't offer that facility and suggest this on their web site:

If you want to take the money in your pension pot as cash, but don’t want to take it all at once, you could take regular cash sums from your pot instead. This can help your tax bill. We don’t offer this, so if you’re interested, you’ll need to shop around.
Our annuity partner, Legal & General, has created a plan that lets you receive your money over a time period as short as 3 years or as long as 25 years. It’s called the Cash-Out Retirement Plan. To find out more, go to Legal & General’s website or call them on 0800 316 3062. Legal & General is a separate company from Sun Life Financial of Canada, so you might want to review their privacy policies and terms and conditions when you use the site.

Is that Legal and General option as good as anything else or are there better options?

I am 68 years old. I plan to take that pension fund as cash, spread over multiple years to limit my tax liability. I do not want an annuity as my wife and I already have enough regular monthly pension income. I just want a safe home for the fund that I can withdraw as cash from time to time.

Thanks

Albermarle

The problem is that your pension is an old one , so has limited options for withdrawing the money . The solution is to transfer it to a new pension provider who can offer a drawdown facility . In this case 25% is tax free and 75% taxable . You would be able to take the 25% all at once and then the taxable income in stages . Or you could even take the tax free money in stages either with or without taxable cash. There are plenty of flexible options .
You would need to choose a provider and register with them, and then request them to transfer the Sun Life Pension in .
The only possible issue is if the Sun Life pension has some guarantees of some kind, as opposed to just being a pot of money.
As far as I know the L&G cash out/annuity  plan is not that great, but probably best to wait for other comments.
I am 68 years old. I plan to take that pension fund as cash
You can not take money from a pension fund in anything but cash , so not sure what you mean by that ?

xylophone

You would need to transfer the pension  to one offering the flexibility you require.
One example
https://www.hl.co.uk/pensions/transfer-to-the-sipp

https://www.hl.co.uk/retirement/drawdown

Another example

https://www.fidelity.co.uk/pension-drawdown/?ef_id=EAIaIQobChMIkYrpv5ba7AIVEu7tCh30WArHEAAYASAAEgKQY_D_BwE:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!8153!3!409333648957!b!!g!!+drawdown&utm_source=google&utm_medium=paid_search&utm_campaign=UK_-_Generic_-_Retirement_Drawdown_-_BMM&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkYrpv5ba7AIVEu7tCh30WArHEAAYASAAEgKQY_D_BwE

Albermarle

Regarding Fidelity they have a minimum transfer amount of £50K , if you want to immediately start withdrawing from the pension.
However there is a cashback offer of £100 and they will pay any exit fees that Sun Life may charge .