Transfer In Specie Not An Option

ossian

Hi,

I want to transfer an old workplace pension into my Youinvest SIPP but AJ Bell cannot transfer in specie as the investment is a pooled fund. Is the pensions regulator likely to do something to change this soon? I cannot bear being out of the market. Pensions should have some sort of transfer as an index fund option.

Thanks,
Ossian

Prism

You will simply need to do a transfer as cash. I have done several over the years. Sometimes you lose, sometimes you gain.

garmeg

Cash transfers can be quick especially if both providers use the Origo system.

xylophone

I cannot bear being out of the market. 

Take the emotion out of it and get on with the transfer if that is what you want to do?

dunstonh

Most workplace pensions use pension funds.  Only a handful of SIPPs offer pension funds.  

 Is the pensions regulator likely to do something to change this soon?

No.  There is no logical reason for them to do so.  The logistics would be difficult, if not impossible and certainly wouldn't be cost-effective to implement given the marketplace today.

I fear you misunderstand the assets you are investing in.  

 Pensions should have some sort of transfer as an index fund option.

I don't follow what you are saying there.  it looks like a typing error.  Can you explain what you mean?

Brynsam

ossian said:

I want to transfer an old workplace pension into my Youinvest SIPP but AJ Bell cannot transfer in specie as the investment is a pooled fund. Is the pensions regulator likely to do something to change this soon? I cannot bear being out of the market. Pensions should have some sort of transfer as an index fund option.

Get a grip. You're as likely to gain from being out of the market for a few days as you are to lose. The regulator isn't going to do anything, partly because it simply wouldn't be viable and partly because there is no need to do anything. Most sensible people understand it's a non-problem, so why the over-reaction?

green_man

I do understand  your apprehension. I have transferred two pension pots in the past, few months and at the point I was first considering this we had the CoVId crash, so it obviously makes you nervous.  However, although the transfer process is somewhat clunky (IME) the actual time out of the market wasn’t too long - under 2 weeks. At current market levels your are just as likely to gain from the move as lose IMO.  Certainly straight after a big crash it’s something I would perhaps defer, but now - go for it.

Notepad_Phil

You could perhaps check whether you are able to do the transfer in multiple lumps. I did that with a transfer of a large pension that was similarly tied up in pooled funds and I wanted to mitigate as best I could against any sudden big market increases whilst the cash was being transferred.

It does obviously take longer, but in my case I was much happier for it to take several months than take the chance of transferring in one go. A smaller partial transfer would obviously still be hit if there was a big market increase whilst the transfer was being made, but I'd have to be very unlucky for every partial transfer to be hit in the same way.

ossian

Prism said:

You will simply need to do a transfer as cash. I have done several over the years. Sometimes you lose, sometimes you gain.

Unfortunately in most cases you lose and CAPE doesn't have any any short term predictive value.  100 day moving average may have some slight value but given the period out of the market I doubt it.  Ultimately it looks like I have to stick or twist

ossian

Brynsam said:

ossian said:

I want to transfer an old workplace pension into my Youinvest SIPP but AJ Bell cannot transfer in specie as the investment is a pooled fund. Is the pensions regulator likely to do something to change this soon? I cannot bear being out of the market. Pensions should have some sort of transfer as an index fund option.

Get a grip. You're as likely to gain from being out of the market for a few days as you are to lose. The regulator isn't going to do anything, partly because it simply wouldn't be viable and partly because there is no need to do anything. Most sensible people understand it's a non-problem, so why the over-reaction?

A loss is more likely than a gain and with volatility high there has been recently been greater than average chance of extreme movements.  Contrary to your views the regulator's stated position is that they are working towards in specie transfers being the norm and have been asking the industry to do so and hinting that they will enforce rules if companies don't find the means to solve the problems independently.

For example https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/policy/ps19-29.pdf

ossian

Well it looks like I have been very lucky .  My units sold at 0.04% off all time highs and I am awaiting the cash now.  So please everyone dump everything I want to buy in much lower