SIPPs, ETFs and UFPLS

green_man

Thats intriguing.  Don't you have to pay AJBell platform fees on on top the Halifax fees ? (AjBell fees are 0.25% up to £250k). I'm wondering why you've set it up like this (is it not possible to do UFPLS directly with Halifax ?) and how its set up in practice.

Yes, sorry, not clear. As Albermarle says my SIPP provider is Halifax, it’s just they use AJBell to do the admin, so in fact I deal with AJBell when arranging a UFPLS, but the charges and contract I have is with Halifax.  

Also, do you do your single withdrawal each year in March (end of the tax year), to avoid a massive tax charge, which requires clawing back ? I'd be interested to know if that works in practice.  

I do a single withdrawal in April each year. Tax is payed on a month1 basis, which means you do overpay tax significantly. This is then claimed back online using form P55 via my personal tax account. Refund took 3 weeks last time.   

With Halifax it is £180 plus £180 for a drawdown fund even if not taking income. That would be 3 times as much.

This is true...but if you just take UFPLS payments (as in my case) you are not ‘in drawdown’ so don’t pay the £180.  You only pay that £180 if you are carrying crystallised funds in your SIPP. If you did have crystallised funds you wouldn’t be doing UFPLS (typically) so would just pay the £180/year rather than the £90 UFPLS fee.

The point made earlier applies though.  Everyone’s scenario is a bit different, you need to weigh up the costs/options/convenience for your situation. My costs were just shown as a typical example.  In my case HArgreaves Langsdown would be over £2500/year, so it certainly pays to think through your options IMO.