Unable to transfer my DB pension - can anyone help?

random129

I have been trying to transfer my DB pension for over a year now but cannot find a way to do it. I took independent financial advice as required by the legislation but the advice I received was to not transfer.

I wanted to transfer anyway but my IFA said they would not transfer for me because it was against their advice. They did provide me with an Appropriate advice Declaration form which they said would be enough to enable me to complete the transfer myself but the Administrators of my pension would not accept that and told me the IFA must stick with me to complete the transfer.

I have phoned several other financial advisors but cannot find one that will transfer if it is against their advice. With the new regulations in place I cannot go ahead and take advice from another IFA in case their advice is also not to transfer because I can only afford to pay the advice fees if I transfer.

Does anyone know an IFA that will transfer my pension against their advice with me as an insistent client? Or are there any other options open to me?

Any help anyone can offer would be very much appreciated.

Albermarle

You could try reading many similar threads on this forum where the subject is discussed seemingly ad infinitum.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6038905/who-will-accept-a-db-to-sipp-transfer-from-insistent-client/p1
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6273646/db-transfer#latest
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6261132/db-transfers/p1

Linton

There is a lot on the forum but the latest state of play is that there is now no proven way of transferring a DB pension against advice.  It was possible in the past using AJBell/Youinvest but this has now been blocked.

Dale72

Why would the administrators of your pension have blocked it, don't they just need to know that you have taken advice, and not what the advice is?

dunstonh

I have phoned several other financial advisors but cannot find one that will transfer if it is against their advice.

You won't.
The main reason is that the "new" adviser would have to go through the advice process again to be able to class you as an insistent client.   And the current guidance for advisers is not to transact insistent clients with DB transfers.

With the new regulations in place I cannot go ahead and take advice from another IFA in case their advice is also not to transfer because I can only afford to pay the advice fees if I transfer.

How are you paying the first adviser?

Does anyone know an IFA that will transfer my pension against their advice with me as an insistent client? Or are there any other options open to me?

No other IFA will do it as it's not possible the way you want it.
There are no other known options at this time.  A few hypothetical options have been discussed but no confirmed success.

Dale72

dunstonh, what's the score with pension administrators, is it usual for them to put a block on like this?

JoeCrystal

Because the main reason pension administrators are unwilling to accept transfers from DB pension schemes on the insistent client since they are terrified of compensating all the people who did it in cases of their losses.

The AJ Bell was the last remaining major provider willing to do so until recently (I guess it is not worth the risk anymore).

I recall that a third of all DB (£10 billion of £30 billion) transfers are done on an insistent client basis with the average fund for those advised not to transfer at £267k.

Looking at the data from FCA, I thought it is interesting that only 8.25% of the clients advised not to transfer actually went on to proceed with the transfers. Looking forward to the next defined benefit pension transfers market data update! 

dunstonh

Dale72 said:

dunstonh, what's the score with pension administrators, is it usual for them to put a block on like this?

The pension administrators with the ceding scheme only require advice to be confirmed.  They don't care what the outcome was.  That is the regulatory position.
The receiving scheme administrators have no such requirement placed on them.   Instead, it is a commercial decision based on their risk assessments.     And its that which is the current blocker as the last of the providers that would accept insistent clients has now stopped.

Dale72

dunstonh said:

The pension administrators with the ceding scheme only require advice to be confirmed.  They don't care what the outcome was.  That is the regulatory position.
The receiving scheme administrators have no such requirement placed on them.   Instead, it is a commercial decision based on their risk assessments.     And its that which is the current blocker as the last of the providers that would accept insistent clients has now stopped.

Ok, my mistake, I was reading it as his current pension administrators were blocking it. 

Albermarle

Dale72 said:

dunstonh said:

The pension administrators with the ceding scheme only require advice to be confirmed.  They don't care what the outcome was.  That is the regulatory position.
The receiving scheme administrators have no such requirement placed on them.   Instead, it is a commercial decision based on their risk assessments.     And its that which is the current blocker as the last of the providers that would accept insistent clients has now stopped.

Ok, my mistake, I was reading it as his current pension administrators were blocking it. 

Normally the DB scheme administrators are keen to offload the liability, so as long as you can prove you have taken advice they will not block anything .

random129

Thanks to everyone for your replies. To help clarify a few points, here is a bit more about my complicated case. I’m sorry it is a very long post but feel it’s best to share the full story. Maybe others have had a similar experience.

In March 2020 I requested a transfer quote from the Administrators of my DB pension and paid the required fee. I was told it would take up to 20 days to provide the quote. It actually took 61 days for them to email it to me and only then after multiple follow up phone calls and emails from me.

My IFA then emailed the administrators on 05 June 2020 to request additional information but never received a reply despite multiple follow up phone calls and emails from both my IFA and myself.

With the Guarantee Expiry Date for the quote fast approaching, my IFA finally had to provide their advice without the additional information they needed. On 11 August 2020 they advised me not to transfer. I got the impression though that they had simply decided I was not worth the hassle because they could not get a response from the Administrators so that was the simplest option for them.

They provided me with an Appropriate Advice Declaration to prove I had taken advice as required by legislation and told me that would be sufficient for me to be able to transfer my pension myself.

I phoned the Administrators but was told I could not make the transfer myself as the IFA must stick with me while they make the transfer. I therefore asked the Administrators for an extension to the Guarantee Expiry Date of the transfer quote as I felt that was justified because of the time wasted while my IFA waited for a reply to their request for information, which never came. I was told I would receive a response to my request within 10 days. I followed up my verbal request with a written email request on 13 August 2020 but despite numerous follow up phone calls and emails,  I never received a reply to my request. I was simply ignored for months.

In April 2021 I finally managed to speak to the Administrators again and a formal complaint was registered. On 27 April 2021 I received an apology and was informed by the person dealing with my complaint that he thought his colleague was wrong when they told me I could not use the Appropriate Advice Declaration to transfer my funds myself last year.

He then put my case to the Trustees and I had to wait until 15 June for their decision, which was I could not have an extension to last year’s quote and I must also take Independent Financial Advice again. In the meantime I was issued with another transfer quote, which is almost £8,000 less than last year’s quote.

I told them I was unhappy with that decision and intended to take my complaint to the Pensions Ombudsman only to be informed that they had not been dealing with my complaint according to the Internal Dispute Resolution Procedure (IDRP) so I would need to start the complaint process again. I had previously made numerous requests for a copy of their official complaints’ procedure but was repeatedly ignored. I cannot find any reference to their complaints’ procedure on their website.

I now have to wait for their final response to my IDRP complaint, or at least 8 weeks if no response, before I can make a complaint to the Pensions Ombudsman.

I cannot afford to take Independent Financial Advice again because of the change in regulations in October 2020 requiring fees to be paid even if the advice is not to transfer. I could only afford to pay the fees from my pension fund if it is transferred. I have received a few quotes and the cheapest is £4,500. How can any average person afford that kind of money for advice unless they can use their pension fund to pay for it?

I feel I am only in this position because of the Administrators very poor handling of my case. Had they not ignored requests for information from my IFA last year it is more than possible they would have advised me to transfer. Even if their decision had still been not to transfer, I would have had time to find another IFA who would approve the transfer and I could have done that without the risk of having to pay any fees if I could not ultimately transfer.

Apologies again for the very long post but I would really appreciate any input and any suggestions as what I could do next.