Finding a Suitable Advisor

Malvolio

I need to find professional advice on pension commencement decisions I face shortly with my DB pension.  I'm in the fortunate position of having exceeded the LTA a few years ago, at which point my employer provided an UURBS (nowadays I believe this is referred to as an EFRBS) scheme for my subsequent pension accrual.  On retirement, I can (currently) take up to the 25% tax free lump sum from the Registered scheme (the total value of this scheme is capped at my protected LTA value), and up to 100% of the benefits accumulated in the UURBS scheme though any cash is subject to tax, plus NI if I take more than 25%.  Whilst there is a substantial tax and NI hit from taking cash from the UURBS compared with the Registered scheme, I need to weigh this up against the long term implications of remaining dependent on the two schemes. 

I don't believe there is any statutory protection on the UURBS and there may be protection limits on the Registered scheme if it were to fail.  So a big part of the decision is weighing up the options of liberating cash from one or both, taking account of the tax/NI bill on the UURBS and the risks associated with investing the proceeds, versus the long term tax implications and security risks of remaining in the schemes, particularly the UURBS.

A year ago I used the Unbiased website to try to find local advisors who could help with this scenario but the only one who contacted me was a local IFA who was not able/willing to help once I explained in more detail my pension arrangements and the type of advice I'm looking for.  Is this the sort of advice that a regular IFA would normally provide or do I need to be looking for someone more specialised?

JohnWinder

https://www.evidenceinvestor.com/find-an-adviser/

tacpot12

I found a good adviser just by searching the local area usign google. You need an IFA that has a good tax practitioner. Some IFAs also have estate planners; have a think about whether you want to also look at your Inheritance Tax situation if you are going to get some financial planning done, and get a price to cover everything you need. 

Albermarle

It  might well be that the IFA you contacted had never dealt with a similar case before and/or preferred to stick with clients with simpler needs .

dunstonh

Albermarle said:

It  might well be that the IFA you contacted had never dealt with a similar case before and/or preferred to stick with clients with simpler needs .

Probably the case.
Although if the OP used unbiased, then less general practitioner IFA firms seem to be listed on there compared to days when Unbiased was an IFA directory.    Since Unbiased moved from being an IFA directory to a lead generation service for FAs and IFAs, most of the IFAs I know dropped their paid-for listing.  Nowadays, it seems to have mostly FAs/Wealth Manager firms.  Although you do still tend to see the city/large town firms.   I would have thought the larger localised general practitioner firms would be able to offer their services.    Wealth managers won't be interested and many national firms wont be (the employer would likely have restrictions on advice provision on non-mainstream products).