Interactive Investor slow

Chickereeeee

I see that II are now saying it may take 5 days to respond to secure messages, and it seems like they are (still awaiting a response to one from last Friday.)

Also, although in theory you can crystallise your SIPP using online methods within 10 days, in practice (e.g. I transferred in two SIPPs to consolidate) it seems in many cases you have to use the paper/pdf form method that can take 8 weeks or more. Makes it difficult to guess where you will be wrt LTA!

[Deleted User]

That's the main reason I chose HL, I crystallised on line and received the TFLS within 3 days. My portfolio is ITs and ETFs so the cost to me is £16.67 a month (capped)

I transferred from ii to HL six months before crystallisation 

Thrugelmir

If the investments have been liquidated into cash in readiness for withdrawl. Where's the LTA issue?  . 

EdSwippet

Chickereeeee said:

Also, although in theory you can crystallise your SIPP using online methods within 10 days, in practice (e.g. I transferred in two SIPPs to consolidate) it seems in many cases you have to use the paper/pdf form method that can take 8 weeks or more. Makes it difficult to guess where you will be wrt LTA!

My very recent (two weeks ago) experience with Interactive Investor. Admittedly just one anecdote, but might be useful data.

• Sunday: Completed Interactive Investor's fully online crystallisation form. Requested partial crystallisation of my SIPP, taking the PCLS but no other income (LTA mitigation!).
• Monday: Entered sell orders to raise enough cash to cover the PCLS.
• Thursday: Sell orders settled.
• Friday: PCLS cash taken from my SIPP account.
• Tuesday: PCLS arrives at my bank.
• Wednesday: Interactive Investor places confirmation and LTA certificate in my online account.

No actual paper or PDF formery required anywhere. The LTA certificate is dated for Tuesday, but states the date of the BCE as eleven days prior, so the Friday before the Sunday on which I completed Interactive Investor's forms! A strong indication there then that in this instance I got exactly the LTA percentage I was aiming for.

Maybe other SIPP providers' processes are slicker; don't know, as I've not used them. However, given the amount of CYA that the government makes platforms do for pension withdrawals, Interactive Investor's method here seemed pretty good to me. Certainly good enough for purpose.

Six working days end-to-end. And it's entirely possible that two or three of those six days were because I held things up by not selling to raise the PCLS until after completing the withdrawal forms. Looking closely at my account's transaction history, I can see PCLS withdrawals followed by instant reversals across the three day settlement period. Perhaps Interactive Investor's system trying to action this earlier, but unable to because I didn't yet have the ready cash.

EdSwippet

Thrugelmir said:

If the investments have been liquidated into cash in readiness for withdrawal. Where's the LTA issue?  . 

For a platform that fully segregates crystallised and uncrystallised SIPP components, it would certainly be possible to move the entire uncrystallised component to cash and so get a fixed point relative to the LTA.

However, if crystallising and taking only the PCLS, which is what you do to mitigate LTA issues, you would not want to cash in the entire uncrystallised component. You only want to crystallise 25% of it, and leave the rest invested. Otherwise, you'd have to reinvest the 75% non-PCLS part later, creating unwanted trading costs and a lot of avoidable out-of-market risk.

Frustrating things further, Interactive Investor does not segregate the components. Instead you have a single pot within which a known percentage is crystallised. This structure means you simply cannot liquidate the uncrystallised component alone. For a SIPP that is already part-crystallised then, even more out-of-market headaches if you want absolute LTA percentage usage certainty on a given crystallisation BCE.

Chickereeeee

EdSwippet said:

Thrugelmir said:

If the investments have been liquidated into cash in readiness for withdrawal. Where's the LTA issue?  . 

For a platform that fully segregates crystallised and uncrystallised SIPP components, it would certainly be possible to move the entire uncrystallised component to cash and so get a fixed point relative to the LTA.

However, if crystallising and taking only the PCLS, which is what you do to mitigate LTA issues, you would not want to cash in the entire uncrystallised component. You only want to crystallise 25% of it, and leave the rest invested. Otherwise, you'd have to reinvest the 75% non-PCLS part later, creating unwanted trading costs and a lot of avoidable out-of-market risk.

Frustrating things further, Interactive Investor does not segregate the components. Instead you have a single pot within which a known percentage is crystallised. This structure means you simply cannot liquidate the uncrystallised component alone. For a SIPP that is already part-crystallised then, even more out-of-market headaches if you want absolute LTA percentage usage certainty on a given crystallisation BCE.

What he said.

Chickereeeee

EdSwippet said:

Chickereeeee said:

Also, although in theory you can crystallise your SIPP using online methods within 10 days, in practice (e.g. I transferred in two SIPPs to consolidate) it seems in many cases you have to use the paper/pdf form method that can take 8 weeks or more. Makes it difficult to guess where you will be wrt LTA!

My very recent (two weeks ago) experience with Interactive Investor. Admittedly just one anecdote, but might be useful data.

• Sunday: Completed Interactive Investor's fully online crystallisation form. Requested partial crystallisation of my SIPP, taking the PCLS but no other income (LTA mitigation!).
• Monday: Entered sell orders to raise enough cash to cover the PCLS.
• Thursday: Sell orders settled.
• Friday: PCLS cash taken from my SIPP account.
• Tuesday: PCLS arrives at my bank.
• Wednesday: Interactive Investor places confirmation and LTA certificate in my online account.

No actual paper or PDF formery required anywhere. The LTA certificate is dated for Tuesday, but states the date of the BCE as eleven days prior, so the Friday before the Sunday on which I completed Interactive Investor's forms! A strong indication there then that in this instance I got exactly the LTA percentage I was aiming for.

Maybe other SIPP providers' processes are slicker; don't know, as I've not used them. However, given the amount of CYA that the government makes platforms do for pension withdrawals, Interactive Investor's method here seemed pretty good to me. Certainly good enough for purpose.

Six working days end-to-end. And it's entirely possible that two or three of those six days were because I held things up by not selling to raise the PCLS until after completing the withdrawal forms. Looking closely at my account's transaction history, I can see PCLS withdrawals followed by instant reversals across the three day settlement period. Perhaps Interactive Investor's system trying to action this earlier, but unable to because I didn't yet have the ready cash.

Yes, but as I say, apparently  I cannot use the online method. I had to fill in a pdf form and return using secure messaging, which possibly is a 5 day delay in itself.

The reason  I cannot  use the faster online method was apparently 1) I had (rashly) started to transfer another, fully crystallised, SIPP to II, and, for some reason, had to wait for this to complete. Once transfer was complete, 2) the new reason is because (I think) have two SIPPs in my account, one fully crystallised  and one 50% crystallised. I thought I would have one combined SIPP, with x% crystallised.

EdSwippet

Chickereeeee said:

Yes, but as I say, apparently  I cannot use the online method. I had to fill in a pdf form and return using secure messaging, which possibly is a 5 day delay in itself.

Hm. That's a drag. I assume you've clarified this with them? I recall having to do this a while back, including some to-and-fro with projections, questionnaires and so on, but for me at least, Interactive Investor had moved to everything online when I came to repeat the process.

Have you tried phoning them to get their attention perhaps a bit sooner? Your request isn't really a customer service issue, but rather something that will just end up being routed directly to their pensions administrator.

Chickereeeee said:

Once transfer was complete, 2) the new reason is because (I think) have two SIPPs in my account, one fully crystallised  and one 50% crystallised. I thought I would have one combined SIPP, with x% crystallised.

There are some squirrelly rules around combining pensions where both are crystallised -- in short, the LTA test at age 75 has to be applied to each 'arrangement' separately (meaning a loss in one cannot offset a gain in the other, so sarcastic golf clap yet again for the LTA rules there). I don't know if that carries over to where just one pension is part-crystallised.

In my case, I had two SIPPs at Interactive Investor for a while. One was always there; the other got transferred in as part of Interactive Investor purchasing Alliance Trust Savings. They combined them for me on request, no issues there. However, at that point both were fully uncrystallised, so I didn't face the complication that you might be seeing.

All that aside, the LTA really is a pensions planning nightmare, isn't it?

Thrugelmir

EdSwippet said:

Thrugelmir said:

If the investments have been liquidated into cash in readiness for withdrawal. Where's the LTA issue?  . 

For a platform that fully segregates crystallised and uncrystallised SIPP components, it would certainly be possible to move the entire uncrystallised component to cash and so get a fixed point relative to the LTA.

However, if crystallising and taking only the PCLS, which is what you do to mitigate LTA issues, you would not want to cash in the entire uncrystallised component. You only want to crystallise 25% of it, and leave the rest invested. Otherwise, you'd have to reinvest the 75% non-PCLS part later, creating unwanted trading costs and a lot of avoidable out-of-market risk.

Frustrating things further, Interactive Investor does not segregate the components. Instead you have a single pot within which a known percentage is crystallised. This structure means you simply cannot liquidate the uncrystallised component alone. For a SIPP that is already part-crystallised then, even more out-of-market headaches if you want absolute LTA percentage usage certainty on a given crystallisation BCE.

That's how my provider operates. Payroll is only once a month as well.

Vote with your feet if you don't like a particular service. Little point in moaning about it. 

Chickereeeee

Yep, phoned, pressed key for SIPP issues. After long wait, got through and explained to chap who's first response was "ah, I don't know anything about pensions. I will put you through to the pensions department.' Longish wait on hold, followed by my explanation. "Ah, I see. I will get the pensions department to correct that for you, please hold". Shortish wait. "Sorry, they can't do that, because 'reasons'". So via forms only.

I have filled the form, sent it via secure messaging (no response) and will phone on Monday.

Planning for LTA becomes even more interesting with a long delay between action and response. A bit like driving a Martian lander, but with a variable response time.

Chickereeeee

Thrugelmir said

That's how my provider operates. Payroll is only once a month as well.

Vote with your feet if you don't like a particular service. Little point in moaning about it. 

A bit late for me to start again. More of a warning to others.