Pension / SIPP partial transfers

noclaf

I'm interested to learn the how/why/when for partial transfers as used by investors in relation to their SIPP's and/or Workplace pension schemes (primarily interested in 'DC' schemes).

My current employer pension charges 0.178% so reasonably competitive and using 3 Vanguard passive funds (self-selected for best balance of low fee's/risk) so fairly happy to just leave as it is, however my Fidelity SIPP would be cheaper if solely investing in ETF's (capped platform charges) so I may consider partial transfers in the future if there is a worthwhile benefit. I think it's also important that I don't end up making too many changes that could be detrimental to future growth/performance e.g: keep it simple, avoid unnecessary dealing fee's and just let the investments do their thing

I understand that lower fee's and broader investments range are popular reasons to utilise partial transfers, if there are other factors to consider or anyone's experiences keen to hear them. Thanks.

dunstonh

I'm interested to learn the how/why/when for partial transfers as used by investors in relation to their SIPP's and/or Workplace pension schemes (primarily interested in 'DC' schemes).

It is worth noting that it is a tiny number of people that do this.   Probably less than 1%.    
Some experienced investors get frustrated with their workplace investment options and want something different.

My current employer pension charges 0.178% so reasonably competitive and using 3 Vanguard passive funds (self-selected for best balance of low fee's/risk) so fairly happy to just leave as it is, however my Fidelity SIPP would be cheaper if solely investing in ETF's (capped platform charges) so I may consider partial transfers in the future if there is a worthwhile benefit. 

The difference in charges is so low that you are likely to lose more from the time being out of market which could take many years to recover.

noclaf

dunstonh said:

It is worth noting that it is a tiny number of people that do this.   Probably less than 1%.    
Some experienced investors get frustrated with their workplace investment options and want something different.

Thanks dunstonh, this is exactly why I opened a Fidelity SIPP, an old pension was using IMO an outdated platform (Hartlink/Capita) and the fund choices were surprisingly poor ( via Scottish Widows).

My current employer pension ( Standard Life) uses a fairly user-friendly platform that is well thought-out and offers a number of cheap Vanguard passive funds...win win!

gm0

Who supports drawdown and at what cost may cause you to partial transfer when you set that up from a scheme that doesn't

Splitting pension funds up once crystallised is (I believe) a harder thing to arrange than a full transfer provider to provider so picking multiple platforms if they are wanted is a preparation task before access. It's what I have done. 

Range limits on the workplace also meant that I wanted a SIPP as well so the initial setup became two partial transfers followed by FAD actions on each one.

noclaf

Op here, just wanted to get some additional thoughts on my workplace fund choices and whether streamlining could be a good idea as I might be moving/changing roles in the next few months.

Currently my pensions are split £93k/£25k workplace pension/SIPP.

The 93k workplace is invested as follows:
44%  - Vanguard ESG Dev world All CAP Equity index

47% - Vanguard FTSE Dev World ex UK Common contractual fund

9% - Vanguard FTSE UK ALL Share index unit trust

The allocations above have 'drifted' from my original % per fund. This will continue to happen so would it be worthwhile moving the whole lot into the FTSE Dev World ex UK fund and then using my SIPP to tweak my overall UK exposure if needed? I'm leaning towards ditching the ESG and UK All share fund as the FTSE Dev world ex UK is well established and covers most of my bases, has performed well over the last 10 years but aware it could all change. As to why I split between two Dev world funds....I couldn't decide which to go for so just went for both...not the cleanest strategy but I slept well at night.


25k in SIPP is mainly in HMWO and I don't see much reason to diverge from this though I have some additional funds/ETF's that could do with a clean up or just be removed.

Any thoughts/suggestions appreciated.