Prudential personal pension - total confusion!

xylophone

Pru have an in-house sales team that will do this but their charges are higher than a typical IFA.

Or the OP could approach another pension provider offering flexible access and arrange a transfer?

wjr4

tacpot12 said:

If you are not sure what to do, I woudl suggest that you give the Pru a call and ask if there is a Financial Adviser (FA) they can put you in touch with. I have a friend who was in an identical situation to yourself last year. He asked for an Adviser, and they put him in touch with a FA that worked with (but not for) the Pru. They can only advise on Pru products, but Pru have all the product you might need to take your pension in any way you want to do so.

I met the FA with my friend and was very impressed with their professionalism, and with the reasonableness of their charges. They were not cheap but neither were they expensive, so if you have been happy with the Pru, using their FA will get you the advice you need and they will arrange for your pension to be paid exactly as you want it. You might get a bit better value going elsewhere, but there are also risks that need to be considered. 

Why would you go to an in house sales team who can only use one provider rather than an IFA who may be able to get you more money for the rest of your life by using the open market option? 

bouncydog1

Thank you all for your very helpful comments.  Today I’m going to look at all of my schemes.  The PRU one appears to have a good transfer value so thinking I’ll investigate moving that one into a plan that’s allowed where I live (non UK although in various UK scenes due to employment).   However I’ll need to get actuarial advice so will need to weigh up the costs!  Thanks again all - I’ll pop back if I have further questions.

tacpot12

wjr4 said:

tacpot12 said:

If you are not sure what to do, I woudl suggest that you give the Pru a call and ask if there is a Financial Adviser (FA) they can put you in touch with. I have a friend who was in an identical situation to yourself last year. He asked for an Adviser, and they put him in touch with a FA that worked with (but not for) the Pru. They can only advise on Pru products, but Pru have all the product you might need to take your pension in any way you want to do so.

I met the FA with my friend and was very impressed with their professionalism, and with the reasonableness of their charges. They were not cheap but neither were they expensive, so if you have been happy with the Pru, using their FA will get you the advice you need and they will arrange for your pension to be paid exactly as you want it. You might get a bit better value going elsewhere, but there are also risks that need to be considered. 

Why would you go to an in house sales team who can only use one provider rather than an IFA who may be able to get you more money for the rest of your life by using the open market option? 

My friend has some health problems and could not cope with the complexity of choosing and using IFA. “More money” is not an objective for them. Ease of accessing the service is a objective that they are happy to pay for.

Albermarle

tacpot12 said:

wjr4 said:

tacpot12 said:

If you are not sure what to do, I woudl suggest that you give the Pru a call and ask if there is a Financial Adviser (FA) they can put you in touch with. I have a friend who was in an identical situation to yourself last year. He asked for an Adviser, and they put him in touch with a FA that worked with (but not for) the Pru. They can only advise on Pru products, but Pru have all the product you might need to take your pension in any way you want to do so.

I met the FA with my friend and was very impressed with their professionalism, and with the reasonableness of their charges. They were not cheap but neither were they expensive, so if you have been happy with the Pru, using their FA will get you the advice you need and they will arrange for your pension to be paid exactly as you want it. You might get a bit better value going elsewhere, but there are also risks that need to be considered. 

Why would you go to an in house sales team who can only use one provider rather than an IFA who may be able to get you more money for the rest of your life by using the open market option? 

My friend has some health problems and could not cope with the complexity of choosing and using IFA. “More money” is not an objective for them. Ease of accessing the service is a objective that they are happy to pay for.

If ease of accessing services is the goal, I am not sure staying with the Pru is the solution. According to recent threads on here their customer service has been non existent, and they have been shelling out compensation due to all the complaints.