CASHING IN RETIREMENT FUND

Hamilton30

I have a Retirement fund with St James Place which I invested a lump sum in 2016. I would now like to take proceeds out of the fund and close it down. I seem to be pushed from pillar to post to get a definitive answer as to what this involves, is it possible, what penalties there may be. I am 71 years old, have other pensions and would like to reinvest this money into something else. Should I be able to take all the proceeds out of this fund? I realise there are tax implications. Thank you for any help out there!

Brie

When you say you want to invest in something else would that include another pension somewhere?  That might be the easiest to transfer to another pension scheme as you say you have others.  It will obviously depend on what and where those are.  If they are defined benefit occupational scheme already in payment then I doubt they will accept a transfer in but a defined contribution scheme may do.

The alternative would be to set up some sort of drawdown - perhaps over a couple of tax years.

xylophone

I have a Retirement fund with St James Place which I invested a lump sum in 2016.

Do you mean a Pension Scheme or something else?

MEM62

What response have you had from SJP?  They do have form for making exiting their products long winded and expensive.  

dunstonh

is it possible

yes

what penalties there may be

Shouldnt be any given your timescale.

 I am 71 years old, have other pensions and would like to reinvest this money into something else

So, why do you need to take it out of the pension wrapper?    
Why not just transfer it to a SIPP?   This would give you whole of market access to invest in most conventional investments available.

Should I be able to take all the proceeds out of this fund?

You can.

Mothman

You need to clarify what it is you refering to as a "retirement fund", is this a fund that is held in a Pension or an Investment Bond or something else?

If it's in a pension then you should be able to transfer the value to another provider who has lower charges & more investment options, if it is fees or investment performance which are the issue (which it usually is with SJP). However be aware that SJP charge a penalty on a sliding scale for removing funds from a pension within 6yrs of investment (6% in year 1 - reducing to 1% in year 6), though as you invested in 2016 you may already be outside of this period unless you invested late in the year.

If you can provide a little more info regarding what it is that you hold and the amount involved this will help people with their responses and possible tax implications.