Transferring Mercer Master Trust DC pension to Vanguard SIPP

R_P_W

Afternoon,

I'm trying to transfer a DC pension pot from Mercer Money Master Trust into my Vanguard SIPP.  I've previously transferred pots into the SIPP from Standard Life and it was an easy process.  However this time when on Vanguards website, its asks you to include the name of the provider the scheme is with, Mercer isn't a provider that automatically comes up which I was surprised about as I thought they were quite a player in the pension space.  It does give you the option to manually add the provide details (Name, address etc).

When logging into my Mercer account I can find my policy number and account amount, when I click the option to manage the pension it asks me to log into Scottish Widows (this was where the pension was originally when I worked for RWE).  I can log into here but this take me to a different policy number with zero balance.

So my question is, to transfer to Vanguard do I state that Mercer are the provider or is it Scottish Widows?

Thanks in advance for any replies

Pat38493

I might be wrong but I don't think Mercer is actually a pension provider - they are more of an intermediary that works with companies to look after pensions, to it could well be that your actual pension is with Scottish Widows.  

Maybe someone else could confirm for sure, but otherwise you will need to ask Mercer.  (good luck getting a quick reply from Mercer as they have a reputation for taking forever to reply).

Marcon

Pat38493 said:

I might be wrong but I don't think Mercer is actually a pension provider - they are more of an intermediary that works with companies to look after pensions, to it could well be that your actual pension is with Scottish Widows.  

Other way round - Scottish Widows (and Aviva) are the administrators for the Mercer DC Master Trust.

R_P_W said:

So my question is, to transfer to Vanguard do I state that Mercer are the provider or is it Scottish Widows?

Mercer

dunstonh

However this time when on Vanguards website, its asks you to include the name of the provider the scheme is with, Mercer isn't a provider that automatically comes up which I was surprised about as I thought they were quite a player in the pension space.

Nearly all the schemes with a professional administrator do not use Origo.  So, they won't appear on the pull down list.

So my question is, to transfer to Vanguard do I state that Mercer are the provider or is it Scottish Widows?

Put Mercer.  Where an insurer is used for product supply but administrator controlled, then the request to transfer will need to go to the administrator.   To speed things up, you should request discharge forms from mercer as well.   And don't be surprised if they want an anti-scam phone call.

Albermarle

 And don't be surprised if they want an anti-scam phone call.

And also do not be surprised if they  take ages to respond to anything.

ian16527

Mercer will want you to fill in documents as well as Vanguard. They may take a month to send you these. Don't hold your breath as mine took a fair while to go through

handful

Also consider the costs of Vanguard. It can actually be cheaper to hold Vanguard investments in Interactive Investor. I hope you have a better time trying t transfer than I did recently with a Phoenix Life pension, it took 6 months in the end with all of the anti-scam hoops to jump through multiple times!!!