Pension platform with least bureaucracy on UFPLS withdrawals

Qyburn

Cheers, with your HL pension did you have to take the tax free first? Or can they do a monthly drawdown of a mixture?
Also, if you take the tax free, thus crystalising, where do additional contributions go, do they create a new separate uncyrstalised element?

sandsy

Qyburn said:

Thanks, to give context it's a small DC pension which I intend to keep on more or less as a savings account, so withdrawals will be as the need/whim takes us and definitely not regular.  Current value's £2,300 so wouldn't add significant monthly income and wasn't taken into account when planning our retirement income.

One option if the bureaucracy is unavoidable would be to take it all in one go, in a year where that means I won't pay tax, and stick it into an ISA where it's all at my fingertips. But I kind of like having it as a separate account.

Currently it's with Royal London invested in one of their Lifestyle options, which incidentally seems bizarrely complex.  The value is spread across 15 funds, and they deal all the time - for example there have been no contributions since December but in February there have been something like 60 Buy/Sell/Switch transactions, some for just 1p (one penny).  That can't be efficient.

If you could take in one go in a year with no tax payable, read up on small lump sum payments. Small lump sum payments don't count for lifetime allowance and don't limit future contributions (which might simplify bureaucracy).

Pat38493

So I take it from this thread that with AJ Bell at least, you don’t have to pay a transaction fee for each individual withdrawal if you are taking money out monthly?

squirrelpie

Qyburn said:

Cheers, with your HL pension did you have to take the tax free first? Or can they do a monthly drawdown of a mixture?
Also, if you take the tax free, thus crystalising, where do additional contributions go, do they create a new separate uncyrstalised element?

Yes, I believe it's the case for a drawdown arrangement with any provider, but certainly for HL. You take the whole 25% of the amount you crystallize when you crystallize it, and then monthly taxable payments (or whatever other arrangements you might want. HL run two pots, a crystallized section and an uncrystallized section. In my case I just kept the crystallized pot in cash, but I think that's just laziness and I expect there are better arrangements possible.

There are no fees for withdrawals with HL; dunno about other places.

tacpot12

Pat38493 said:

So I take it from this thread that with AJ Bell at least, you don’t have to pay a transaction fee for each individual withdrawal if you are taking money out monthly?

Correct. AJ Bell don't charge for UFPLS (or Flexi-Access Drawdown) regardless of how frequently you request them. Although monthly is the maximum frequency you can request. 

NoMore

tacpot12 said:

Pat38493 said:

So I take it from this thread that with AJ Bell at least, you don’t have to pay a transaction fee for each individual withdrawal if you are taking money out monthly?

Correct. AJ Bell don't charge for UFPLS (or Flexi-Access Drawdown) regardless of how frequently you request them. Although monthly is the maximum frequency you can request. 

Do any of the well known Sipp providers charge for drawdown now ? I thought once Hargreaves Lansdown went to no charge, they all pretty much followed suit. HL, AJ bell, interactive investor, Fidelity,  Vanguard don't charge, haven't checked the others.

Audaxer

Qyburn said:

One option if the bureaucracy is unavoidable would be to take it all in one go, in a year where that means I won't pay tax, and stick it into an ISA where it's all at my fingertips. But I kind of like having it as a separate account.

That seems like a good option, and if you like a separate account just put it into a separate ISA. It doesn't stop you contributing £2,880 per year to a SIPP.

Linton

Qyburn said:

Cheers, with your HL pension did you have to take the tax free first? Or can they do a monthly drawdown of a mixture?
Also, if you take the tax free, thus crystalising, where do additional contributions go, do they create a new separate uncyrstalised element?

As said you cannot drawdown taxable money without taking the corresponding TFLS.  You can take both at the same time. UFPLS is one way of doing this where every drawdown is 25% tax free and 75% taxable, thuogh not all platforms support it.   I believe in theory you can take taxable money without taking the TFLS but you then lose the right to take the TFLS at all. As far as I know no platform supports this.

Different platforms have different ways of handling crystalisation.  HL, I believe, puts crystalised investments in a separate compartment whereas II just maintain a single overall % crystalisation value.

dealyboy

A few things to be aware of with AJ Bell:

- it takes a few days, typically a week in practice (communications might suggest 3 weeks)
- the 'fund split' is performed at payment time (not at request time) so may be to advantage/disadvantage on day regarding remaining not accessed (uncrystallized) percentage
- payment is by BACS or CHAPS
- requires Pension Wise appointment as standard (although if have had one, date can be entered), alternatively phone them to tell them not required (note will be put on account)

Qyburn

dealyboy said:

- requires Pension Wise appointment as standard (although if have had one, date can be entered), alternatively phone them to tell them not required (note will be put on account)

Thanks, so AJ Bell ruled out.