Pension switching incentives

DRS1

Bumblingbee said:

I have c£57k to transfer, how does an in specie transfer work? Is that where it stays invested in the funds you are in and moves? 

Yes.
I suppose it does depend what you have invested in but if it is a generally available fund or quoted stocks and shares it should be simple enough and you would not be out of the market however long it takes to do the transfer.

vacheron

IvanOpinion said:

Are these incentives only worthwhile if doing an in specie transfer?
I have received a couple of incentives over the last few years, with in specie transfers. My pension is now at a level where the amount it can go up, or down, in a single day, exceeds any transfer incentive. So if it had to be moved to cash I could very easily lose out.

It depends if you are lined up to change funds / provider for other reasons anyway, then it is simply a nice cherry on the cake. 

In my case I wanted to switch from HL (in specie) because the HL SIPP charges which would have eaten into my returns over time.
I also wanted to switch part of an different pension over to a different fund to reduce my overall UK bias, so this would have been a cash transfer regardless. 

Both of these added together also took me into another cashback band, so it was worth it for me at least.

Albermarle

DRS1 said:

Bumblingbee said:

I have c£57k to transfer, how does an in specie transfer work? Is that where it stays invested in the funds you are in and moves? 

Yes.
I suppose it does depend what you have invested in but if it is a generally available fund or quoted stocks and shares it should be simple enough and you would not be out of the market however long it takes to do the transfer.

Although if you are transferring from a pension that had its own in house investment funds, you can only transfer in cash.

artyboy

Albermarle said:

DRS1 said:

Bumblingbee said:

I have c£57k to transfer, how does an in specie transfer work? Is that where it stays invested in the funds you are in and moves? 

Yes.
I suppose it does depend what you have invested in but if it is a generally available fund or quoted stocks and shares it should be simple enough and you would not be out of the market however long it takes to do the transfer.

Although if you are transferring from a pension that had its own in house investment funds, you can only transfer in cash.

And indeed the same applies if you are transferring TO a pension provider that only has its own in-house funds - so transferring to Nutmeg, Moneyfarm, Wealthify etc also has to be done in cash.

Basically the same exact fund/share/bond/etc that you are invested in now, has to be available from the provider you transfer to.

granta

Bumblingbee said:

I have c£57k to transfer, how does an in specie transfer work? Is that where it stays invested in the funds you are in and moves? I'd ruled out doing any incentives due to to the potential loss of money over the transfer duration. However I may have completely misinterpreted what the in specie transfer is!

For me, the sweet spot in benefitting from incentives has been in carrying out in specie transfers for very mainstream etf holdings. No cost to transfer and no time out of the market, plus a grand or two for the transfer. 

Transferring in or out of the likes of Moneyfarm as well as pension providers with in-house funds has only been done when I have wanted to do this anyway (i.e. selling out of an old workplace pension). It's been useful to earn some cashback for this but being out of the market if there had been significant movement would have cancelled out the cashback. But it was a one time action to exit a provider with higher charges so I was prepared to take the hit. But my holdings are now structured so that I can move them between different SIPP providers when appealing offers emerge!

artyboy

It's been a bit thin on the ground recently, but I have just taken advantage of the Interactive Investor offer for at least £10k into a new SIPP - £250 directly from them, and stackable with another £95 from Quidco/TCB.

I actually transferred away from them last year but they confirmed that because I no longer had a SIPP open, I would count as a new customer, let's see if it works. 

Other than that, there's nothing to tempt me. Apart from the robos (which I'm getting out of), Charles Stanley has an offer but they are on the naughty step with me for raising their fee caps in a very badly communicated way, so I'm done with them. 

Investengine also has an offer but the amounts aren't much to write home about, and bizarrely they can only accept SIPP transfers from Vanguard. So that's a hard no.

Lets hope for better over the summer...

michaels

I'm just doing Charles Stanley but only with part of my pot because of their fee structure. Hopefully can also get £80 as well as the Xfer bonuses and it is the referral offer via DW that really sweetens the deal.

I can't see value in any of the robo investor ones give what you are then forced to invest in....

CRAIGSVILLE1

Just completed an in-specie sipp transfer from HL to CMC for the bonus.
Date initiated for transfer through CMC app 25/4 , and funds from HL in my CMC account today .!!!!!! 
Must be some sort of record for an in-specie transfer ? 

Albermarle

CRAIGSVILLE1 said:

Just completed an in-specie sipp transfer from HL to CMC for the bonus.
Date initiated for transfer through CMC app 25/4 , and funds from HL in my CMC account today .!!!!!! 
Must be some sort of record for an in-specie transfer ? 

I recently transferred an ISA from HL to Fidelity in specie . I started the transfer on a Sunday and it was all done by Friday, ( maybe even on Thursday as I did not check) although the cash element took a few more days to arrive.

I got a £1000 for the transfer, same as I got transferring it from Fidelity to HL , 15 months earlier.

Slightly gallingly it happened just before the Great Liberation so within days my new Fidelity ISA was a sea of red !
( Of course it would have happened anyway but I wish I had transferred in cash ..................)

artyboy

CRAIGSVILLE1 said:

Just completed an in-specie sipp transfer from HL to CMC for the bonus.
Date initiated for transfer through CMC app 25/4 , and funds from HL in my CMC account today .!!!!!! 
Must be some sort of record for an in-specie transfer ? 

How did I miss CMC!!!! Free plan for a year as well. That's another £1k I should be able to bag then...