Taking tax free cash from pension at 55

Marcon

older_and_no_wiser said:

Linton said:

The SIPP is effectively divided into two separate parts - £30K Crystalised with TFLS paid  and £370K uncrystalised with 25% TFLS still available.  Exactly how the division is managed depends on your SIPP provider.  Some set up 2 separate sub-accounts, others simply retain a % crystalised figure.  

Maybe an added complication - or simplifier:

I have 2 SIPPs:
Hargreaves Lansdown is my workplace SIPP and currently valued at approx. £85,000. This gets all my workplace contributions each month.
Interactive Investor is my personal SIPP and currently valued at approx. £325,000.

They are both fairly new arrangements - under 3 years since both were opened. Because II has much lower platform fees for me (they are fixed price rather than percentage based), I do an in specie transfer every so often from HL to II of certain funds. 

Regarding the crystallisation, I can check but believe both should be flexible with arrangements.

Would both providers need to be contacted if I withdraw any tax free amount?
Do I need to crystallise one or both if I withdraw?
Is it easier if I were to withdraw half from each provider?

So many questions. Maybe I should just use my savings as suggested! haha

No; more complicated for no good purpose!

Using your savings makes much more sense. You can always withdraw cash from your pension if you need to top up any 'cash emergency' needs.

Linton

older_and_no_wiser said:

Linton said:

The SIPP is effectively divided into two separate parts - £30K Crystalised with TFLS paid  and £370K uncrystalised with 25% TFLS still available.  Exactly how the division is managed depends on your SIPP provider.  Some set up 2 separate sub-accounts, others simply retain a % crystalised figure.  

Maybe an added complication - or simplifier:

I have 2 SIPPs:
Hargreaves Lansdown is my workplace SIPP and currently valued at approx. £85,000. This gets all my workplace contributions each month.
Interactive Investor is my personal SIPP and currently valued at approx. £325,000.

They are both fairly new arrangements - under 3 years since both were opened. Because II has much lower platform fees for me (they are fixed price rather than percentage based), I do an in specie transfer every so often from HL to II of certain funds. 

Regarding the crystallisation, I can check but believe both should be flexible with arrangements.

Would both providers need to be contacted if I withdraw any tax free amount?
Do I need to crystallise one or both if I withdraw?
Is it easier if I were to withdraw half from each provider?

So many questions. Maybe I should just use my savings as suggested! haha

In theory I believe tax free lump sums can be calculated across your pensions as a whole.  However no provider supports this and each pension is actually treated completely separately and independently.  So if you hold multiple pensions they dont need or want to know anything about the others.

I think that just taking £10K from a £410K pension when you have plenty of cash elsewhere and plenty of income seems an unnecessary hassle.

NoMore

I would agree with the last couple of posts, that you have enough savings outside of the the pension to not need to access it for this donation. Don't make the mistake just because you can access your pension at 55 that you should.

older_and_no_wiser

NoMore said:

I would agree with the last couple of posts, that you have enough savings outside of the the pension to not need to access it for this donation. Don't make the mistake just because you can access your pension at 55 that you should.

Yes I'm starting to think the same! I'm watching a few YouTube finance videos on the pros and cons of both but it seems like it will be a lot simpler to take it from savings and let the pension grow until retirement. I can replenish the savings whilst working which a few of you have already mentioned.