My Pension Provider does not offer UFPLS

StellaMan

I'm looking for some help / advice regarding my pension ... I have a smallish pension (£35000) in Zurich, which I need some money from as quickly as possible (I need to access some of the money because I have a poorly dog, a dodgy car, 2 debts and a funeral to contribute towards and nowhere near enough money to do any of it) but they do not allow partial withdrawals / UFPLS. I have to withdraw it all or transfer it all. 

If I transfer it, I need to be able to access and withdraw some immediately, and be able to do that at any time in the future. 

If I withdraw it then I need to re-invest it immediately (minus £5000) into a pension provider that will allow the same.

I do not need something that is going to give me fantastic returns, my investment will only be about £30,000 and I will probably access all of it over the next 5 or 6 years as I am 65 this year, but it MUST be classed as a Pension, not as Savings because I am on Universal Credit. I don't earn much, I get by with my UC and the pittance I bring in repairing and servicing PCs and Laptops, so I also need to keep away frim expensive monthly service fees (Zurich charge nothing) ...

Can anybody suggest my best option, what sort of provider / options should I be looking for ?

I have not approached a Financial Advisor as yet because it seems to be such a small amount and easy to sort out problem, however, I have to admit that I may have underestimated the number of options and the legal jargon !!!!!

Marcon

StellaMan said:

I'm looking for some help / advice regarding my pension ... I have a smallish pension (£35000) in Zurich, which I need some money from as quickly as possible (I need to access some of the money because I have a poorly dog, a dodgy car, 2 debts and a funeral to contribute towards and nowhere near enough money to do any of it) but they do not allow partial withdrawals / UFPLS. I have to withdraw it all or transfer it all. 

If I transfer it, I need to be able to access and withdraw some immediately, and be able to do that at any time in the future. 

If I withdraw it then I need to re-invest it immediately (minus £5000) into a pension provider that will allow the same.

I do not need something that is going to give me fantastic returns, my investment will only be about £30,000 and I will probably access all of it over the next 5 or 6 years as I am 65 this year, but it MUST be classed as a Pension, not as Savings because I am on Universal Credit. I don't earn much, I get by with my UC and the pittance I bring in repairing and servicing PCs and Laptops, so I also need to keep away frim expensive monthly service fees (Zurich charge nothing) ...

Can anybody suggest my best option, what sort of provider / options should I be looking for ?

I have not approached a Financial Advisor as yet because it seems to be such a small amount and easy to sort out problem, however, I have to admit that I may have underestimated the number of options and the legal jargon !!!!!

Does your pension with Zurich have any 'safeguarded benefits' (i.e. any sort of promise - easiest way to establish that is to ring and ask them direct). If yes, you have to take financial advice and it'll be both costly and take time, so it's crucial to establish that at the outset.

If no, you can simply transfer to any pension provider which offers drawdown. See  https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/discount-pensions/ for more info, including the section on choosing a 'robo provider' SIPP.

Alternatively, a simple stakeholder pension would do the trick - if you opt for the 'default' fund you don't need to make any investment decisions, and it will offer drawdown, which is what you are looking for. You can open one yourself with Aviva (no need for an adviser to be involved unless Zurich tell you your current scheme has safeguarded benefits, in which case you'll need to get financial advice before Zurich can pay over any transfer): https://static.aviva.io/content/dam/document-library/adviser/pensions/sp01006.pdf 
More info: https://www.aviva.co.uk/retirement/aviva-stakeholder-pension/  

If you withdraw the lot, you'll be hit for a tax charge and you won't be able to reinvest £30K into a pension fund unless you have taxable earnings of at least that amount, so that's not a realistic option.

xylophone

It is not too long before you will be eligible for your state pension.

Have you checked your state pension forecast?

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

Will Zurich permit you to take only your tax free PCLS  (£8750) and leave the rest invested?

Otherwise (assuming no safeguarded benefits), you could request another company (say AJ Bell/Fidelity/Hargreaves Lansdown etc) to organise a transfer of your pension to them and then commence drawdown.

However, this is likely to take more than a day or two to organise.........

StellaMan

Looking into the safeguarding now ... I don't think there are any, but I'll ask 

Albermarle

xylophone said:

It is not too long before you will be eligible for your state pension.

Have you checked your state pension forecast?

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

Will Zurich permit you to take only your tax free PCLS  (£8750) and leave the rest invested?

Otherwise (assuming no safeguarded benefits), you could request another company (say AJ Bell/Fidelity/Hargreaves Lansdown etc) to organise a transfer of your pension to them and then commence drawdown.

However, this is likely to take more than a day or two to organise.........

It will be a cash transfer. There was a poster recently who requested a transfer and it happened in 24 hours. I had one that transferred in < 36 hours. However I think a couple of weeks is more normal, or even longer if Zurich are not part of the Origo transfer system.

StellaMan

OK, there are no safeguarded benefits (on any Zurich products as well as no UFPLS !) so I guess I just need to choose a product and set things in motion now ... thanks for all your help ...

StellaMan

Unfortunately I  can't open an Aviva account myself as the initial investment has to be paid by DD or Debit Card, there's no option to transfer money from another pension  !!!

dunstonh

You are probably better off avoiding providers that deal mostly with intermediaries and have little or no direct to consumer offerings.    Go with a provider that is fully focused on the direct to consumer market.

You should also avoid using pensions that do not facilitate drawdown.  As that puts you in the same position you are in now.

Albermarle

As suggested earlier

Otherwise (assuming no safeguarded benefits), you could request another company (say AJ Bell/Fidelity/Hargreaves Lansdown etc) to organise a transfer of your pension to them and then commence drawdown.

Marcon

StellaMan said:

Unfortunately I  can't open an Aviva account myself as the initial investment has to be paid by DD or Debit Card, there's no option to transfer money from another pension  !!!

You can and there is! Open a stakeholder pension by posting Aviva a cheque for £16*, along with the completed application form, which has space for details of the transfer you want to make (so include that at the same time): https://static.aviva.io/content/dam/document-library/adviser/pensions/sp01006.pdf

Make sure you tick box 9 to confirm that you are applying direct and not using an adviser. 

**page 6 of their form is incredibly confusing. You need to enter £20 where it refers to 'Single payment by cheque' and then asks for the gross amount of your payment, but the cheque itself should be for £16 (because Aviva then add the basic rate tax top up directly to your pension, bringing you up to £20 gross)

Malthusian

As opening an Aviva Stakeholder without an intermediary requires the OP to go through a phone call or some kind of process with an Aviva representative to "establish their demands and needs", it would surely be simpler to open a more modern pension with one of the providers that will do the whole process online and allow the plan to be opened with a transfer, without needing to pay in £16 + tax relief first.