Retiready Aegon - Transfer out cost

tunde10

Hi, hoping someone can help.

My workplace pension is currently with Retiready Aegon. However i find the management fees quite high and choice of investment is not the best.

I read on another thread it is possible to open an SIPP and transfer majority of my pension over whilst still letting workplace run. However there is sometimes a fee for this?

I have tried to Google but i can't find the transfer fees for this particular pension. Can anyone let me know please?

Marcon

tunde10 said:

Hi, hoping someone can help.

My workplace pension is currently with Retiready Aegon. However i find the management fees quite high and choice of investment is not the best.

I read on another thread it is possible to open an SIPP and transfer majority of my pension over whilst still letting workplace run. However there is sometimes a fee for this?

I have tried to Google but i can't find the transfer fees for this particular pension. Can anyone let me know please?

The fee usually relates to financial advice where this is mandatory (i.e. where a transfer value is at least £30K and the pension contains some sort of 'promise' - aka 'safeguarded rights'). Is that perhaps what you've spotted?

Before you go any further, check if the rules of the scheme run by your employer will allow partial transfers. If they don't (and it is down to the employer, not the provider), then you'd have to transfer the whole amount and could be treated as opting out. You would then have to ask the employer to re-admit you and they have 12 months to do that, so you could end up missing out on a year of employer contributions.

Pat38493

I don't know if it's the same scheme that my employer uses but I have access to retireready as well, and also I have access to ARC for the same pension.

I asked Aegon a few months ago whether they allow partial transfer out and they appeared to say that they do, although their answers often seem to be cut and paste vague insinuations and they seem afraid to be too specific on the question you have asked!   I also asked them if you can take the tax free cash portion of the existing balance whilst still continuing your employer contributions and they said yes you can.

By the way I didn't think the charges were too bad - I think my employer negotiated 0.34% which doesn't seem to bad to me.

Albermarle

My workplace pension is currently with Retiready Aegon. However i find the management fees quite high and choice of investment is not the best

Might be worth posting what the fees are. Normally there is an employer discount against the standard fund fees.

What one person thinks is expensive, another might not.

Marcon

Pat38493 said:

I don't know if it's the same scheme that my employer uses but I have access to retireready as well, and also I have access to ARC for the same pension.

I asked Aegon a few months ago whether they allow partial transfer out and they appeared to say that they do, although their answers often seem to be cut and paste vague insinuations and they seem afraid to be too specific on the question you have asked!   I also asked them if you can take the tax free cash portion of the existing balance whilst still continuing your employer contributions and they said yes you can.

By the way I didn't think the charges were too bad - I think my employer negotiated 0.34% which doesn't seem to bad to me.

What Aegon allow, and what a particular scheme allows, could be different things, as I've pointed out in my previous post above. Not really surprising that they are giving vague answers when they may not know the employer's current stance.

Pat38493

Marcon said:

Pat38493 said:

I don't know if it's the same scheme that my employer uses but I have access to retireready as well, and also I have access to ARC for the same pension.

I asked Aegon a few months ago whether they allow partial transfer out and they appeared to say that they do, although their answers often seem to be cut and paste vague insinuations and they seem afraid to be too specific on the question you have asked!   I also asked them if you can take the tax free cash portion of the existing balance whilst still continuing your employer contributions and they said yes you can.

By the way I didn't think the charges were too bad - I think my employer negotiated 0.34% which doesn't seem to bad to me.

What Aegon allow, and what a particular scheme allows, could be different things, as I've pointed out in my previous post above. Not really surprising that they are giving vague answers when they may not know the employer's current stance.

The one I have is an Aegon SIPP (at least it's branded as a SIPP) and I seem to have full control over it in ARC.  I'm not clear why my employer would be able to block it if I ask Aegon to transfer the existing balance out?  You are saying that it's up to my employer whether I can do this and not Aegon?

When my employer set this new scheme up a few years back, they described it as if it's our own personal pension pot and they just happen to be paying the money into it for us - I'm not clear why they would even care whether I can transfer some of the money out of the pot once it's in there.  My employer seemed to want to take the most hands off approach possible to pensions going forward.

To elaborate, why would the employer even care about it as it's a transaction between me and Aegon?

dunstonh

  I'm not clear why my employer would be able to block it if I ask Aegon to transfer the existing balance out?  You are saying that it's up to my employer whether I can do this and not Aegon?

With some group schemes, the rules and administration are set by a professional administrator and not the provider.  So, the provider name may appear on the statements etc but they do not control the admin or rules of the scheme.

Employers themselves do not normally care as long as the plan can remain open and does not need to be closed to transfer.  That is when they normally intervene and say no.  If partial transfers are allowed by the provider and scheme then, there isn't normally an issue.

tunde10

Thanks all for the help.

I have emailed them and waiting for a response.

The investments charges are bad. Looks like only 0.06% for the Aegon 75% / 25% Global Equity. But the Servicing fees are higher.

My main issue is being able to select a bigger variety of investments and moving to a provider with a CAP on Servicing fees. I have more research to do in the meantime.

Steve_666_

One issue I found, was that Aegon keep a cash sum to pay "fees", however the amount they keep is 2000% greater than the monthly fee. That is 20 months of fees, not too bad when they were clearly investing it in the overnight spot rate and taking a minimal amount off the top. However from last month they have decided to take 50% of the interest, a sort of hidden charge.

tunde10

tunde10 said:

Thanks all for the help.

I have emailed them and waiting for a response.

The investments charges are bad. Looks like only 0.06% for the Aegon 75% / 25% Global Equity. But the Servicing fees are higher.

My main issue is being able to select a bigger variety of investments and moving to a provider with a CAP on Servicing fees. I have more research to do in the meantime.

Just for info, they have confirmed there are no charges for a transfer out to another pension provider.

Now for me to set up an SIPP, then decide whether to transfer or not.