Questions ABOUT 2 Pension Pots and choosing an income drawdown

Fast_Muchly

Hi ,
         Will keep it brief , have 2 pensions one with Standard life  ( now pheonix ) roughly 125k  transfer value but retirement value is 131k 

         The other is with Prudential 31500 k transfer value no idea on the retirement value doesnt state it .

  Im thinking of taking both and having my 25% tax free either at the end of this year or early next . But i might take the smaller pot and utilise the 25% tax free very soon . 

  My question is this , Can i take 25% tax free on the prudential and whats left choose an income drawdown company and then later on maybe next year do the same with my standard life so take my 25% and the rest of it transfer it into the same income drawdown account so its all together in the same place and easier to keep track of .

With this in mind does anyone recommend any good companies ?, i know you will say go to a financial advisor .But i hate to say this but the 2 financial advisors i have had in my entire life have not proved very good . The first one got me to come out of our company pension scheme and i have 131k but the people who had done similiar years to me in the company scheme have got at least 200k , so im feeling really sore about this as these same people never gave retirement a thought at all and im the one who has come out on the bad side . 

The 2nd financial advisor who was with natwest bank and supposed to be an independant advised us to have an endowment mortgage and we all know how that turned out didnt we .So to go and sit for a 3rd time in front of someone to them take a % of my hard earned cash would be really irritating to me . 

Thanks  for any help 

p.s im 57 on the 10th of Dec this year if that makes any difference.

And apologies to any Financial advisors out there as im sure some of you are pretty decent . 
    

Linton

Having different transfer and retirement values implies that this is not a straightforward modern DC pension.  Perhaps it has guarantees and/or is limited in terms of what you can do with it.  I think we need more information on what these pensions are.  It is possible that you may need to transfer the pensions elsewhere before you take the 25% tax free.

The two pensions are completely independent. You could transfer them both into the same drawdown pension.  Whether you should want to may depend on exactly what these pensions are.  Also having transferred the money to a drawdown pension do you know what to do with it?  You will have to decide which funds to invest it in and manage them to meet your needs. Are you happy you have the knowledge?

For these reasons, given the amount of money, it could be prudent to talk to an IFA and make sure about the I(ndependent).  Bank advisors are not IFAs.  IFAs now are very different and much more highly regulated than those of say 25 years ago which I guess is when you had your previous experiences.  Furthermore if you are talking about 25+years ago those decisions could have been appropriate.  IFAs like anyone else cannot predict the future.

Albermarle

A straightforward DC pension, only has one value, so as @Linton says we need a bit more info on the SL pension.

If there is no problem with them then it would probably be easier to combine them/transfer them both into a new pension, before taking the 25% tax free.
This is because uncrystallised pension pots( nothing taken from them ) are easier to transfer than crystallised ones ( after tax free cash has been taken)
Also the Pru are known to charge you 3% for starting the drawdown process with them with some products, which includes taking any tax free cash.

Fast_Muchly

Those are the standard life ones ( pheonix now ) 
  

Pension Millennium With Profits Fund (PDF)(opens in a new window)-

Pension With Profits Fund (PDF)(opens in a new window)

STATUS: CLOSED

Prudential one 

Prudential With-Profits Pension Fund 3A (ex SA)-01

Fast_Muchly

Also when i rang Standard life  , they explained that if i choose to transfer to invest i only get the transfer value 125k but if i transfer to take my money straight away i get the full 131k even from another company .So if i transferred to take my 25% pot and a supposed better company but leave the rest invested in an income drawdown would i be getting 125k or 131k transferred .Also no i have no idea on funds , so would need someone to manage it for me and im a middle of the raod guy so open to some risk so would want a medium risk plan .

Is there that big a difference between leaving it with standard life in their income drawdown plan to say other companies seeing as im bound to take a hit on fees in some sort of way from the company i would be going to and the hit on advice form the financial advisor . 

Linton

Have you confirmed that drawdown is actually available with your SL (or Pru) pensions? We often find that old pension schemes only support buying an annuity.

I don’t really understand what SL have said to you. I cannot see them giving you different sums depending on how you use the money after it leaves their control.

Hopefully someone with a better knowledge of these WP pensions will be able to explain your options.

Albermarle

Also when i rang Standard life  , they explained that if i choose to transfer to invest i only get the transfer value 125k but if i transfer to take my money straight away i get the full 131k even from another company

As @Linton says , this does not really make sense 

When you have a with profits fund, there are usually two figures. The actual current fund value and a final bonus.
However even  if you transfer it before the end date ( usually 65) you still get the final bonus AFAIUI
It maybe not 100% cast iron guaranteed which is why the SL person was being not completely clear.

Fast_Muchly

Linton said:

Have you confirmed that drawdown is actually available with your SL (or Pru) pensions? We often find that old pension schemes only support buying an annuity.

I don’t really understand what SL have said to you. I cannot see them giving you different sums depending on how you use the money after it leaves their control.

Hopefully someone with a better knowledge of these WP pensions will be able to explain your options.

Yes i have confirmed this i can transfer my pot to a drawdown scheme .

And yes i can assure you i have 125k as a transfer value and 131k if i took my pension right now and they explained most 100% definite as if i transfer my pot to another company to access my pension right now i would get 131k but if i transfer it to another company to invest it i would only get 125k . Both these figures include the terminal bonus amount . 

Fast_Muchly

Have a look for yourselves . 

LHW99

It's the last bit that has the clue:

"Your plan has a valuable guarantee which you would lose........"

That means it may not be straightforward to transfer it - someone else on here will probably know the policies and can explain more.

Fast_Muchly

LHW99 said:

It's the last bit that has the clue:

"Your plan has a valuable guarantee which you would lose........"

That means it may not be straightforward to transfer it - someone else on here will probably know the policies and can explain more.

All the last bit means is on the plan that is closed is its guaranteed to go up by 4% a year and thats is why that plan is now closed and all customers were started in a new millenium plan . I have a gut feeling i have had alot of money in a useless plan a very long while but it is what it is .