True potential drawdown pension

Vanwhiskey

Hi all 
I am currently in drawdown with true potential I am in the balanced portfolio..I have crystallised my funds ( took all the 25% tax free).
I had an advisor who retired so I was like many others was  switched over to the central advise which mean in house advisors, apparently they have now 60 thousand clients on central advise …which I imagine with just a handful of in-house advisers.
After having my pension transferred to TP I’m now thinking of getting out and going DIY or transferring to another drawdown provider knowing now that I’m fully crystallised.

  TP fees were 0.83 % (fund) 0.40% service fee 0.40% in-house advisor fee 0.50.%

  After  having a short meeting (phone call ) with one of their advisors who knew nothing about my circumstances 
  I was totally disappointed and I don’t believe central advise is a good move for the clients in my eyes just a money making scheme.
  But fair play to TP when I rang up to cancel the ongoing advisor charge they finally after a few messages switched the fee off.

    So currently I’m paying around 1.2 % which is 0.83 balanced and 0.4 % service charge.

    I want to move away from TP performance not great fees far too high but I’m stuck to how to get started with a transfer to diy 
    I don’t want to get hammered in tax… it it better to go for a ready made portfolio ? will the transfer the come over as cash.?we’re shall I transfer it to?

   How does it work because this drawdown is also my main income so I don’t want a lengthy delay so I’m so confused.
  

    Cheers all 


    

   

  

Linton

How it works is that:
 - you set up an account with a platform to which your SIPP can be transferred
 - you ask your new provider to transfer-in your TP pension.  You will have the option of doing this in cash or keeping existing investments if possible.  Cash is probably fastest but it means you are out of the market for a short time when prices could change.
 - Once the transfer is completed  you buy the investments you want

If you do not know at all what you are doing and your pot is of a reasonable size (perhaps >£50K-£100K) it could be simplest and safest to find a small local IFA to at least organise the transfer and set you up with an appropriate set of investments.

Albermarle

You choose a new provider, then open an account with them ( takes just a few minutes online) and request to transfer in the TP pension. It is a competitive market and many providers are keen to encourage transfers in, even offering cashbacks sometimes.
As the funds are already crystallised it could be that the process is a bit longer, needing a chat with them.

As the in house TP investment funds are almost certainly not available with other pension providers, the transfer will have to be in cash. Should take 2 to 4 weeks. Sometimes quicker but there can be delays sometimes.

When the cash arrives at the new provider, you will have to decide how to invest it. Some providers have thousands of options, some less. Nearly all have info on their websites giving guidance about investing in general, but will not offer any personal advice ( which is what you want to transfer away from anyway)

There are no tax implications. 

An alternative would be to pay for the services of an IFA ( one not linked to a big organisation) the overall fees should be less than you are paying now.

TP fees were 0.83 % (fund) 0.40% service fee 0.40% in-house advisor fee 0.50.%

I do not quite follow these figures. What are TP fees, as you already mention advisor fee separately?

Vanwhiskey

Ahh yes sorry the fees with TP were 1.73 % which included advisor fees now I’m paying 1.23% without advisor fees fund value is approx 550k left after 25 % withdrawn 

boingy

The transfers are easy but they can be slow so make sure you have enough cash at hand to not leave you short if the transfer takes longer than expected. Some companies are better than others at transfers so aim to have a couple of month's worth of money available.

It took my new provider about 6 weeks to transfer a small pension out of Virgin. In that particular case the problem was Virgin requiring several paper forms completing and wet signed. They would inform my new provider and send the forms to them for forwarding so there was lots of snail mail flying around. At times it felt like I was in a 1980's sitcom.

In contrast a transfer from Scottish Widows took less than 3 weeks and required no input from me once the initial instructions were issued.

Vanwhiskey

Thanks all for some great information it’s time to get looking ! 

Albermarle

 now I’m paying 1.23% without advisor 

Just as a general reference, this would be in the ball park for total fees with an IFA ( so including advice fees). Although some may try to charge more.

Costs for DIY investing can also vary. Can be as low as 0.2%, but typically more in the region of 0.5%. Although if you use some of the more expensive multi manager/ready made portfolios, costs can soon be as much as the TP fees.

Albermarle

boingy said:

The transfers are easy but they can be slow so make sure you have enough cash at hand to not leave you short if the transfer takes longer than expected. Some companies are better than others at transfers so aim to have a couple of month's worth of money available.

It took my new provider about 6 weeks to transfer a small pension out of Virgin. In that particular case the problem was Virgin requiring several paper forms completing and wet signed. They would inform my new provider and send the forms to them for forwarding so there was lots of snail mail flying around. At times it felt like I was in a 1980's sitcom.

In contrast a transfer from Scottish Widows took less than 3 weeks and required no input from me once the initial instructions were issued.

One of my pension transfers went through in < 48 hours, so it does vary a lot.