Partial withdrawal from a secondary pension pot

Knitspin

I have a workplace defined benefit pension and am investing in a investing pot alongside through work, which should provide a decent pension for me. I also have a pension that I got as part of a divorce settlement 13 odd years ago which is now of about 150k. I am 55 years old and would like to access about 15k of now to clear debts that I am paying interest on and leave the rest to grow hopefully, although it has gone down recently with the market, until I am ready to retire in another 6 to 20 years time.
I am not sure how to go about this, I cannot add it to my work pensions as I cannot take lump sums until I retire. I would appreciate some general advice please

xylophone

I also have a pension that I got as part of a divorce settlement 13 odd years ago which is now of about 150k. I am 55 years old and would like to access about 15k of now to clear debts that I am paying interest on and leave the rest to grow hopefully,

Do you mean that you have a standard DC pension with eg an insurance company?

Knitspin

Yes my work pension has a dc pot

Knitspin

And the pension from divorce is with the Prudential 

xylophone

And the pension from divorce is with the Prudential 

Is this a standard DC pension or is it a pension with any form of "safeguarded benefit" (for example, a guaranteed annuity rate)?

Do you have any documentation from this pension concerning options for taking benefits?

Albermarle

Knitspin said:

And the pension from divorce is with the Prudential 

If you check and there are no safeguarded benefits, you can withdraw some money from it by contacting the provider with what you wish to do. Normally 25% of the pot can be withdrawn tax free and the rest will be classed as taxable income.
However the Pru seem to like to charge you when you first start the withdrawal process ( 3% of the pot) and they may be a bit inflexible if you want to withdraw money and then later start adding to the pot again.
In this case it is easy nowadays to transfer the pot to a more modern flexible provider ( assuming no safeguarded benefits)
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Marcon

Knitspin said:

I have a workplace defined benefit pension and am investing in a investing pot alongside through work, which should provide a decent pension for me. I also have a pension that I got as part of a divorce settlement 13 odd years ago which is now of about 150k. I am 55 years old and would like to access about 15k of now to clear debts that I am paying interest on and leave the rest to grow hopefully, although it has gone down recently with the market, until I am ready to retire in another 6 to 20 years time.
I am not sure how to go about this, I cannot add it to my work pensions as I cannot take lump sums until I retire. I would appreciate some general advice please

Contact the Prudential and ask if the contract you have with them supports what you want to do - 'supports' as in 'this is quite an old contract and might not be set up to do this'. 

Knitspin

So I spoke to the Pru, and I cannot take any money out but I am able to transfer to another provider,which they won't charge for, but I may have to have independent financial advice to put in a drawdown option. 
I am not confident enough to choose where to invest the funds in Sipp, so not sure what to do next.
I don't want to keep taking monies out I'd like to take some and then just leave it alone until I retire so not sure if a IFA managed account is the way to go?

molerat

but I may have to have independent financial advice to put in a drawdown option.

That is just them covering themselves.  Any advice would need to be on transferring out if it was needed, once it is in a standard SIPP no advice is required but you will have to answer some suitability questions around withdrawing but that is just a formality.

I am sure someone will be along and give you some pointers but with that amount you may want to seek independent advice over where to put it if you are not confident self managing.

xylophone

From what the Pru has said, you will be able to transfer your pension to a modern plan which will enable you to  access your pension.

It is perfectly possible  for you to open a SIPP/other personal pension and request the new provider to arrange the transfer in of the Pru pension.

Hargreaves Lansdown/Fidelity/AJ Bell are among the many providers.

Once in the new pension, you will have a choice of  ways to access it.

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pension-wise/explore-your-pension-options

At the simplest, you could take a tax free Pension Commencement Lump Sum of 25% of the value of the pension and leave the balance invested. 

If you are unsure of how to invest the balance, you might use one of the  ready made portfolios offered by some providers,

Example, see Fidelity Navigator feature

https://www.fidelity.co.uk/iaw/funds/find-fund-based-risk/

Otherwise, you might prefer to engage an Independent Financial Adviser to assist you.

 You could try here

https://adviserbook.co.uk/

Tick "confirmed independent" and other relevant boxes when the menu comes up.

Albermarle

Knitspin said:

So I spoke to the Pru, and I cannot take any money out but I am able to transfer to another provider,which they won't charge for, but I may have to have independent financial advice to put in a drawdown option. 
I am not confident enough to choose where to invest the funds in Sipp, so not sure what to do next.
I don't want to keep taking monies out I'd like to take some and then just leave it alone until I retire so not sure if a IFA managed account is the way to go?

An alternative is to spend some time learning about investments and pension. It is not rocket science and there are plenty of good books, You tube videos, podcasts etc . Plus if you read this forum regularly that can help.
You can start here.
Pensions & Investing - MoneySavingExpert