Being forced to use a Financial Advisor to transfer pension to pension.

xylophone

I will talk to some on Monday for some other opinions.

You could try

https://adviserbook.co.uk/

Tick "confirmed independent" and "pension transfer" and other boxes as required when the menu comes up.

You need a Pension Transfer Specialist.

scoobyjones1

xylophone said:

but she worked for a firm, I think pre 88, not sure. They were bought out by a bigger company,

We know this was a DB scheme and it is likely, even almost certain, that it was contracted out of SERPS.

If so, your wife will have accrued a Guaranteed Minimum Pension.

It appears that she is going to take this pension at age 60 which is female GMP age.

She might find that at the time of the pension increase following the pension's  being brought into payment,  only the excess over

 GMP will increase by up to 5% with any pre 88 GMP not increasing at all. Post 88 GMP would increase by up to 3% CPI.

Does she know when exactly she worked for this firm and whether or not the scheme was contracted out of SERPS?

Is there any mention of a GMP/excess split in the information she has received?

Thanks for your helpful input, xylophone. She has requested, 6 weeks ago, full details of the pension. Still waiting.... maybe it's the Xmas post but she has gone through hoops, sending them marriage and birth certificates...they can't even get an email together....which they promised.
It does not matter anyway really as to the details, because they will not transfer the pension unless we pay an IFA...they do not care or even want to know what the outcome of that is...so long as we prove we have taken the "advice" and sign indemnity forms, read all of their warnings and tick the boxes to say we have read them...they are prepared to let go of the pension. The problem is (and they know this) that the SIPP will not take the transfer unless the IFA approves it as a good idea. So we could waste that money and be no better off. The IFA's also know this and they are ramping up their fees for it...as are their insurers...so we are told. 

scoobyjones1

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

scoobyjones1 said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

Let's be honest, if the op really had that much belief in their investment skills they would have cracked on and paid the £5-£10k to get the (legally required) advice and got the job done rather than arguing the toss on here.

Even just £50k in the wife's SIPP is clearly the better option in the ops eyes so all the prevarication seems odd if he genuinely has such strong belief in the returns that could be made.

Pay 10k from a pot of £60k! That really would be bad advice....especially as it seems the transfer advice would be no. But they still take your money...whilst reducing your investment. Some might say that is hypocritical.

They can't say no, they can say they don't recommend doing it.

You then transfer it as a insistent client.

The DB holder would transfer it out, yes, no matter what the IFA says, just as long as we prove we have taken that "advice" from an FCA registered IFA. The problem comes with the SIPP. They will not take it against IFA advice and it seems the case for all SIPP providers. There may be a stake holder pension co. such as Aviva but then it's getting too complicated with further fees and no real guarantees. We shall make further enquiries but feel it's not going to go the way we would like it to. Thanks for your comment.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

scoobyjones1 said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

scoobyjones1 said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

Let's be honest, if the op really had that much belief in their investment skills they would have cracked on and paid the £5-£10k to get the (legally required) advice and got the job done rather than arguing the toss on here.

Even just £50k in the wife's SIPP is clearly the better option in the ops eyes so all the prevarication seems odd if he genuinely has such strong belief in the returns that could be made.

Pay 10k from a pot of £60k! That really would be bad advice....especially as it seems the transfer advice would be no. But they still take your money...whilst reducing your investment. Some might say that is hypocritical.

They can't say no, they can say they don't recommend doing it.

You then transfer it as a insistent client.

The DB holder would transfer it out, yes, no matter what the IFA says, just as long as we prove we have taken that "advice" from an FCA registered IFA. The problem comes with the SIPP. They will not take it against IFA advice and it seems the case for all SIPP providers. There may be a stake holder pension co. such as Aviva but then it's getting too complicated with further fees and no real guarantees. We shall make further enquiries but feel it's not going to go the way we would like it to. Thanks for your comment.

It's the transfer to a stakeholder pension you want.

Then move from stakeholder to SIPP of your choice.  Sure someone explained this earlier in the thread.

scoobyjones1

xylophone said:

I will talk to some on Monday for some other opinions.

You could try

https://adviserbook.co.uk/

Tick "confirmed independent" and "pension transfer" and other boxes as required when the menu comes up.

You need a Pension Transfer Specialist.

10 come up and she will ring some on Monday, some offer fixed fees so we will see. Brilliant help, xylophone.

scoobyjones1

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

scoobyjones1 said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

scoobyjones1 said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

Let's be honest, if the op really had that much belief in their investment skills they would have cracked on and paid the £5-£10k to get the (legally required) advice and got the job done rather than arguing the toss on here.

Even just £50k in the wife's SIPP is clearly the better option in the ops eyes so all the prevarication seems odd if he genuinely has such strong belief in the returns that could be made.

Pay 10k from a pot of £60k! That really would be bad advice....especially as it seems the transfer advice would be no. But they still take your money...whilst reducing your investment. Some might say that is hypocritical.

They can't say no, they can say they don't recommend doing it.

You then transfer it as a insistent client.

The DB holder would transfer it out, yes, no matter what the IFA says, just as long as we prove we have taken that "advice" from an FCA registered IFA. The problem comes with the SIPP. They will not take it against IFA advice and it seems the case for all SIPP providers. There may be a stake holder pension co. such as Aviva but then it's getting too complicated with further fees and no real guarantees. We shall make further enquiries but feel it's not going to go the way we would like it to. Thanks for your comment.

It's the transfer to a stakeholder pension you want.

Then move from stakeholder to SIPP of your choice.  Sure someone explained this earlier in the thread.

Yes it was discussed earlier but nobody could find anyone that had done that successfully and we are not sure if Aviva still does them...we will enquire. There are also extra costs involved but it may be an option. Thanks again.

xylophone

we are not sure if Aviva still does them

You could also check out Standard Life.

https://www.standardlife.co.uk/pensions/stakeholder-pension

scoobyjones1

xylophone said:

we are not sure if Aviva still does them

You could also check out Standard Life.

https://www.standardlife.co.uk/pensions/stakeholder-pension

thanks, seems they charge 1% a year, so that would likely be another £600 gone...unless they break it down monthly or something...

xylophone

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pensions-basics/stakeholder-pensions

Aviva stakeholder

https://www.aviva.co.uk/retirement/aviva-stakeholder-pension/

There’s just one clear fund charge – our annual fund charge, capped at 1%.

And you won’t have to pay any charges for setting up your investment or for switching money between funds.

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pensions-basics/stakeholder-pensions

And the idea would be to transfer out of the stakeholder to the SIPP as soon as possible?

scoobyjones1

xylophone said:

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pensions-basics/stakeholder-pensions

Aviva stakeholder

https://www.aviva.co.uk/retirement/aviva-stakeholder-pension/

There’s just one clear fund charge – our annual fund charge, capped at 1%.

And you won’t have to pay any charges for setting up your investment or for switching money between funds.

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pensions-basics/stakeholder-pensions

And the idea would be to transfer out of the stakeholder to the SIPP as soon as possible?

Yes it's not clear what the minimum charge would be, how they work it out if she was only in it for a few weeks while the SIPP people transfer it over to them. Worried they may charge her the annual fee still..being 1% of the 60k...or do they charge per day I wonder?