Trapped at St James place

HAYDAN2002

Hello
Sorry to bother anyone.
My dad is 62 and is looking to start drawing down his pension. He has been with St James place for many years and has now decided that maybe its best to go to a more varied/cheaper platform now he wants to access his pension.
He wants to transfer but as far as i can see none of the funds he holds are on Hargreaves , Aj bell and Interactive investors website..
He is not so keen on selling all his pension for cash and not be invested for the 4-8 weeks a transfer takes in case the stock markets go up a lot (as his whole reason to transfer is to save money )
I was just wondering is there was another option. Like a broker who will accept all the st james place funds and sell them on his behalf once under their control or have St James place got the monopoly on the selling of their funds .
I hope this makes sense to someone.
Thank you to anyone that takes the time to read this and replies
Dan

dunstonh

He wants to transfer but as far as i can see none of the funds he holds are on Hargreaves

That is correct.  SJP is a restricted provider selling their own brands.  They don't make them available on the whole of market.   Probably as no-one would want them anyway.  Plus, they are pension funds.   The whole of market platforms don't offer pension funds (again, don't need to).

He is not so keen on selling all his pension for cash and not be invested for the 4-8 weeks a transfer takes in case the stock markets go up a lot (as his whole reason to transfer is to save money )

a) he cannot sell the pension for cash.  SJP pensions are old fashioned and don't operate that way.  SJP will sell the funds on the day before they send the money to the new provider.
b) its more like 1-2 weeks.

Chickereeeee

I think it likely that only SJP can handle SJPs funds.... 

However, have you considered a staged transfer? Sell maybe 25% of SJP funds, transfer as cash, buy whatever you want with new platform,  and repeat x 4? Not ideal, but does reduce the risk.

Watch out  for SJP exit fees, which I believe apply to any new money, no matter how long you have been with them. 

HAYDAN2002

Thank you so much for replying to me. I really appreciate it 

handful

+1 for watching out for exit fees. It takes 7 years from the last contribution to be completely clear of penalty charges to transfer out.

Albermarle

and not be invested for the 4-8 weeks a transfer takes in case the stock markets go up a lot

Although the transfer process might take a few weeks, he would only be in cash for a shorter period. It is better to let the provider do this rather than selling to cash in advance, although with SJP you have no choice anyway.

It would be better to work out in advance what funds to invest in on the new platform, to avoid any extra delay.

HAYDAN2002

thank you once again 

FIREDreamer

Albermarle said:

and not be invested for the 4-8 weeks a transfer takes in case the stock markets go up a lot

Although the transfer process might take a few weeks, he would only be in cash for a shorter period. It is better to let the provider do this rather than selling to cash in advance, although with SJP you have no choice anyway.

It would be better to work out in advance what funds to invest in on the new platform, to avoid any extra delay.

No option to switch to a cash or money market fund with SJP when required?

Surely providers must have cash funds as available options?

dunstonh

No option to switch to a cash or money market fund with SJP when required?

They have a money market fund but no cash facility.

Surely providers must have cash funds as available options?

No.  Its not required.   Some will. Some won't.  However, putting it into a STMM fund or MM fund would still require SJP to sell the fund at the point of transfer.

Pat38493

I would have thought that statistically you are just as likely to gain during a short out of market window as to lose out?

Scrounger

HAYDAN2002 said:

He is not so keen on selling all his pension for cash and not be invested for the 4-8 weeks a transfer takes in case the stock markets go up a lot (as his whole reason to transfer is to save money )

I was just wondering is there was another option.

Some platforms offer to pay towards exit fees for pension transfers - eg Fidelity:

http://www.fidelity.co.uk/pension-transfer/

Also currently a lucrative cashback offer of up to £2000 

Platform charges are capped at just £90/pa for ETF's.


Scrounger