Advice on moving away from Hargreaves Lansdown please.

pensionpawn

We've come to the end of our tether with HL having botched my wife's paper based UFPLS payments on so many occasions. I've had it out with them over the phone and I can go through weeks / months of complaints, however all we want is a reliable service. So, do St James, Vanguard, a n other allow electronic (HL insist on paper based) UFPLS withdrawals, and besides fund allocations what else should I look into? Thanks in advance.

LHW99

Personally I would avoid St James Place. They sell own funds only via a tied salesforce, so not IFA's. You will find other threads specifically about them.

Vanguard also only have their own funds, but I don't know how they deal with UFPLS.

With DIY platforms, I think II offers online UFPLS, but I don't (yet) know how efficient they are, AJBell may also. Others here will comment.

I suspect that if you wanted to go via an IFA they would be able to sort out UFPLS quite quickly, possibly on a monthly basis if that's what you want.

ColdIron

Another poster mentions AJ Bell

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6520521/which-pension-company-provides-the-easiest-quickest-ufpls-withdrawls/p1

Hoenir

Vanguard appear to be struggling administration wise as well. 

Hoenir

LHW99 said:

I suspect that if you wanted to go via an IFA they would be able to sort out UFPLS quite quickly, possibly on a monthly basis if that's what you want.

There's the nub of the issue. The fees charged by the platforms too low to provide a gold level service on ad-hoc basis.  

tacpot12

My experience with AJ Bell has been very good, but I only have a regular monthly UFPLS withdrawal. I only ask them to change the amount every 24 months or so. If your wife wants ad-hoc withdrawls for different amount each time, I think I would give AJ Bell a call to check that they will accept her requests via secure message. They accept my requests for increases via secure message.

It does seem to take them quite a long time to make the payment (9 working days), but they have to produce a Benefit Crystallisation Event (BCE) letter, a letter confirming the amount of the payment after tax, run it through their payroll process and then make the payment. Along as you know it's going to take that long, it shouldn't be too much of an issue.

wjr4

SJP should never be on your list. 

El_Torro

Just on St James Place: Their fees are eye wateringly. Not only that but they only do managed funds, which in my experience do not outperform global trackers and multi asset funds. Admittedly the poor performance might mainly be down to the huge fees. 

I don't have experience taking money out of SJP, it might be smooth compared to other providers. Even so, do you really want your investments to stagnate during your retirement? 

pensionpawn

Thanks for all the comments. As of today my wife is still unable to request her UFPLS payment as HL will not send out the forms through the post or electronically. They will not commit to a date and are unsympathetic to how they are impacting household finances. Being unable to access your own funds is unacceptable so I'm putting in a complaint, will try to directly contact the CEO and will be contacting the pensions ombudsman.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to pressurise them to get their act together? It's all well and good moving to another platform however she needs her monthly payment this week.

FIREDreamer

pensionpawn said:

Thanks for all the comments. As of today my wife is still unable to request her UFPLS payment as HL will not send out the forms through the post or electronically. They will not commit to a date and are unsympathetic to how they are impacting household finances. Being unable to access your own funds is unacceptable so I'm putting in a complaint, will try to directly contact the CEO and will be contacting the pensions ombudsman.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to pressurise them to get their act together? It's all well and good moving to another platform however she needs her monthly payment this week.

I have always found HL do a decent job and they are cheap for me as I only use Investment Trusts and ETFS. They have always paid my PCLS promptly.

Have they actually said why there is a problem with your wife’s UFPLS?

pensionpawn

FIREDreamer said:

pensionpawn said:

Thanks for all the comments. As of today my wife is still unable to request her UFPLS payment as HL will not send out the forms through the post or electronically. They will not commit to a date and are unsympathetic to how they are impacting household finances. Being unable to access your own funds is unacceptable so I'm putting in a complaint, will try to directly contact the CEO and will be contacting the pensions ombudsman.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to pressurise them to get their act together? It's all well and good moving to another platform however she needs her monthly payment this week.

I have always found HL do a decent job and they are cheap for me as I only use Investment Trusts and ETFS. They have always paid my PCLS promptly.

Have they actually said why there is a problem with your wife’s UFPLS?

Yes. The budget (7th March) modified pension limits however they posted to clients now out of date forms on 8th April which they didn't spot until the completed forms were returned and binned. We immediately said send us the new forms in the post, or even better, electronically. They said we can't as they're not updated (one month after the budget...) yet. We said you're having a laugh, we have regular bills to pay. They said no we're not, and tough, you'll get your money when we're ready. This is a service we pay for....