Ajbell transfer

lbudd

I requested my ajbell pension transfer to ajbell from aviva ove 17weeks ago and dont have internation shares.
Why is it taking so long , why? Anybody else had same experience?

gravel_2

There's a pension board - you might get better responses there.

El_Torro

The quickest way to do a transfer is in cash. I've done this before from Aviva to AJ Bell and this has never taken more than two weeks. It sometimes takes a call / e-mail from me to nudge things along though. 

If you're doing the transfer in specie (invested) then from what I hear this can take longer than doing it in cash. It shouldn't take 17 weeks though. Time to make a call to AJ Bell to find out what's going on. Don't bother contacting Aviva, AJ Bell are the ones who are managing the transfer.

EthicsGradient

I'm transferring a SIPP from AJ Bell to ii, and it took them 6 weeks to get an AJ Bell-produced form which I had signed, and sent to ii for them to fill out their part, to be acknowledged as received by AJ Bell again (after attempts both through the post and electronically, apparently). I dread to think what they'll do now they actually have to transfer shares - it's taken about 10 weeks in all just to get to the point of specifying the list of shares. The good news is that AJ Bell have only taken part of their monthly fee, which implies they really understand this transfer is happening.

hoc

Shares don't make much difference to the transfer out duration, it's the transferring in on the receiving end that would take more time. AJ Bell's playbook is to stop charging the custody fee but in return stop paying interest. Then they hold your money for free for weeks. It's to their benefit for the transfer to take long. It's bemusing to think it's unintentional or due to inefficiency. You have threaten them with going to the Ombudsman or they'll just abuse this situation. Unfortunately there is no regulation so they can get away with a lot.

masonic

Every transfer out is also a transfer in and the duration will be the same from either perspective. Industry standard practice for an in specie transfer is to re-register the holdings and then once the new provider confirms custody transfer residual cash. This is because while the holdings are in flight any income will be credited to the old provider. If transferring an account with a large cash balance (or holding a large cash balance in general), it would be advisable to use a short term money market fund. In the majority of cases the customer will be better off not paying a platform fee and receiving interest than for interest and platform fee to continue. Having said that, I transferred a SIPP out of AJ Bell a couple of years ago and my residual cash only sat around for a week or so. I also transferred a pension from Aviva at around the same time and that was done in cash and completed in 2 working days.

Financial services are regulated. It is through that regulation that access to the FOS is provided, and a framework on which to base complaints, when they are justifiable. It sounds like in the OP's case there would be a justification.

hoc

masonic said:

Every transfer out is also a transfer in and the duration will be the same from either perspective. Industry standard practice for an in specie transfer is to re-register the holdings and then once the new provider confirms custody transfer residual cash. This is because while the holdings are in flight any income will be credited to the old provider. If transferring an account with a large cash balance (or holding a large cash balance in general), it would be advisable to use a short term money market fund. In the majority of cases the customer will be better off not paying a platform fee and receiving interest than for interest and platform fee to continue. Having said that, I transferred a SIPP out of AJ Bell a couple of years ago and my residual cash only sat around for a week or so. I also transferred a pension from Aviva at around the same time and that was done in cash and completed in 2 working days.

Financial services are regulated. It is through that regulation that access to the FOS is provided, and a framework on which to base complaints, when they are justifiable. It sounds like in the OP's case there would be a justification.

Please provide a link to the regulation stipulating duration a pension provider has to transfer cash in a pension or even cash in an S&S ISA.

masonic

hoc said:

masonic said:

Every transfer out is also a transfer in and the duration will be the same from either perspective. Industry standard practice for an in specie transfer is to re-register the holdings and then once the new provider confirms custody transfer residual cash. This is because while the holdings are in flight any income will be credited to the old provider. If transferring an account with a large cash balance (or holding a large cash balance in general), it would be advisable to use a short term money market fund. In the majority of cases the customer will be better off not paying a platform fee and receiving interest than for interest and platform fee to continue. Having said that, I transferred a SIPP out of AJ Bell a couple of years ago and my residual cash only sat around for a week or so. I also transferred a pension from Aviva at around the same time and that was done in cash and completed in 2 working days.

Financial services are regulated. It is through that regulation that access to the FOS is provided, and a framework on which to base complaints, when they are justifiable. It sounds like in the OP's case there would be a justification.

Please provide a link to the regulation stipulating duration a pension provider has to transfer cash in a pension or even cash in an S&S ISA.

See https://www.fca.org.uk/firms/fair-treatment-customers

No duration is stipulated for the specific action you mention, but that doesn't mean pensions and ISAs are unregulated. Outcome 6 makes it clear that any barrier to changing product, which would include a delay, must be reasonable, and Principle 6 creates a clear regulatory obligation on firms to treat customers fairly, which would include not conducting themselves in a manner that is unreasonable. It is for the FOS to ajudicate, in the case of a complaint, what is fair and reasonable in the circumstances. Seventeen weeks (and counting) is unlikely to meet that test. They would likely fully compensate the customer for any loss they suffered as a result, such to them taking reasonable steps to minimise losses. This is what we have seen from customers who have been in this position and complained to the FOS.

Perhaps you meant there is no enforcement of regulatory obligations? In that case, I'd agree, save for very serious misconduct (such as fraud and scams). The FCA is outcomes focused, which means as long as the customer has not lost out in the end, they are ok with most transgressions being dealt with through a complaints process.

hoc

masonic said:

No duration is stipulated for the specific action you mention

This is the issue. This was the question.

masonic

hoc said:

masonic said:

No duration is stipulated for the specific action you mention

This is the issue. This was the question.

The questions were: "Why is it taking so long , why? Anybody else had same experience?"

I don't think there is any good reason for it to take more than 17 weeks. I once had a S&S ISA transfer that took about 15 weeks, but that was a long time ago. The issue won't be the transfer of the cash though, it will be the transfer of investments that is responsible for it taking this long.

If a specific time limit was imposed for transfer of residual cash, say 5 working days from the date all lines of stock are confirmed received by the new provider, I'd wager this would make no difference to the OP's situation.

EthicsGradient

FWIW, here's what AJ Bell say about transfers to them:

To give you a better idea of how long your transfer will take,
here’s how long each type of investment typically takes to transfer:

Type of investment	Time taken to transfer
Cash only	2-4 weeks
Shares	4-6 weeks
Funds	6-8 weeks
International shares	10-12 weeks

Transfer to us | AJ Bell

Compare with a transfer to ii:

Pension transfers

Transferring your pension as a cash payment usually takes two to six weeks to complete.

Transferring your existing investments will take longer – typically eight to twelve weeks.

interactive investor (ii.co.uk)

So they both reckon shares add some time - at least 2 weeks. I suspect this is not a good time of year to do it - personnel are tied up with end-of-tax-year contributions, then start-of-year contributions and end-of-year reports. 17 weeks is well above what AJ Bell themselves reckon, anyway.