How do I convince a financial adviser to sign off on my pension transfer?

Marcon

OP - I think you're in danger of driving yourself nuts on this merry roundabout! Be aware of the following:

• You have a DB pension with a transfer value of more than £30K, so there is a legal requirement for you to have received (not necessarily followed) advice from a regulated advisor with the necessary permissions to advise on such transfers. 
• An adviser has a huge amount of work to get through to give the necessary advice within the permitted timeframe, so don't ask for an updated CETV until you are sure you have someone appropriate lined up to deal with it (and ask them to confirm they will be able to do so within the guarantee period).
• You are only entitled to one free quote in any 12 month period, so you are likely to have to pay for another CETV. Your scheme will be able to tell you if they charge, and if so, how much - £500 + VAT is common in the private sector. I don't know how much the LGPS charges. 
• The full advice process will cost upwards of £5K; it is massively high risk business for an adviser to undertake.

You are clearly aged at least 50 and have defined contribution as well as DB benefits, so qualify for a free guidance session with PensionWise: https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pension-wise

NB: PensionWise guidance is NOT advice and will not remove the requirement for you to receive regulated advice if you wish to transfer your DB pension, but it will enable you to clarify some of the confusion which is becoming ever more apparent from your posts. You aren't alone and that isn't a criticism, but a grasp of the basics might be very helpful and save you a lot of gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair...

MrsOystercatcher

Marcon said:

OP - I think you're in danger of driving yourself nuts on this merry roundabout! Be aware of the following:

• You have a DB pension with a transfer value of more than £30K, so there is a legal requirement for you to have received (not necessarily followed) advice from a regulated advisor with the necessary permissions to advise on such transfers. 
• An adviser has a huge amount of work to get through to give the necessary advice within the permitted timeframe, so don't ask for an updated CETV until you are sure you have someone appropriate lined up to deal with it (and ask them to confirm they will be able to do so within the guarantee period).
• You are only entitled to one free quote in any 12 month period, so you are likely to have to pay for another CETV. Your scheme will be able to tell you if they charge, and if so, how much - £500 + VAT is common in the private sector. I don't know how much the LGPS charges. 
• The full advice process will cost upwards of £5K; it is massively high risk business for an adviser to undertake.

You are clearly aged at least 50 and have defined contribution as well as DB benefits, so qualify for a free guidance session with PensionWise: https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pension-wise

NB: PensionWise guidance is NOT advice and will not remove the requirement for you to receive regulated advice if you wish to transfer your DB pension, but it will enable you to clarify some of the confusion which is becoming ever more apparent from your posts. You aren't alone and that isn't a criticism, but a grasp of the basics might be very helpful and save you a lot of gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair...

Reading through past threads,  I'm clearly not the only person close to losing their marbles over a similar issue!!

The reason I contacted a financial adviser was precisely because of the over £30k requirement.  I will certainly hold off on requesting a new CETV until I have someone lined up and I had no idea that there may be a charge for an updated one, so will ask this question before I go ahead, thanks for the heads up. 

I know about PensionWise but hadn't signed up for a session as I know they can't authorise a transfer  -but as you say, it may be helpful and it's free!

xylophone

You could try

https://adviserbook.co.uk/

Tick "Pension Transfer"  (you need a Pension Transfer Specialist, "Confirmed Independent"  and other options required when the menu comes up.

Be aware that your existing pension scheme may not accept the transfer.

In this connection see this thread.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6449917/cash-out-of-db-pension/p1

MX5huggy

Presuming your Local Government pension is part of the Local Government Pension Scheme then the minimum age to access it is 55 ask them for the quote for taking it now. 

FIREmenow

MX5huggy said:

Presuming your Local Government pension is part of the Local Government Pension Scheme then the minimum age to access it is 55 ask them for the quote for taking it now. 

I agree with this. How many years service do you have in LGPS?

Very rough figures based on your April 2024 amounts: 
Pre April 2008 service, normal retirement age should be 65yrs max.
Taking pension 10yrs early reduces pension by 35.5% and lump sum by 15.5%
So roughly £2270 per year and £8,920 lump sum.

You can get an exact quote based on your pension history, and they can give further options such as increasing the lump sum through commutation.

Some info here: https://www.lgpsmember.org/your-pension/planning/taking-your-pension/

Malthusian

To add to Marcon's list, you need to find out from your current workplace scheme whether they will accept a transfer in if the advice is to not do it.

Otherwise you could spend £5,000+ you don't have and be back where you started. 

Taking both pensions now and drawing the maximum lump sum (not that I'm recommending it) would give you £10k + £15k = £25k - at an extremely heavy cost in early retirement penalties - which seems so close to the £28k amount desired that I struggle to believe it's worth the cost, hassle and risk of going through the DB transfer process to get a few thousand more.

The obvious solution not mentioned is for your adult daughter to get a job so you can afford local rents with your combined income. I realise she has health issues, but if she can hold down a volunteering position we have to at least ask the question whether she can earn at least £6,000 a year. 

Marcon

Malthusian said:

To add to Marcon's list, you need to find out from your current workplace scheme whether they will accept a transfer in if the advice is to not do it.

Otherwise you could spend £5,000+ you don't have and be back where you started. 

I've already flagged that (first page of this increasingly lengthy thread!), but the point certainly bears repeating....

hyubh

MrsOystercatcher said:

The adviser has had details of all my pensions but so far,  I have been covered by their free advice session [...] but then their compliance manager emailed me today to say that they were not aware that it was a Final Salary pension that I want to transfer

Oh dear, you got what you paid for then Free advice session or not, hardly the greatest advert for their services!

My LGPS pension's transfer value is £85k and the April 2024 statement says that my lump sum as of now would be £10,560 and annual payment of £3,520.   I left the LGPS in April 2009.

Hmm, so presumably most of the pension has rule of 85 protections (you don't state the joining date, but I'm assuming around 10 years membership). From an 'optimise the LGPS pension' POV, would be best to rent for another 5 years then draw the LGPS pension at 60, commuting some pension for more lump sum if that was needed for the flat purchase (commuting an LGPS pension for the sake of it is a bad idea, but that wouldn't apply here).

If I am able to take a lump sum now,  I would be perfectly happy to leave the rest where it is until retirement, but is that possible and I how would I go about it?

Not possible as others have said, alas.

MrsOystercatcher

FIREmenow said:

MX5huggy said:

Presuming your Local Government pension is part of the Local Government Pension Scheme then the minimum age to access it is 55 ask them for the quote for taking it now. 

I agree with this. How many years service do you have in LGPS?

Very rough figures based on your April 2024 amounts: 
Pre April 2008 service, normal retirement age should be 65yrs max.
Taking pension 10yrs early reduces pension by 35.5% and lump sum by 15.5%
So roughly £2270 per year and £8,920 lump sum.

You can get an exact quote based on your pension history, and they can give further options such as increasing the lump sum through commutation.

Some info here: https://www.lgpsmember.org/your-pension/planning/taking-your-pension/

Thanks so much, this is very helpful.   It was 5 years service.    It seems like a lot of money to lose if I take the pension early.......

MrsOystercatcher

Malthusian said:

To add to Marcon's list, you need to find out from your current workplace scheme whether they will accept a transfer in if the advice is to not do it.

Otherwise you could spend £5,000+ you don't have and be back where you started. 

Taking both pensions now and drawing the maximum lump sum (not that I'm recommending it) would give you £10k + £15k = £25k - at an extremely heavy cost in early retirement penalties - which seems so close to the £28k amount desired that I struggle to believe it's worth the cost, hassle and risk of going through the DB transfer process to get a few thousand more.

The obvious solution not mentioned is for your adult daughter to get a job so you can afford local rents with your combined income. I realise she has health issues, but if she can hold down a volunteering position we have to at least ask the question whether she can earn at least £6,000 a year. 

Thanks for this - it's looking like the transfer is not the greatest idea.   I have a call with a new adviser tomorrow and will talk things through with him.  He was recommended by someone local so will hopefully be more competent than the first lot!

You ask a very relevant question about my daughter - her volunteering is not full time but we have discussed her looking for a part-time job very soon.  I would ideally not want to take money off her towards a mortgage as I would rather she saved her money for when she eventually wants to move out - but I would expect her to contribute to food, bills etc which would lighten my financial load.