Personal Pension - Transfer?

tartancinema

Hi there,

This is my first post to the forum so hope I am following the rules and protocols!

I began a Scottish Widows pension through my employer in 2013. I was only with the company for 18 months or so and then moved into the public sector. I have therefore not used this pension since and do not have another private pension account. The account now has just over £20K. I am not happy with the performance of the account and today I realised it is paying around £200 a year to my old employer's finance broker. I would therefore like to transfer to another account but do not have the money to pay a finance adviser. Can anyone advise the best way to go about transferring to another company? I have established I will lose no benefits and that there is no charge to transfer.

I would really appreciate any thoughts or steers from others who have navigated this before.

LHW99

Basically choose the receiving scheme, open a SIPP / PP with them and ask them to transfer it over.

You will probably have to accept that the existing funds will be sold, and you need to invest in new after the transfer.

Bear in mind that you will still have charges to pay. For example with HL it would be .45%, if you use OIEC funds, so ~£90pa (for £20k), but the funds themselves will have fees (though you don't actually see those deducted, they just reduce performance).

Whatever your SW pension is invested in will have those too, and they will depend on what sort of deal your old employer made, and if that deal has continued after you left.

Albermarle

There are lots of pension providers who are happy to have new customers, and happy for old pensions to be transferred in to them. Normally with no charge.
For this sort of amount you want a provider than charges a % of the funds ( + fees for the investments you choose on top)
Best SIPP: Build a low cost DIY pension - MoneySavingExpert

As you do not say what other charges you are paying to SW, maybe you will not actually save any money ( but I guess so). However SW do not have the best reputation for customer service etc . and older pensions can be more inflexible on withdrawal options. So probably a good idea to move it anyway.

tartancinema

Thanks so much both for your advice and giving me confidence to make a move. I am going to move to a robot SIPP as it will be my first foray into this kind of investing. I have had shares before, but I am definitely not an experienced investor. Thanks again for your help and pointing me in the right direction for information.

Silvertabby

What was your reason for not transferring this pension into your public sector pension?  Did you think then that you'd be better off leaving it where it was - or, if you are LGPS, did your employer not accept transfers in from non club schemes (ie, typically other public sector).

tartancinema

I moved into the Civil Service and they didn't accept non club schemes. Decided it would simply be a pot of money that I would use to help reduce my days nearer retirement. A way to help fund partial retirement. Hoping if I can get a better performance over the next 15 years I might be in a better position to do this!

pterri

That’s a shame, my DB didn’t accept transfers for awhile but do now. Worth checking again. 

ali_bear

Once you have transferred you could start paying into it. Even £80 per month could make quite a difference to the final value.  

Albermarle

ali_bear said:

Once you have transferred you could start paying into it. Even £80 per month could make quite a difference to the final value.  

If you add £80, the pension provider will add £20 tax relief as well. 

tartancinema

That is a really good idea. Thanks so much. Yes I will set up a monthly payment. I have gone with Wealthify which has lower fees than I was paying plus a really good platform. It also provides financial information which is recently useful.