Pension Advisor would want £21,000 for a failed transfer

Cobbler_tone

Sounds like completing a successful pension transfer is akin to trying to complete a house sale quickly.

I think it is safe to say it would be best (if even for your mental health) to write Xmas off and for the sake of £350 grab another CETV in the new year.

HappyHarry

Cobbler_tone said:

Sounds like completing a successful pension transfer is akin to trying to complete a house sale quickly.

I think it is safe to say it would be best (if even for your mental health) to write Xmas off and for the sake of £350 grab another CETV in the new year.

I'll say it again - let the adviser apply for the CETV.

michael1234

HappyHarry said:

Cobbler_tone said:

Sounds like completing a successful pension transfer is akin to trying to complete a house sale quickly.

I think it is safe to say it would be best (if even for your mental health) to write Xmas off and for the sake of £350 grab another CETV in the new year.

I'll say it again - let the adviser apply for the CETV.

The first time they applied and they did it immediately they were given authorisation to do so. That's why I'm a bit nervous about that.

Cobbler_tone

HappyHarry said:

Cobbler_tone said:

Sounds like completing a successful pension transfer is akin to trying to complete a house sale quickly.

I think it is safe to say it would be best (if even for your mental health) to write Xmas off and for the sake of £350 grab another CETV in the new year.

I'll say it again - let the adviser apply for the CETV.

Depends on the personal experience, user platform and ease of working with the scheme. I have applied for one directly (FOC) five years running and always lands within two weeks. If going via an adviser there will be an element of giving authorisation to the third party and can't see a scheme reacting to their request in a more efficient manner. It is the click of a button to send it to any advisor. It did it myself one year to get free abridged advice.
I can't see going via any advisor being slicker.

michael1234

AlanP_2 said:

Based on the transfer I did a few years ago and various threads on here I would say you have more chance of seeing the real Santa
and his reindeer on Christmas Eve than they have of completing the analysis and putting the transfer through by 12th Jan 25.

The IFA I used was linked to a deal put in place by the pension trustees. He had carried out numerous transfer analysis and activities from the scheme so knew most basic facts already thus limiting questions that needed to be asked if administrators.

In addition they had some kind of access / login to the administrator system so could get my specific details directly in no time at all.

Arrangements put in place with IFA before CETV requested.

Transfer completed the day before the 3 months was up.

Fair enough they probably didn't push it along and were no doubt doing multiple applications at the same time but it is still a long winded, time consuming process from what I saw.

Thanks a lot Alan for your own experiences. Who did you use and would you recommend? 3 months on the nose is scary.

But most of all it really makes me angry that a person from the company I am dealing with can just sit back and watch me lose 10K to them. It doesn't even need a well paid IFA to get involved - just someone whose job is to ensure they maximise chances or meeting their customer's deadlines and tell them the risks. If I'd stupidly continued the processes and then lost 10K by Jan 12 would I have a case with the Ombudsman for not providing any warning it was doomed to fail?

I don't know what I can do. I'll be clear and say this is Grove. I also have PensionWorks at an early stage which I might fire up again and see if they are any better at the time management problem.

I can actually obtain an "unofficial" in real time as my pension is really a DC pension with a very low guarantee. Not sure if that helps. Its worth about 5% more than it was when the CETV was obtained in Sep/Oct.

HappyHarry

Cobbler_tone said:

HappyHarry said:

Cobbler_tone said:

Sounds like completing a successful pension transfer is akin to trying to complete a house sale quickly.

I think it is safe to say it would be best (if even for your mental health) to write Xmas off and for the sake of £350 grab another CETV in the new year.

I'll say it again - let the adviser apply for the CETV.

Depends on the personal experience, user platform and ease of working with the scheme. I have applied for one directly (FOC) five years running and always lands within two weeks. If going via an adviser there will be an element of giving authorisation to the third party and can't see a scheme reacting to their request in a more efficient manner. It is the click of a button to send it to any advisor. It did it myself one year to get free abridged advice.
I can't see going via any advisor being slicker.

It is all about trying to get the advice completed and the transfer applied for before the three month deadline.

The point is that it is the adviser that requires the CETV and a whole host of other information from the provider in order to provide the required advice. The adviser will request this other information from the provider at the same time that they apply for the CETV.

If the client applies for a CETV, receives the CETV and then speaks to an adviser in an attempt to get some advice, then the three month clock has started ticking long before the adviser gets to ask the provider the necessary questions. 

ian16527

I think I read further up that you are with Mercer. They were very slow when I had dealings with them.

michael1234

Whilst I should be having fun in the pub, I was instead reading this:
https://www.grove-pensions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Preferred-Provider-List-2024-02-V4.pdf

It says referring to both Aviva and Standard Life: "Please note - these firms do not accept insistent clients." 
Is that true ? (I now have Stakeholders with both Aviva and SL)

Aretnap

michael1234 said:

Whilst I should be having fun in the pub, I was instead reading this:
https://www.grove-pensions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Preferred-Provider-List-2024-02-V4.pdf

It says referring to both Aviva and Standard Life: "Please note - these firms do not accept insistent clients." 
Is that true ? (I now have Stakeholders with both Aviva and SL)

They might well have a general policy of not accepting insistent clients, but their stakeholder products are still required by law to accept any and all transfers, and that overrides any policies they might have. 

The document you link to was probably written without reference to the stakeholder option because (1) stakeholder pensions are an obsolete product that most people have pretty much forgotten even exists and (2) even if the advisers do remember stakeholder pensions they are unlikely to jeopardize their relationship with Aviva or Standard Life by recommending that you transfer to one of their products, then immediately transfer out again.

Cus

Skimmed the thread so apologies if said but to me the transfer value is not great. The dB value of 148k pays 7k a year, the other DC will buy an annuity of around 14k with benefits added so £21k for £510k pot, a x25 multi, might as well stick, a guaranteed SWR of 4% inflation linked