DC pension - options

vacheron

Considering only DC pots, I had a Pension with Scottish Widows which I no longer contribute to, and a Royal London Pension which my current employer pays my contributions into via salary sacrifice. 

Last year I moved a chunk of the Scottish Widows pension to a Hargreaves Lansdown SIPP. My main reasons were:

• Wanting to move some of my pension to a fund with a lower UK bias.
• Far more modern interface, better customer service and more fund choices.
• A cashback promotion which bagged me £1,500.

Recently I have moved the entire Hargreaves Lansdown SIPP over to Inteligent Investor in addition to another chunk of the Scottish Widows fund. My main reasons were:

• Fees are lower than HL, Saving me approximately £800 per year.
• Wanting to move more of my SW fund to a fund with a lower UK bias.
• Another cashback promotion which this time bagged me a mere £1,000. 

I will probably move a chunk of the Royal London pension too when it reaches a certain size, as the fees are lower and also becasue RL fund has that UK bias issue again.

bjorn_toby_wilde

dunstonh said:

The SW platform was very basic, clunky and didn’t give me any of the info I needed. The fund choices were again limited but the performance wasn’t great and I couldn’t find any way to stop the lifestyling option.

The SW platform is whole of market and couldn't be considered basic or clunky.   Are you sure you are referring to the platform?  (and not perhaps their auto-enrolment scheme - which isn't a platform but certainly is limited and clunky)

Mmmmm. That’s a good question.

It was an employer pension so possibly the auto enrolment version.  It certainly wasn’t easy to use.

vacheron

bjorn_toby_wilde said:

dunstonh said:

The SW platform was very basic, clunky and didn’t give me any of the info I needed. The fund choices were again limited but the performance wasn’t great and I couldn’t find any way to stop the lifestyling option.

The SW platform is whole of market and couldn't be considered basic or clunky.   Are you sure you are referring to the platform?  (and not perhaps their auto-enrolment scheme - which isn't a platform but certainly is limited and clunky)

Mmmmm. That’s a good question.

It was an employer pension so possibly the auto enrolment version.  It certainly wasn’t easy to use.

I've had a similar comment from dunstonh when I have previously referred to the SW "platform" in a derogatory manner.
I probably also incorrectly used the vernacular in referring to it as a "platform" instead of  group site / scheme / website, or whatever it is, but I know the one you mean, and it was, and still is, c**p! 

bjorn_toby_wilde said:

The SW platform was very basic, clunky and didn’t give me any of the info I needed. The fund choices were again limited but the performance wasn’t great and I couldn’t find any way to stop the lifestyling option.

Me neither. SW sent me a letter saying that they would move me to lifestyling this year. No mention in the letter of what to do if you didn't want this, so my only option was to call them.

After being  transferred through 3 different departments and kept on hold for almost 40 minutes I was finally able to describe to someone who understood what I wanted them to do (just leave it alone).

The advisor (who sounded a lot like Mrs Doubtfire), just said, "OK dear, i'll try and get that sorted out for you".

I asked if I would get a letter confirming this to which she replied "probably"! 

No letter came, but I am still in my original fund, so fingers crossed!    

bjorn_toby_wilde

Yes, that certainly chimes with my experience 😂

Albermarle

bjorn_toby_wilde said:

Yes, that certainly chimes with my experience 😂

I have an ex Zurich employer pension, which was taken over by SW.
I think it is a different interface, as it still looks a bit like the original Zurich one.
However it also looks old fashioned and is slow/clunky. I only made one query and got a response saying all mails will be answered in 10 days. Ten days later I got an uninformative one line 'answer' .
However it was a big employer and the charges are very low, so I let it tick over.
If I ever want to draw it down I will transfer it to my SIPP first, and hopefully get some cashback as well .