How to set up a traditional personal pension

dustinthewind

Hi,
I have funds in a SIPP which I would like to transfer into a traditional personal pension to avoid the high running costs of the SIPP platform. Can I do this by myself or will the personal pension providers only deal with IFAs acting on my behalf?
Thank you for your advice.

Albermarle

There are many personal pension providers who will be happy to deal with you direct without an IFA.
The obvious question is what are the high running costs of the Sipp, as some are very cheap ?

Marcon

dustinthewind said:

Hi,
I have funds in a SIPP which I would like to transfer into a traditional personal pension to avoid the high running costs of the SIPP platform. Can I do this by myself or will the personal pension providers only deal with IFAs acting on my behalf?
Thank you for your advice.

Are you sure it's the actual SIPP, rather than the cost of the underlying funds in which you are invested?

dustinthewind

Albermarle said:

There are many personal pension providers who will be happy to deal with you direct without an IFA.
The obvious question is what are the high running costs of the Sipp, as some are very cheap ?

The SIPP is moneyfarm, not known for having the lowest fees (currently 0.45%) and competitive yield. I recently found out that InvestmentEngine have a flat 0.15% fee on theirs and performs better.

dunstonh

I have funds in a SIPP which I would like to transfer into a traditional personal pension to avoid the high running costs of the SIPP platform.

SIPPs can vary from low cost to high cost.  Personal pensions can vary from low cost to high cost.  The actual pension type isn't a driver in costs.

The only time I use a personal pension is with low knowledge transactional clients and even in that case, it is more expensive than the lowest cost SIPP I can use.

The SIPP is moneyfarm, not known for having the lowest fees (currently 0.45%) and competitive yield. I recently found out that InvestmentEngine have a flat 0.15% fee on theirs and performs better.

Are you talking about their SIPP product or their robo product?
The robo product is not a SIPP and would be more expensive.
When it comes to SIPPs, performance is irrelevant as SIPPs have the same investment options (ignoring the products that may call themselves a SIPP despite not being so).  So, you can hold the same investments in SIPP A, B or C and therefore returns would be the same.
Yields would also be the same.  However, different platforms/providers may use different snapshot dates to display the yield on the same funds.   That can lead to small differences in the display of the figure but the yield is identical.

dustinthewind

Thank you all for your useful comments so far.

@dunstonh, I use their robot product. In that respect, I suspect you might suggest that 0.45% management is a decent deal?

dunstonh

@dunstonh, I use their robot product. In that respect, I suspect you might suggest that 0.45% management is a decent deal?

0.45% is just one part of the charge.  You need to add on 0.30% if in their active funds or 0.17% in their passive.  

Nowadays, lower cost SIPP charges are in the 0.15% to 0.2% ballpark.  Add on 0.20% for a multi-asset fund or tracker and the total cost is cheaper.