Transfer SIPP into stakeholder pension

mr._prude

I have a small SIPP with Fidelity, I set it up about 12 months ago. Was looking to transfer it to one of my Aviva stakeholder pensions.Would this be possible?

I make my main pension contribution via salary sacrifice (42% tax saving) to Aviva. Think it makes better sense to increase my contribution there, rather than paying into the SIPP after tax, and wait 8-12 weeks on Fidelity giving me the first 20% tax owed and then claiming the other 20% tax back on my tax returns. Quite cumbersome to keep track off.

Marcon

mr._prude said:

I have a small SIPP with Fidelity, I set it up about 12 months ago. Was looking to transfer it to one of my Aviva stakeholder pensions.Would this be possible?

I make my main pension contribution via salary sacrifice (42% tax saving) to Aviva. Think it makes better sense to increase my contribution there, rather than paying into the SIPP after tax, and wait 8-12 weeks on Fidelity giving me the first 20% tax owed and then claiming the other 20% tax back on my tax returns. Quite cumbersome to keep track off.

Yes, easy to transfer if that's what you want to do. Look on Aviva's website for how to get the ball rolling.

DRS1

Are there any limits on what you can salary sacrifice?  EG are you getting near the minimum wage?  Or does the employer restrict it in any way?
Sometimes contributing to a SIPP is a way around such restrictions.

Marcon

DRS1 said:

Are there any limits on what you can salary sacrifice?  EG are you getting near the minimum wage?  Or does the employer restrict it in any way?
Sometimes contributing to a SIPP is a way around such restrictions.

Nothing to stop OP making personal contributions to the workplace scheme - it's only salary sacrificed contributions which impact on minimum wage requirements. If the employer restricts personal contributions for some reason, OP can just pay direct to the stakeholder. There's no need for a SIPP as well, if they'd sooner have just the one pension arrangement.

dunstonh

I have a small SIPP with Fidelity, I set it up about 12 months ago. Was looking to transfer it to one of my Aviva stakeholder pensions.Would this be possible?

Unusual choice.  Stakeholder pensions are very niche option nowadays, and most of them are more expensive than SIPPs (unless you got special terms).

Since auto-enrolment rules made group stakeholder pensions largely obsolete (stakeholder being 1.00% cap and AE being 0.75%) most firms ceased their group stakeholder pension and moved to a workplace pension.  (again special terms could apply).    Is yours a group scheme or individual that you pay into from your own business?

I make my main pension contribution via salary sacrifice (42% tax saving) to Aviva. Think it makes better sense to increase my contribution there, rather than paying into the SIPP after tax, and wait 8-12 weeks on Fidelity giving me the first 20% tax owed and then claiming the other 20% tax back on my tax returns. Quite cumbersome to keep track off.

Any reason you cannot salary sacrifice to Fidelity?  They do accept employer contributions.

Marcon

dunstonh said:

I have a small SIPP with Fidelity, I set it up about 12 months ago. Was looking to transfer it to one of my Aviva stakeholder pensions.Would this be possible?

Unusual choice.  Stakeholder pensions are very niche option nowadays, and most of them are more expensive than SIPPs (unless you got special terms).

Since auto-enrolment rules made group stakeholder pensions largely obsolete (stakeholder being 1.00% cap and AE being 0.75%) most firms ceased their group stakeholder pension and moved to a workplace pension.  (again special terms could apply).    Is yours a group scheme or individual that you pay into from your own business?

I make my main pension contribution via salary sacrifice (42% tax saving) to Aviva. Think it makes better sense to increase my contribution there, rather than paying into the SIPP after tax, and wait 8-12 weeks on Fidelity giving me the first 20% tax owed and then claiming the other 20% tax back on my tax returns. Quite cumbersome to keep track off.

Any reason you cannot salary sacrifice to Fidelity?  They do accept employer contributions.

For anyone else reading this thread....It looks from OP's post that Fidelity is not the employer's choice of pension provider, so unlikely an employer would agree to do that (unless this is OP's own company). 

mr._prude

No real restriction on contributions, I'm in the 40% tax bracket. Currently putting  in 6% and my employer is putting in 9%. Plan to increase this over the next few years. Yes it is a company pension with Aviva. I also have an  individual pension with Aviva where I used to combine old pensions from previous employments.

af1963

It may well make more sense to make future contributions via salary sacrifice at work. But there's no particular problem with leaving the existing SIPP in place as a separate pot. If nothing else, it keeps open the option of grabbing things like 'transfer bonuses' later, by switching the "extra" SIPP to a new provider.  No extra admin needed if you're not adding to it.