Retirment/redundancy and AVC pot

Patchpoo68

I am being made redundant in April and am over 55.  One of the options I have is to waive my severance over the 30k tax free amount and put it in my AVCs.  I can then take my DB pension which is what I want to do.  The forms I have been sent says that I can take the pesnion and tfr my AVCs (severance amount plus existing AVCs) to 'another pension provider'  I want to tfr this amount to my IFA firm who will invest it for me.  We have done my risk profile and and I am comfortable with this.  However this is not tfring to another 'pension provider',  Its a tfr to my IFA firm who will invest it accordingly (Unit trust etc).  Can this be done?  And if it can should I be asking to take my severance and AVCs as a tax free lump sum and not a tfr to another company?  I'm confused.

Marcon

Patchpoo68 said:

I am being made redundant in April and am over 55.  One of the options I have is to waive my severance over the 30k tax free amount and put it in my AVCs.  I can then take my DB pension which is what I want to do.  The forms I have been sent says that I can take the pesnion and tfr my AVCs (severance amount plus existing AVCs) to 'another pension provider'  I want to tfr this amount to my IFA firm who will invest it for me.  We have done my risk profile and and I am comfortable with this.  However this is not tfring to another 'pension provider',  Its a tfr to my IFA firm who will invest it accordingly (Unit trust etc).  Can this be done?  And if it can should I be asking to take my severance and AVCs as a tax free lump sum and not a tfr to another company?  I'm confused.

'Transfer' has a particular meaning in the context of pensions. It means you are moving your pension from one place to another, so that it's in a pension when it begins the journey, and its immediate destination is another pension scheme.

You can't 'transfer' to your IFA firm. You would need to withdraw your AVC funds and then either pay that to your IFA's client account (if they can hold client money) pending investment on your behalf, or wait for your IFA to give you advice and then pay the funds direct to the chosen fund(s).

If that's what you want to achieve, you need to ask to put your DB pension into payment and take a tax free lump sum from your AVCs (and possibly pension, depending on how much you have in your AVCs/the maximum tax free cash you can take from your DB scheme) at the same time.

pterri

Marcon said:

Patchpoo68 said:

I am being made redundant in April and am over 55.  One of the options I have is to waive my severance over the 30k tax free amount and put it in my AVCs.  I can then take my DB pension which is what I want to do.  The forms I have been sent says that I can take the pesnion and tfr my AVCs (severance amount plus existing AVCs) to 'another pension provider'  I want to tfr this amount to my IFA firm who will invest it for me.  We have done my risk profile and and I am comfortable with this.  However this is not tfring to another 'pension provider',  Its a tfr to my IFA firm who will invest it accordingly (Unit trust etc).  Can this be done?  And if it can should I be asking to take my severance and AVCs as a tax free lump sum and not a tfr to another company?  I'm confused.

'Transfer' has a particular meaning in the context of pensions. It means you are moving your pension from one place to another, so that it's in a pension when it begins the journey, and its immediate destination is another pension scheme.

You can't 'transfer' to your IFA firm. You would need to withdraw your AVC funds and then either pay that to your IFA's client account (if they can hold client money) pending investment on your behalf, or wait for your IFA to give you advice and then pay the funds direct to the chosen fund(s).

If that's what you want to achieve, you need to ask to put your DB pension into payment and take a tax free lump sum from your AVCs (and possibly pension, depending on how much you have in your AVCs/the maximum tax free cash you can take from your DB scheme) at the same time.

I think that’s how mine will work when I access my DB (and decide what I want to do with the AVCs) in three years. I will have drawn some SIPP funds so will have taken some of the £268k headroom. AVCs currently circa £135k