Do I really need an IFA to draw my pension?

quantum

wjr4 said:

quantum said:

My biggest pot options...
1. Max cash sum and reduced Pension
2. Annual Pension, no Cash lump
2a. Max Cash Sum and additional bridging pension payable till State Pension Date (I'm 62 and therefore it's 67).
2b An additional bridging pension payable till SPD and no cash sum
3. Transfer Value

That’s a defined benefit pension. 

Yes indeed that's what I was told by Pensionwise. He said that was very good. I just need to make a decision on the option. I'm not sure if once you've chosen whether there's flexibility if situations change... 🤷

ian16527

quantum said:

wjr4 said:

quantum said:

My biggest pot options...
1. Max cash sum and reduced Pension
2. Annual Pension, no Cash lump
2a. Max Cash Sum and additional bridging pension payable till State Pension Date (I'm 62 and therefore it's 67).
2b An additional bridging pension payable till SPD and no cash sum
3. Transfer Value

That’s a defined benefit pension. 

Yes indeed that's what I was told by Pensionwise. He said that was very good. I just need to make a decision on the option. I'm not sure if once you've chosen whether there's flexibility if situations change... 🤷

If its a DB pension it would be best to contact your pension. They will give you the answers you are after. I think most of the answers on this thread were based on you having a DC pension. I think this was because you stated a pension pot value.

When you get the figures from your pension admin come back and post them on here to see if its a good deal with regards to Tax free cash and monthly figures. 

Once you take your DB pension then this is what you get other than yearly increases if that's in your scheme, for life

wjr4

quantum said:

wjr4 said:

Qyburn said:

Cobbler_tone said:

So in a nutshell, there is absolutely no way of knowing if a small IFA is going to do a good job for you? 

That was what put us off. All we knew is that they typically wanted a 3% fee for reviewing our pensions, saving and drawing up a retirement plan. Plus some confident waffle about us saving at least that much in tax. It's a shame they don't offer staged advice, initially explanatory discussions for a few hundred (or even a couple of thousand) so you can see how you get on. Rather than having to blindly chuck nearly £20k to them and hope it works out well.

Find a company that charges a fixed fee based on the work, not a percentage, especially not a percentage without a cap! 

Yes that would be good. Not sure on £70k who'd be interested...

You can pay for transactional financial advice. 

Ibrahim5

"Hello. I am unemployed but would like some financial advice"
"Well I have a couple of O levels but I did an IFA course so I will ask you a few questions and tell you what to do after a few hours thinking. £500 an hour is all I charge".

flaneurs_lobster

Ibrahim5 said:

"Hello. I am unemployed but would like some financial advice"
"Well I have a couple of O levels but I did an IFA course so I will ask you a few questions and tell you what to do after a few hours thinking. £500 an hour is all I charge".

This is very tedious, and rather obsessional.

Blocked.

Ibrahim5

Ongoing fees are the current scandal. I recently did a back of a fag packet calculation and worked out that the cost of an annual review on a pension was similar to the surgeons fees for 4 open heart surgeries. The difference is that the fees are taken out of investment gains so some people accept them. If you trawl through FCA reports you will find that they are concerned that nearly all new customers are put onto ongoing fees. The IFAs then make excuses like " it's what our customers want". The reality is that you can only get all your customers onto ongoing fees if you refuse to do transactional advice. So you will always read on here that people CAN request transactional advice but the reality is that very little of it is happening.

FIREDreamer

flaneurs_lobster said:

Ibrahim5 said:

"Inane rhubarb"

This is very tedious, and rather obsessional.

Blocked.

Seems he has posted again but as blocked I cannot read it.

Feeling blessed. 😇

Bostonerimus1

Ibrahim5 said:

Ongoing fees are the current scandal. I recently did a back of a fag packet calculation and worked out that the cost of an annual review on a pension was similar to the surgeons fees for 4 open heart surgeries. The difference is that the fees are taken out of investment gains so some people accept them. If you trawl through FCA reports you will find that they are concerned that nearly all new customers are put onto ongoing fees. The IFAs then make excuses like " it's what our customers want". The reality is that you can only get all your customers onto ongoing fees if you refuse to do transactional advice. So you will always read on here that people CAN request transactional advice but the reality is that very little of it is happening.

Yes, on going charges are an enormous impediment to asset growth and in retirement if someone is spending 1% on financial fees they will likely be one quarter of their DC drawdown. With simple finances ongoing management is not required and it would be far better for people to pay for advice only when they need it.

Ibrahim5

Yes the FCA are saying "it's funny but year after year more and more people are put onto ongoing fees". Do they need to be? If you have a large pension pot and request no ongoing fees the IFA will throw his toys out of the pram. If you phone an IFA requesting transactional fees only they won't return your call. It's all about what the IFA wants and he wants all his customers on ongoing fees.  So the commission scandal has become the ongoing fees scandal.

quantum

wjr4 said:

quantum said:

wjr4 said:

Qyburn said:

Cobbler_tone said:

So in a nutshell, there is absolutely no way of knowing if a small IFA is going to do a good job for you? 

That was what put us off. All we knew is that they typically wanted a 3% fee for reviewing our pensions, saving and drawing up a retirement plan. Plus some confident waffle about us saving at least that much in tax. It's a shame they don't offer staged advice, initially explanatory discussions for a few hundred (or even a couple of thousand) so you can see how you get on. Rather than having to blindly chuck nearly £20k to them and hope it works out well.

Find a company that charges a fixed fee based on the work, not a percentage, especially not a percentage without a cap! 

Yes that would be good. Not sure on £70k who'd be interested...

You can pay for transactional financial advice. 

What and how do you mean please?