Lifesight Pension - any good?

Albermarle

coopej4 said:

OP here. The thread has gone slightly off topic with a discussion about the benefits of consulting an IFA. Interesting conversation nevertheless. Thank you to all who have replied though. To get us back on theme, I'll recap my original query.

1. I'm looking for comments from folk who have first hand experience with Lifesight and whether that is good or bad. I'm particularly interested to hear from those who are in the draw down phase and also those transferring out to another provider.  The reviews  on Trustadvisor are mainly bed ones - but as dunstanh pointed out, that may be unrepresentative of the majority of customers. People with bad experiences post reviews, people with average to good experiences are less likely to think of heading to TrustAvisor to post a comment.

2. I was asking for peoples views about whether I should remain in Lifesight to protect my enhanced tax free lump sum. It was pointed (by FireDreamer) out that the amount I'm likely to save in tax is rather insignificant compared to the total pot size - I tend to agree with that.

The post before your one above, I think pretty much answers your question 1, as I think their experience is not unique.

dunstonh

Do you think that might be the nearest I'll get to a "green list"?

Possibly.   All those providers would fail the "overseas investments available" flag.  (pensionbee isn't a SIPP but it uses ETFs).  So, it really boils down to whether they have a green list or not  (note the "green list" name may be called something else at different providers - it is not an official term but one that seems to be sticking with multiple providers.  It may be referred to as a pre-approved list or centrally approved list or variance of that)

OliverLacon

I found another thread about WTW
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6527604/transfer-from-wtw/p2

TimeToEatCake

Thanks for sharing the link.  I had already braced myself for a long, drawn out, difficult process but now feel even more prepared (yet comfortable that I made the right decision to bear the pain now and then (hopefully) have much better service when my funds arrive at my new provider).  I'll be tracking every part of the process and every conversation with LifeSight.

OliverLacon

I've found some information that is relevant to moving funds from Lifesight to a SIPP provider:

www.fscs.org.uk/what-we-cover/

"After 1 April 2019

If your pension provider fails

100% of your claim, with no upper limit.

If your SIPP operator fails

Up to £85,000 per eligible person, per firm.

Bad pension advice

If you’ve received bad advice in relation to your pension, you could be eligible to claim compensation - up to £85,000  per eligible person, per firm."

I'm thinking that Lifesight is a "Pension provider" a SSIP operator (such as AJ Bell) is probably not.

Albermarle

coopej4 said:

I've found some information that is relevant to moving funds from Lifesight to a SIPP provider:

www.fscs.org.uk/what-we-cover/

"After 1 April 2019

If your pension provider fails

100% of your claim, with no upper limit.

If your SIPP operator fails

Up to £85,000 per eligible person, per firm.

Bad pension advice

If you’ve received bad advice in relation to your pension, you could be eligible to claim compensation - up to £85,000  per eligible person, per firm."

I'm thinking that Lifesight is a "Pension provider" a SSIP operator (such as AJ Bell) is probably not.

The question about compensation comes up quite often on the forum. I will summarise the usual responses.
 Firstly insured funds are covered 100%. This normally means the traditional pension providers like Scottish Widows; Aviva, Standard Life; Royal London etc . However as the situation has never arisen, this 100% has never been tested in reality. I have no idea if Lifesight would be classified as one of these.

Non insured pension providers, like Aj Bell - The investments you hold with them are not owned by AJ Bell, so if they went under you would still own the investment funds. The £85K would easily cover any administrator costs in selling on the business. It would also cover any issues relating to fraud, mismanagement, maladministration etc
The investment finds also have some separate protection.
However the main point is that the chance of you losing money ( apart from normal investment losses) by being with a company like AJ Bell, is vanishingly small. Same for any mainstream SIPP/pension provider.
Even if you went with a smaller start up, if there were any problems they would just get snapped up by a bigger player.
Many regulars on these forums hold many hundreds of thousands of Pounds on platforms like Aj Bell, without giving it a second thought.

OliverLacon

Thanks Albermarle.

This sentance is particularly re-assuring "The investments you hold with them are not owned by AJ Bell, so if they went under you would still own the investment funds"

Probably the page from the FSCS web site I quoted earlier should carry this information.

WH69

coopej4 said:

Thanks dunstanh.  I guess it would do no harm if I did ask. You may have seen my reply to a different post regarding a list of providers that Lifesight can apparently do transfers to via electronic means (rather than filling in forms). Do you think that might be the nearest I'll get to a "green list"?

These are the providers:-
SIPPDeal E-SIPP (AJ Bell)
Transact Personal Pension
Transact SIPP
PensionBee
HL SIPP
Fidelity Retail Pension Scheme

Has anyone else any experience transferring from Lifesight to any in the list? How long does it take> What issues did you have?

I have recently completed a transfer from WTW/Lifesight (i thought Lifesight was a master trust of WTW?) to the last in your list, Fidelity where i had an existing SIPP.  I initiated the transfer on 12th Dec and the money was transferred to Fidelity on 6th Feb so took circa 55 days, which included the Christmas period.  I initiated the transfer from Fidelity and also completed an authorisation form i sent to WTW.  I only completed 1 set of forms (most info they had of course) as they don’t use the digital process but expected a whole host of issues and possible red flags etc. given what i have read re other WTW/Lifesight transfers. But i didn’t make a single phone call and was emailed/texted updates until the final transfer was complete.  An unexpectedly easy process, just longer than i would have liked.

OliverLacon

Thank you WH69. Good to know that it seems possible to carry out a transfer without too much trouble. 2 months still seems like a long time - but apparently that is only to be expected.