Trustee Proposed S32 Buyout Policy (Aegon)

cloud_dog

I’ve finally managed to get my brother to review his pension position; 3 years before he’d like to retire, and we are in the process of assessing how he wants to take retirement income and potentially consolidate some / all of the numerous pensions.

He has a policy (as above) and I just want to check my thoughts regarding the account / policy.

Historically I always thought S32 plans would have a degree of guarantees etc associated with them, but from my googling I see that that does not necessarily need to be the case.

From looking at his plan (statements, documents) it does not appear to have any guarantees, benefits, or references to GMP assigned to it, and the entire value of the plan / investments are categorised under ‘Non-Protected rights portion’.

I appreciate he should probably just contact Aegon and get written confirmation but I am trying to keep things moving forward whilst I have some traction with him; so given the above information is it reasonable to assume that this is a S32 policy without any guarantees that need to be considered should we look at transferring elsewhere?

dunstonh

Historically I always thought S32 plans would have a degree of guarantees etc associated with them, but from my googling I see that that does not necessarily need to be the case.

Often they do, but that is only where the origin scheme had them.   A section 32 would retain things like enhanced TFC,  GMP etc and older ones often had GARs.     However, if the origin scheme didn't have anything like that, then the S32 wouldn't either.

A straight question to Aegon should be "does the plan have any safeguarded benefits, and if so, what are they? And is there protected tax-free cash entitlement in excess of 25%?)
From your explanation, it would appear no GMP but non-protected rights could still potentially have a GAR or protected tax-free cash.

DRS1

In the good old days when you contracted out of SERPS with a personal pension scheme or a Contracted out Money Purchase Scheme the NI rebate which was paid to the scheme gave rise to what they called Protected Rights.  So a reference to non Protected Rights could just be a reference to benefits bought by contributions which were not the NI rebate.  Any distinctions for those Protected Rights got swept away some years ago so they'd be treated like any other defined contribution monies.

Does he know what sort of scheme bought the s32 buyout?  Was it a money purchase or defined contribution scheme or a defined benefit scheme?  You would only have to wonder about GMPs if it was a contracted out defined benefit scheme.

cloud_dog

Thanks @dunstonh and @DRS1 for your prompt responses.

TBH I'm unsure what if any paper documentation exists for it.  We have trawled the online portal but this only came on line in 2018 and the product might (???) be from 2006.

I think from both your responses the best approach will be to contact Aegon to confirm.  Unfortunately I didn't see a 'Secure Message' type option within the portal, so it will need to be snail mail.  I'll write it out for him, maybe even give him a stamp

Marcon

DRS1 said:

In the good old days when you contracted out of SERPS with a personal pension scheme or a Contracted out Money Purchase Scheme the NI rebate which was paid to the scheme gave rise to what they called Protected Rights.  So a reference to non Protected Rights could just be a reference to benefits bought by contributions which were not the NI rebate.  Any distinctions for those Protected Rights got swept away some years ago so they'd be treated like any other defined contribution monies.

Does he know what sort of scheme bought the s32 buyout?  Was it a money purchase or defined contribution scheme or a defined benefit scheme?  You would only have to wonder about GMPs if it was a contracted out defined benefit scheme.

...or its much rarer little relative, the Contracted Out Mixed Benefits Scheme. 

Marcon

cloud_dog said:

Thanks @dunstonh and @DRS1 for your prompt responses.

TBH I'm unsure what if any paper documentation exists for it.  We have trawled the online portal but this only came on line in 2018 and the product might (???) be from 2006.

I think from both your responses the best approach will be to contact Aegon to confirm.  Unfortunately I didn't see a 'Secure Message' type option within the portal, so it will need to be snail mail.  I'll write it out for him, maybe even give him a stamp

Not sure if you stumbled across this page: https://www.aegon.co.uk/customer/support

Might worth seeing if you can wade through the links and get access to a secure message facility that way, unless you've already tried and failed!

cloud_dog

Marcon said:

cloud_dog said:

Thanks @dunstonh and @DRS1 for your prompt responses.

TBH I'm unsure what if any paper documentation exists for it.  We have trawled the online portal but this only came on line in 2018 and the product might (???) be from 2006.

I think from both your responses the best approach will be to contact Aegon to confirm.  Unfortunately I didn't see a 'Secure Message' type option within the portal, so it will need to be snail mail.  I'll write it out for him, maybe even give him a stamp

Not sure if you stumbled across this page: https://www.aegon.co.uk/customer/support

Might worth seeing if you can wade through the links and get access to a secure message facility that way, unless you've already tried and failed!

Hi... Thanks for posting the link.  I don't think it was one we followed. As mentioned it is my brother's account and I was 'just' looking over his shoulder etc for information.  I'll pass it on and see if it can offer quicker confirmation.