Standard life pension advice

skint74

Hi. I have a standard life group pension plan that I have discovered has a 20 fund limit on the lifetime of the fund. I have reached that 20 limit so can’t change to any new funds. 

Do I move this pension to a new pension? Having this 20 funds limit is a restriction on me getting the most from my pension and also putting my investments at a greater risk as I near retirement. 

What should I do? Can I move it to another provider. I know little about the rules around pensions. 

Albermarle

The 20 new funds limit is an unusual restriction but I was aware that SL had that rule on some older pensions.
Unless the pension has some kind of guaranteed rights then it is very easy to open a new pension, and transfer a pension in.
Some simpler pensions do not even have 20 funds to choose from, so you would need one with a big range I guess.
An alternative would be to ask SL to transfer you to one of their current pensions. I am pretty sure this limit no longer applies to new pensions but you would have to check.

LHW99

How old is the pension - Are you still contributing to it?

Why do you need more than 20 funds, can you not just add to one of the existing ones?

dunstonh

 Having this 20 funds limit is a restriction on me getting the most from my pension and also putting my investments at a greater risk as I near retirement. 

It harks back to the days where nobody changed their investments and therefore limits were not an issue.

What should I do?

In retail terms, you do the same as you would do  if you have a black and white TV but want a widescreen ultra HD.  Buy a new one.

Albermarle

LHW99 said:

How old is the pension - Are you still contributing to it?

Why do you need more than 20 funds, can you not just add to one of the existing ones?

IIRC, it is more that you can only have 20 new funds over the life of the pension which is a bit more restrictive.
So for example over the many years you have had the pension, you may have had money in a fund in the past and pulled it out again . That reduces the number of new funds you can open to 19.
So you do not have to actually be invested in 20 funds today to have reached the limit.

I actually still have a SL pension like this and it was started over 35 years ago. I did not touch it for about 20 years and I have other ones that where I do more chopping and changing, so I have not reached this 20 limit.

skint74

So I took out this pension in 2003 when I worked at my previous employer. Over the years in my younger naive days I chopped and changed funds, selling funds that did not perform and transferred to new funds. You can only hold 11 funds at any one time but I wasn’t aware of the 20 fund limit over the lifetime of the pension so one day I went to sell a fund and buy another fund and SL said no, you can only transfer to 20 funds you have used in the past as adding another fund not invested in previously would breach the fund rules so I am effectively blocked from growing my pension plan. 

Can I transfer this pension to another SL pension plan or do I need to move it to another provider. I just want to be able to adjust my pension as market conditions change. 

skint74

skint74 said:

So I took out this pension in 2003 when I worked at my previous employer. Over the years in my younger naive days I chopped and changed funds, selling funds that did not perform and transferred to new funds. You can only hold 11 funds at any one time but I wasn’t aware of the 20 fund limit over the lifetime of the pension so one day I went to sell a fund and buy another fund and SL said no, you can only transfer to 20 funds you have used in the past as adding another fund not invested in previously would breach the fund rules so I am effectively blocked from growing my pension plan. 

Can I transfer this pension to another SL pension plan or do I need to move it to another provider. I just want to be able to adjust my pension as market conditions change. 

This is the message they sent me. 

Your plan is subject to a rule which states that it can only be invested in a maximum of 12 different funds at any one time and a maximum of 20 different funds over the lifetime of the plan.

Up till now your plan has invested in 20 different funds - which means only no more completely

"new" funds can be invested in.

Your instruction includes 1 completely "new" fund, this is : SL Vanguard US Equity Pension Fund (GGMJ).

If we were to proceed with the request as it currently stands the plan would have invested in a total of 21 different funds - breaking the 20 fund limit.

The 20 funds already invested in previously are detailed on the attached PDF.

This does not apply to the update that has been requested for the future investment instruction (for payments into your plan). As the SL CT American Select Pension Fund (KN) is already held within your plan we have been able to update this.

DRS1

Why aren't you asking SL this question?

You might also ask them what the charges are on your plan and how they would compare with a new SL plan (if you were to transfer to that)

Are you and your employer contributing to this current plan?  Will you only keep the employer contributions if you continue to contribute to THIS plan?  If so you may have to think about a partial transfer - ask SL if that is possible.

Can you not live with contributing to/investing in one of the 20 funds you have used so far?

skint74

I will ask SL to see if I can transfer to another of their plans and see what the costs are etc. 

I am not actively contributing as it was a plan from my previous employer and my current employer have a different pension scheme. 

The existing funds are all high risk funds and I want to move them to lower risk funds

DRS1

skint74 said:

I will ask SL to see if I can transfer to another of their plans and see what the costs are etc. 

I am not actively contributing as it was a plan from my previous employer and my current employer have a different pension scheme. 

The existing funds are all high risk funds and I want to move them to lower risk funds

Sorry.  Where their message refers to future investment instruction (for payments into your plan) I assumed that meant you (and your employer) were still contributing.