Current company pension, and a SIPP

Kinclad

Hi

I’m 56 and keen to have greater control and options with regards to my current Money4Life company pension with Scottish Widdows.

So with in mind, im looking at the idea of moving the funds (around 388K) in this SW pension to a SIPP and then making ongoing transfers into that SIPP (as both my employer and I will continue to pay into the SW pension through salary sacrifice).

I have contacted SW and I have been told there are no restrictions or charges to do this (for as long as I keep the SW pension open).

Due to a change in financial circumstances (along with my desire to try and retire at 60!), in early 2026 I should be in a position where I can dramatically increase my SS contributions, resulting in joint contributions of around 4K a month.

Obviously, I need to consider the most appropriate SIPP provider with regards to costs and also compare those to the current costs im incurring with SW.

So just looking for some guidance and advice from anyone who has decided to take a similar approach.

Particularly interested in the strategy that people have taken:-

ie

Frequency of transfers from the company scheme to SIPP

Ongoing management and changes to the SIPP investments.

Regrets 😊 ie should have just left it in the company scheme etc

Fully appreciate everyone circumstances can be different, but I know any feedback will be valuable.

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

Mark.

Mark_d

With just four years to retirement, what advantages do you think you'll get by transferring the bulk of your pension at this stage?   I like to have control over my pension, though I exercise this control by choosing the funds my company pension is paid into.  

With a SIPP, there might be a greater choice of investment options but how much will you actually benefit in just 4 years?  I imagine the total charges for your SIPP will be higher because you'll have the platform fee as well as fund charges/sharedealing charges.

Kinclad

Mark_d said:

With just four years to retirement, what advantages do you think you'll get by transferring the bulk of your pension at this stage?   I like to have control over my pension, though I exercise this control by choosing the funds my company pension is paid into.  

With a SIPP, there might be a greater choice of investment options but how much will you actually benefit in just 4 years?  I imagine the total charges for your SIPP will be higher because you'll have the platform fee as well as fund charges/sharedealing charges.

Thanks Mark, although my plan is to try and retire in 4 years time, I envisaged continual analysis and changes in investments in my pension during the (hopefully long :-) ) period of drawdown. 

I 100% agree that I need to do a cost comparison analysis and it may be the case that even with the extra investment options that this would not be enough to justify the move.

I think that is why i'm quite interested in what other people have found when they have decided to make the move.

Thanks

jimjames

I do similar and move funds from my company scheme to my SIPP each year. I don't think there is any benefit in doing it more frequently than that. My SIPP is with ii (interactive investor) and costs £12.99 per month. There are some free ones but I'd prefer to pay for a more established company and in the scale of things it's still much cheaper than many other options. (Vanguard was £375 pa for the same amount)

QrizB

Kinclad said:

I’m 56 and keen to have greater control and options with regards to my current Money4Life company pension with Scottish Widdows. ...

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

What specific advantages are you hoping to gain from your SIPP?

I know SW has several different pensions, some modern and some less so, but my employer's SW plan gives me a huge range of investment options including individual gilts and shares, supports all the usual withdrawal methods, and my employer has negotiated a fairly low charge.

It does take a couple of days to change investments between funds, but I'm not planning on day trading my pension.

Kinclad

QrizB said:

Kinclad said:

I’m 56 and keen to have greater control and options with regards to my current Money4Life company pension with Scottish Widdows. ...

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

What specific advantages are you hoping to gain from your SIPP?

I know SW has several different pensions, some modern and some less so, but my employer's SW plan gives me a huge range of investment options including individual gilts and shares, supports all the usual withdrawal methods, and my employer has negotiated a fairly low charge.

It does take a couple of days to change investments between funds, but I'm not planning on day trading my pension.

Thanks, so maybe im missing the trick and there are more investment options open to me.

This is the scheme i am in, do you know if you are in the same?

Thanks

QrizB

The very tiny print says it's a group personal pension that started in 2021 or later, where your account number starts SW. Does this sound right?

My pension is older than that, from ~2016 and my account number begins ZU as it's ex-Zurich.

I would expect your scheme to be no worse than mine, and potentially "better" (more flexible / more options).

Kinclad

QrizB said:

The very tiny print says it's a group personal pension that started in 2021 or later, where your account number starts SW. Does this sound right?

My pension is older than that, from ~2016 and my account number begins ZU as it's ex-Zurich.

I would expect your scheme to be no worse than mine, and potentially "better" (more flexible / more options).

Thats correct yes.

Ok i think i need to do some digging as maybe i haven't worked out what is available to me.

Along with the recency, I work for FTSE 100 org, so would imagine they would have been able to negotiate competitive rates and decent investment options with SW.

QrizB

My SW pension has a guide to my investment options. It's broken into sections and you can think of them as "beginner" to "advanced"

The first section talks about their default plan/pathway.

Then there's how you could switch to a more tailored plan/pathway.

Then it goes on to talking about how you can opt out of the pathways and choose individual funds from their list.

And then, couched in words that imply "don't do this is you don't know what you're doing", it tells you how to buy individual listed securities - the sort of function you'd expect from a SIPP.

If I thought you had the same SW platform as me, I'd give some specific examples but you might have an entirely different website!

LHW99

If you plan to retire in 4 years, maybe that's the point to transfer, particularly if SW changes any charges at that point / doesn't allow the type(s) of drawdown you want etc.

No harm in researching ahead of time though.

kempiejon

Fees were a driver for me, I was paying between 0.3% and 0.75% on a handful of company personal pensions collected from several employers and years of work. That distributed pot was worth a little north of £100k when I transferred it to Hargreaves Lansdowne I now pay a capped £200 per year so less than 0.2%. I can't control my investment growth but I can the fees, seemed an obvious move.

In the first year I spent around £100 for 8 purchases of market targeted ETFs and since then there's been no need for more trading.