Conflicting Pensions Advice

akwexavante

What a nightmare, and i don't know what to do next!?

I have a £122K pension pot that is still growing annually.

I have a £13K pension pot that's frozen.

I'm up-to-date with my state pension, with just 3yrs to complete over 4yrs.

I'm 63yrs old, self-employed, but my business is buggered thanks to the smartphone! With no meaningful income at this moment in time.

Happy to explore a new income part-time, that could be 2 or 3 days employed or self-employed doing something simply though.  Don't want to be investing too much time and money into something.

1st Adviser working under the umbrella of St. James Place says that if i don't need to take advantage of my larger pension pot, then leave it where it is because it has the lowest annual fees he's seen for a long time, and it is growing nicely. He also says that my smaller pension pot is frozen and i cannot access it as it's part of a "Pension Protected Fund" until my retirement date.

2nd Adviser working under the umbrella of True potential says that he recommends transferring the larger pot into a "Flexible Drawdown Pension" and start drawing from it and has suggested £600 a month until retirement, then adjust "Drop It Down" to a smaller amount then.  He says that the fees being taken from the fund leaving it where it is are amongst the highest he's seen!?   He also says that i can, and he recommends that i do take advantage of the smaller frozen pension now, "It's frozen" and not growing, so move it.

Drawing on a pension and taking a 2 or 3 day job until my state pension age is tempting. Not drawing on a pension pot would mean that i'd have find a larger, more full-time income in some way, self-employed or employed.

Is the True Potential adviser telling porkies, putting his own interests first, i say this because the St. James Place adviser had nothing to gain from telling me to leave my pensions alone if i could manage without.

Should i approach a third adviser, or have you some suggestion to add?

 

Archerychick

As a starter for ten can you share what fees you are paying - people will then be able to give you an idea of the reality on how they compare 

xylophone

"Pension Protected Fund" 

Do you mean it is here?

https://www.ppf.co.uk/

akwexavante

Fees for 2024 were a total of £640.00 on my Zurich £122K pension pot.

I have a different web address on my last letter regarding my protected fund that re-directs to ppf.co.uk now.

akwexavante

A couple of phone calls later and i've discovered that my protected pension is actually with fasmembers.org.uk under the umbrella of ppf..co.uk

dunstonh

1st Adviser working under the umbrella of St. James Place says that if i don't need to take advantage of my larger pension pot, then leave it where it is because it has the lowest annual fees he's seen for a long time, and it is growing nicely. He also says that my smaller pension pot is frozen and i cannot access it as it's part of a "Pension Protected Fund" until my retirement date.

Obviously, we don't have any details here, but reading the responses, this response from the SJP sales rep sounds reasonable.  Although most fees are lower than what SJP offer.  Reference to the PPF is correct.

2nd Adviser working under the umbrella of True potential says that he recommends transferring the larger pot into a "Flexible Drawdown Pension" and start drawing from it and has suggested £600 a month until retirement, then adjust "Drop It Down" to a smaller amount then.  He says that the fees being taken from the fund leaving it where it is are amongst the highest he's seen!?   He also says that i can, and he recommends that i do take advantage of the smaller frozen pension now, "It's frozen" and not growing, so move it.

Another expensive sales force which is well-known for hoovering up assets under management.  Clearly you wouldnt move the PPF.

 Remember that these are not IFAs.  They represent SJP and TP.   They should do a proper cost benefits analysis and give advice after doing that.     The key is the level of detail both sales reps have seen.  i.e. have you had formal advice after they have seen full information or just basic "man down the pub" style discussion?


Fees for 2024 were a total of £640.00 on my Zurich £122K pension pot.

That may explain the SJP response.  Its not a big fund and if they don't really want it, they can passively bat it away.      That fee equates to around 0.52% p.a.   That is not cheap.    Its not expensive either.  Its right in the ballpark typical nowadays.  Cheap is at around 0.3x% for provider+fund.         SJP would be around 3-4 times more expensive than that.

TP is more expensive and will typically take anything and everything.   TP's platform charge is around 0.4% and the portfolio charges around 0.7%-0.8%. and if you have ongoing servicing, then around 0.5-0.75%.

Their charges are higher than you have.  So the comment saying the existing fees are amongst the highest he has seen either means it is his first day on the job and you are the first case he has ever looked at or their sales agent is trying to sell it to you.  Given the incorrect information on PPF and this, I would have no confidence.

akwexavante

Thank you Dunstonh, i have lost confidence in what the True Potential adviser has told me thus far. With that i thought i'd seek inspiration here.

I do like the idea of transferring my £122K pension pot to a "Flexible Drawdown Pension", any ideas as to where the best place may be to move such a small pension pot to get the best out of it?

Having now registered with FASmembers.co.uk and logged in to find out a few things for myself i find that it'll be worth £970.00 a year starting October 2027! (FAS Normal Retirement Date, whatever that means). I can find no info saying that it is subjected to fees or growth in any way

BobR64

I hadn't heard of the FAS before this but it looks like there is some connection with the PPF, which suggests that this pension relates to a defined benefit scheme that has gone bust at some point. It sounds like you will get a defined benefit pension from the FAS. Therefore there is no pot as such - you will get a guaranteed income for the rest of your life, probably not as good as the original scheme that went bust but better than nothing, and you will probably get some inflation linking. I have a small pension in the PPF and in my case index linking is capped at 2.5% pa.

Albermarle

I do like the idea of transferring my £122K pension pot to a "Flexible Drawdown Pension", any ideas as to where the best place may be to move such a small pension pot to get the best out of it?

It could well be your current pension can be easily converted to a flexible drawdown scheme, so you could withdraw an income from it. Have you had a look at their website?
However Zurich are not a very active pensions player nowadays, so you might be better off transferring it to a more modern provider anyway.
By the way £122K is not that small, and some providers actively compete for new customers almost of any size. 

xylophone

I hadn't heard of the FAS before this 

https://www.ppf.co.uk/our-members/what-it-means-fas#:~:text=FAS provides financial assistance to,1997 and 5 April 2005.

akwexavante

I have a second appointment with the True Potential adviser in three days time, although i've lost faith here, attending with questions to ask him can only extend my knowledge further.

Sifting through a mountain of historical paperwork stretching as far back as the early 80's, i've discovered a third pension that's been confirmed to have a transfer value of £39K, or i can leave it with them and turn it into an annuity.  I also discovered paperwork reminding me that i've used an adviser in the past that i'd forgotten about so I've arranged an appointment with them for tomorrow, a financial adviser associated with the openwork partnership who actually sorted a couple of different products for me decades ago that i was very satisfied with.

I've discovered that Zurich can only offer me an annuity and say that my funds transfer value has now increased to £128K.