Transferring Royal London plan to II SIPP

Aminatidi

I have a Royal London plan through a past employer that's sat with RL since I left.

I've confirmed as best I can this is actually just a RL personal pension but via a group discount so around 0.35% all-in.

Main thing is it doesn't have a protected access age and it doesn't have any safeguarded benefits.

I can't think of any downside in transferring to a SIPP other than the obvious one of making sure to choose suitable funds.

Firstly can anyone flag anything I need to keep in mind that I may have overlooked please?

Secondly and I know this will vary but any rough idea what sort of transfer time to expect please?

I'd be looking at transferring to Interactive Investor.

Sam_666

DC or DB with RL?
Call RL and ask what pension platform they use for transfer and timelines.
Do same with ii.

dunstonh

Call RL and ask what pension platform they use for transfer and timelines.

RL doesn't use a platform. They have a traditional insured contract.

RL (ex Scottish Life or modern RL plan) typically transfer around 2-5 working days after receiving the request via Origo.

Aminatidi

Thank you and yes that is one difference I guess the "fully insured" v SIPP angle.

Right now the pot is around £100K.

That's actually encouraging on transfer times I thought we'd be talking weeks possibly.

vacheron

My current employer scheme recently switched to RL, but I don't like the way they recently restructured their funds, so I moved the majority out as a partial transfer to my Fidelity SIPP about 3 months ago.

As @dunstonh duggested above, i believe it was all done within a week. In my case it was a cash transfer, but I guess yours would be too if you are currenty in a specific RL portfolio as these aren't available on the general market.

Aminatidi

Yes I believe I'm in Governed Enhanced from the RL portal.

vacheron

I am in the RL Goverened Dynamic, which is one rung up the risk ladder. So yes, you will most likely have to transfer out in cash.

I completely lost trust in RL when they not only switched my monthy contributions to a higher risk fund than stated in my original paperwork, but they also sold ALL my holdings I had accumulated in that original fund, and used 100% of the sale proceeds (a six figure sum) to buy their higher risk fund instead with no agreement from me whatsoever!

Link here if interested.

While it was made clear to me by the professionals on this forum that they were perfectly at liberty to do this, this still did not sit well with me at all, so each time it accumulates a bit, I will partial transfer the majority it out to something where I actually know what I am invested in from one day to the next!

In my case, I moved the proceeds into two different ETF's, one global index ETF and one short term bond ETF, so I can adjust the ratio to allow me de-risk or rebalance easily and immediately.

Also (for now at least) it is far cheaper to hold your SIPP in ETF's with many providers than if they were standard funds / OEICs.

Aminatidi

Yes I noticed similar.

To be entirely fair and honest I have a recollection that a letter landed telling me words to the effect of "we're going to be taking more risk" so in my case it isn't the fact they did it, it's more a combination of taking stock of pensions and trying to get a few ducks in a row.

I was going to open an II Managed SIPP anyway for new money so per the thread I'm not seeing any red flags around why I wouldn't transfer this old pension into that.

Aminatidi

Oh I misremembered.

It was in Enhanced it's now in Dynamic - same as you all switched last year by RL.

Aminatidi

Bit of a sanity check before I submit this.

Is there anything I might be missing/overlooking?

The amount and the fact it's different investments I'm fine with.

I mean specific to leaving Royal London.

I've confirmed with the original advisor that the ex-employer works with that it was basically a personal pension with a group discount but as I've left the employer the RL letter confirms it's an individual plan since leaving.

I've confirmed with Royal London there are no safeguarded benefits and no protected age.

There are no other benefits mentioned in any plan documents.

Only "what if" downside I can see is the difference in protections between a personal pension and a SIPP.

NormalNorman

I've transferred multiple chunks out of my employer DC scheme with RL to HL [now ii] over many years.

TBH I have nothing kind to say about RL from the awful website to transfer issues. From long delays, forgotten transfers needing to be chased, out of the market for months… Even the regular monthly contributions are applied sporadically so completely miss dips in the market.

At least at Christmas they sent me a nice posh hamper as a sorry after they wrote to me saying they had closed my employer pension account in error!

Colleagues feel the same.

They may be great for some folk and if that's the case crack on but I…

Cheers!