Providers that preserve protected pension age on transfer in?

Temrael

Ahh, wow that sounds encouraging, DeLaSole.

Are you thinking of going ahead with the transfer, or did you go somewhere else?

DeLaSole

I already had a Fidelity SIPP (with PPA) to transfer in the Aviva pension (which had a PPA) so didn't move it over to ii.

Temrael

Ahh I see, how did the transfer from Aviva to Fidelity go, btw? What sort of timescales?

And were you able to transfer in specie or did it need to be cash like mine?

DeLaSole

It had to be a cash transfer and I had moved to their deposit fund before requesting transfer.

I can't remember exactly on the timescale but want to say 48 hrs - it stuck in my head as being quicker than my wife's Aviva to ii in 2023 (which she requested on a Monday evening and was ready to invest on ii on the Friday morning).

Temrael

Oh wow ok, super quick then.

Yeah I wondered too about going to the Deposit fund first.

With everything near all time highs there seems more risk of things dropping suddenly on a bad day just before transfer, then recovering by the time things are available to invest again on the new platform.

In Deposit, you might miss out on a little bit of growth while the transfer goes through, but the chance of a big drop would be reduced.

DeLaSole

In our case we could use other pensions which had a defensive allocation to buy equities as the Aviva pensions were being moved from that amount of equities to cash, ao to broadly maintain the asset balance.

If that's not possible/your type of allocation then, as you say, at least by doing it yourself you control when to sell, and hopefully the transfer is quick on top of that.

If you've never done a cash transfer before, and especially if it's an amount you feel considerable, one thing to be aware of (from reading other peoples' post on forums), is that re-entering markets can be difficult for some. Even though they were in the markets prior to transfer, it seems some do get a 'time the re-entry' mentality once they've gone to cash.

Cus

I would be surprised if any of the major providers don't ensure the PPA is carried over to their SIPP, as although they would need systems to ensure it's separated from any SIPP you might have with the new provider that doesn't have PPA, I don't read that there is any legal issues, more an additional function to attract clients option.

Temrael

Thanks again DeLaSole, that's really helpful.

It certainly is a lot of money for us, certainly the lion's share of our retirement plans. I expect I'll be glad to just hop straight back in and be settled down again.

I'll hopefully avoid the siren's call of market timing. 😉

Temrael

Thanks Cus, yeah I'm pleasantly surprised so far. I thought it would really be the minority that would offer to preserve the age protection.

In some ways it complicates things as there's lots more options. It's a nice problem to have though, and hopefully means I can save a bit on fees/find someone with good drawdown options etc. too.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81890069#Comment_81890069

You are right that Fidelity's platform fee of 0.35% is higher than Vanguards 0.15%.

However if you only invest in 'exchange traded products' ( means shares, ETFs or Investment Trusts that are traded directly on the London stock exchange) the fee is capped at £90 pa - although when you initially buy the investment there is a trade charge ( £7?) and stamp duty of 0.5%.

The full 0.35% only applies when you are 100% invested in OEIC funds ( used to be known as unit trusts, so same as you have with Aviva) This fee drops to 0.2% if you have £250K on the platform.

Also you can have a mix of the types of investment and get a kind of half way platform fee.