Providers that preserve protected pension age on transfer in?

Temrael

Thanks again, it looks like AJ Bell's fees work in a similar way (capped for ETFs).

I'd probably have 2 ETFs and an OEIC, so some and some as you say. More research and sums required! :)

Wherever I go, I'd like to stay there forever really, so ease of drawdown will be important.

I hear ii can be a little clunky on that front (you need to sell funds manually to build cash to draw from), Vanguard and AJ Bell are a little more slick apparently (not sure about Fidelity).

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81891103#Comment_81891103

Yes A J Bell offer a similar marginally higher cap £120) . So do HL ( £150) . Fidelity cap covers the whole platform, so would include an ISA as well for example.

Vanguard do come in for some criticism on this forum from time to time- being very slow on transfers was one issue but maybe that is resolved now. I have used AJ Bell with no issues and have drawdown from Fidelity with no problem. Not super quick but they have reliably stuck to the timescales stated. ( 7 to 8 days for tax free cash and 4 to 5 days for taxable)

Temrael

Thanks, yep I think with Vanguard people like that it's easy to drawdown from crystallised funds.

You can just say, sell £xxx of fund ABC (or a combination of funds based on percentages) and send the money to my bank account on the 1st of each month and they do it all for you.

Comparing platform fees on an apples and apples basis is tricky as they all charge in slightly different ways, probably deliberately to make it opaque if I were being cynical! 😉

I'll think I've understood it all, but then one of them will charge for regular investing and one won't. Or one will include 1 free trade per month but it's not made clear if that has to be a single fund or it could be a couple in one transaction.

I think it's definitely looking like Vanguard for ease currently (given ISA is already there), or ii if I want to get the biggest possible saving on fees.

One of the things with going somewhere other than Vanguard is it obviously gives you access to some cheaper ETFs. So ii could be a saving on fund fees as well as platform fees.

squirrelpie

Yes A J Bell offer a similar marginally higher cap £120) . So do HL ( £150) . Fidelity cap covers the whole platform, so would include an ISA as well for example.

But the scope of the caps differ. With HL there's a £150 limit for the SIPP, and a further £150 for the SIPP drawdown and yet another £150 for the ISA. Enough to make me jump away after many happy years.

Temrael

Ooh that's sneaky on the seperate cap for the drawdown pot. I wonder how many people don't spot that until they're in for it?

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81891252#Comment_81891252

Comparing paltform fees on an apples and apples basis is tricky as they all charge in slightly differrent ways, probably deliberately to make it opaque

A small amendment to your comment !

Temrael

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81891348#Comment_81891348

Agreed, but you've shown up my appalling spelling, now! Now corrected 😂

hara____

I just asked HL and they said I would lose the age 55 protection if I transferred to them. It's surprising that they can't maintain it.

Temrael

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81891605#Comment_81891605

Ahh ok, thanks for letting me know.

If it helps, both ii and Vanguard have been very clear that they would maintain it on transfer in.

And I've had it in writing from Aviva today that they would definitely include the age protection of 55 for TK or TL policies in Origo data sent to any receiving platform.

Temrael

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81890385#Comment_81890385

Hi all, sorry, I just wanted to come back to DeLaSole's earlier comment about switching to Aviva's Deposit fund prior to transfer...

Even before reading DeLaSole's reply, I was already weighing up the pros and cons of doing exactly the same thing.

It felt appealing as markets are obviously great now, and my pension is at an all time high. i.e. There seems to be more downside risk than upside opportunity. It seems statistically more likely that in the time I'm out of the market, things are more likely to slide down a little bit than leap upwards.

To be clear, I don't mind missing out on a bit of growth for a week or something, but my nightmare scenario is that (if I remain in all my current funds), then I could request the transfer, Trump then announces something crazy (or crazier!) with tariffs, just before Aviva sell all my assets.

That could then lead to a 5% drop in my portfolio or something, and I'm out of the market for a few days while everything transfers as cash.

In the meantime, Trump chickens out (as is his wont), and there's a significant recovery before I get a chance to buy back in on the new platform. I could obviously end up permanently 5% down or something.

For that reason I felt like it made sense to switch to the Deposit fund first, like DeLaSole did. That way, I'd have some agency over the timings.

However, when I look at Aviva's switching page it says…

Red underline added by me.

Therefore, if for example I were to see how markets were at 4:30pm on Monday or something, and (if all was calm) request to switch everything to Aviva's Deposit fund, then it looks like I'd still have no idea what price my portfolio was actually going to achieve.

The price will be driven by wherever markets end up being at the end of Tuesday, and who knows what could have happened in the meantime. If markets take a horrible knock I'd be locked in regardless, unable to prevent the sale.

There therefore seems little difference in switching to Deposit under unknown conditions the following day, vs. just leaving Aviva to sell all my assets at the last minute, albeit at a random time (likely a day or two after I submit the request at my new provider)?

In either scenario, it seems like I won't really know how stable markets are going to be at the point my assets are sold?

Another potential problem with going to Deposit first could be if Aviva and the new provider foul up the transfer somehow, and there's a delay of a month or two (which seems rarer with cash, but I believe it can happen).

If this happens then would I not have been better remaining invested until the last minute at Aviva?

How best to approach this, then?

a) Does switching some or all of my pension to Deposit before transfer still make some sense?

b) Should I consider splitting it across multiple transfers, perhaps a week or two apart?

c) Should I do mine and my wife's a week or two apart?

d) Or am I worrying over nothing, and should just rip off the band aid and get it done?

Sorry, I'm just having a last minute wobble, and could use a steer from the hive mind here (as it's the vast majority of our retirement savings).

I'd be really interested in people's thoughts. 😳

Thanks a lot.