Consolidating various money purchase pensions

gardenchairs

Hello all

I'd welcome some general advice, the situation is as follows:

My wife and I both have defined benefit pensions that will be our main pensions but in addition to these we both have several money purchase pension pots and I'm trying to work out what to do with these pots. We don't want/need to take annuities with these money purchase pots as we also have other income from property rentals.

The money purchase pots total around £100k for each of us We don't particularly want to use an IFA as I would rather save the fees that would be charged as we know what we want to do. Our preferred solution would be to consolidate the money purchase pensions as they will be easier to manage and then drawdown from them when we want to. Is it possible to just transfer them to someone like Vanguard or Hargreaves Lansdown and manage them ourselves or would you suggest another company or another plan?

One of the existing providers has said that we need an IFA as the value of that pot is above £30k. Is that actually the case or can I just decline the need for advice as another existing provider has simply said they would allow a transfer but were keen for us to have taken some advice such as Moneywise??

I would welcome any thoughts/comments

MallyGirl

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6656251/consolidating-various-money-purchase-pensions

you only need advice if you're trying to transfer a greater than £30k DB pension or one with safeguarded benefits. If they are normal DC pensions then consolidation is straightforward.

At £100k each you might be better off with a fixed fee provider like II as opposed to one that charges a percentage like HL

dunstonh

One of the existing providers has said that we need an IFA as the value of that pot is above £30k. Is that actually the case or can I just decline the need for advice as another existing provider has simply said they would allow a transfer but were keen for us to have taken some advice such as Moneywise??

Are you sure you know what you are doing? ;)

If you have safeguarded benefits (which is where the £30k rule comes from), then have you worked out whether the safeguarded benefits are valuable or not?

Even if they are not, you will still need an adviser to sign off on the transfer and an adviser may not be willing to do so on a smallish amount like £100k. And even if they are willing, it won't be cheap as overriding safeguarded benefits is a very high-risk transaction for an adviser and one that costs them in their PI insurance forevermore.

Albermarle

Providers will often recommend you take financial advice, and/or have an appointment with PensionWise. However it is not compulsory if the DC pensions have no safeguarded benefits ( which most do not) .

 Is it possible to just transfer them to someone like Vanguard or Hargreaves Lansdown and manage them ourselves or would you suggest another company or another plan?

Yes it is possible and most providers are keen to accept transfers, and sometimes even offer incentives.

As well as the two mentioned, the other three best known SIPP providers are AJ Bell; Fidelity & Interactive Investor.

Then you have new players with either zero or near zero fees, but they maybe a bit more restrictive on withdrawal flexibility, you would have to check. Companies such as Freetrade; Investengine & Scottish Widows share dealing + others.