Aviva SIPP or Pensionbee

bjorn_toby_wilde

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81916104#Comment_81916104

A couple of things occur;

With £380k you might be better off with a flat fee provider than one that takes a percentage fee. That’s not a given but Monevator has a useful table that details charges. Fees can eat up growth faster than anything else.

Some of the SIPP providers will also give you a “robo” option that allows you to tailor it to your needs to an extent. AJ Bell have a “ready made pension” option for example.

Marcon

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6658762/aviva-sipp-or-pensionbee

I don't think anyone has picked up on this comment:

'…..another older ltd co pension that's now with Aviva.'

It's the word 'now' which makes me wonder if this is the basic DC pension pot that everyone appears to have been assuming when answering. Was it in fact an occupational scheme which the trustees 'bought out' with Aviva, either by means of something called a S32 buyout policy or possibly a bulk deferred annuity contract? The paperwork should be able to confirm, or possibly you might be able to remember something about the old scheme?

It matters because if the old pension had/has something called 'safeguarded benefits' (in broad terms some sort of promise relating to what you'd get), combining this with your Aegon pension isn't quite as straightforward as you are probably hoping - nor would it necessarily be a good idea to do so.

shiraz99

@Marcon , it was a standard DC pension scheme where my ltd company as employer made contributions. It was originally operated by NatWest but Aviva took the pension business over.

Sam_666

Hmmm, none is addressing big elaphant in room.

£380k in workplace pension is 100% protected.
SIPP provider protection is only £85k.

If it was me, I would spread pension accross at least 3 different SIPP providers.
Dont waste time chasing cheapest fees, chase best platform.

Nurse2047

@shiraz99 you may want to check out on YouTube Damien talks money and the humble penny they give useful information in regards to pensions.
I use Vanguard and find them easy to use and helpful, if you need support with choosing a fund a target retirement fund or lifestrategy fund maybe good to look at ?

bjorn_toby_wilde

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81916620#Comment_81916620

Is it really an elephant in the room?

The £85k protection would apply to uninvested cash. Were a SIPP provider to go under that doesn’t mean all your investments go with it. Pretty sure this has already been addressed several times on the forum but someone more knowledgeable than me will surely be along in a minute…

shiraz99

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81916620#Comment_81916620

I thought that only applied to investments managed by yourself rather than choosing one of the provider managed funds.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81916830#Comment_81916830

That has no relevance. The provider managed funds are separate from the platform, even though they have the same name.

There is no elephant in the room. Many previous threads on the subject, have shown that many regular contributors, are happy to have hundreds of thousands of Pounds in one SIPP/investment platform as the risk is seen as very minimal, if you stick to well known names. Some prefer to have two, in case of IT problems that might restrict access for a while.

The comment from Sam 666 is very much an outlier on the subject.

shiraz99

As my aim is to consolidate my pensions under one roof and rather than actively being involved with investment decisions etc I think the best bet for me at this time is to look at one of the robo providers instead. I had previously mentioned Pensionbee as that was the main one I looked at and possibly the easiest one to access but I've also seen the JPMorgan (formally Nutmeg) mentioned on the MSE pensions advice page, with the added bonus of some handy additional cashback. Any thoughts on those two specifically?

dunstonh

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81916620#Comment_81916620

FSCS protection for mainstream unit-linked funds is largely pointless as the fund is valued by its underlying assets. If you go off the mainstream into funds that hold illiquid assets, it becomes much more important (but you also need to ask why you are doing so and whether you know what you are doing).

If you are worried about fraud or liquidity in the fund, then the answer to that is to hold more funds using different fund houses. Most people with proper SIPPs do exactly that by spreading their investments across not just different areas of investment but also different fund houses. That way, if one fund fails and FSCS is triggered, all your other funds remain unaffected.

It is also worth noting that it is not 100% clear that unit-linked pensions would get 100% FSCS protection. The FSCS have refused to take a position on it and has only said that they would look into it if and when it became necessary. This results in some providers saying there is only £85k. Others say that external funds get 85K, only internal get 100%, and others say 100% on the lot. One platform says that its pension is 100% FSCS protected, but the funds underneath are 85k. Master Trust pensions may not get any FSCS protection, and Occupational DC pensions may not either.

Until it is tested, nobody can be 100% sure. SCARPS were marked with FSCS protection, but when they started failing, the FSCS decided they didn't get FSCS protection. When a platform failed, the FSCS decided to use FSCS funds differently from how they had historically been used.