Over 75 move to flexible drawdown.

FloGently

I have a pension pot with Standard Life of about £80K. I've just turned 75 so it seems sensible to crystallise at this point to protect my TFLS (tax free status would be lost if I die before my husband). We don't need additional pension at the moment, and we have other assets, but when one of us dies the other will need to top up income, either taking an annuity or more likely taking some immediate emergency funds while sorting everything else out.

So from what I've seen so far I think I need to transfer to a flexible drawdown account to hold the funds for an indefinite period - likely until first death. I'd like to keep the fees low and the funds pretty low risk as this is basically acting as an insurance.

Am I on the right lines, and would Vanguard be a good choice for this?

Thanks for any insights or other ideas.

flaneurs_lobster

For simplicity's sake, have you checked if Standard Life have a suitable product? I was able to retain a workplace fee discount (about 50%) when crystallising.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6664139/over-75-move-to-flexible-drawdown

You can take the tax free cash and leave the rest in a drawdown account with Standard Life, if you want to stay with them. Their standard fees are usually 1 % all in and then a discount for certain levels of funds.

I am pretty sure the drawdown account will have the same charges as you are paying now, if you can check that.

If you have had this SL pension a longish time, they will probably do an internal transfer first to their latest version, which will have a drawdown facility.

Vanguard would probably be a bit cheaper, although depends which investments you pick, but typically would be around 0.4%

If you do transfer, then all you need to do is set up a pension account with Vanguard and ask them to transfer the SL pension in. The transfer will have to be in cash, and then you will have to choose the lower risk funds you want to invest in.

Either provider will be fine for what you want. If you do decide to transfer, it is better to not take out any tax free cash before transferring and to wait until the transfer is complete ( just makes the transfer simpler ).