Any downsides to AJ Bell as a ‘one SIPP’ for retirement drawdown?

michaels

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82088417#Comment_82088417

I moved only the crystalised bit of a II sipp to Charles Stanley last year

Dead_keen

I moved only the crystalised bit of a II sipp to Charles Stanley last year

Not all accept a full transfer - Lloyds, for example.

But if after crystallisation you could not transfer half of a crystallised pension to Charles Stanley as that would be an unauthorised payment.

leosayer

AJ Bell have been great for my wife's SIPP which holds a gilt ladder, MM fund and an equity ETF. Once or twice we've needed to speak to them and they've been very helpful.

She did a UFPLS last year then took the remaining 25% tax free lump sum and is now in drawdown. All were painless.

As mentioned earlier, they won't sell stuff for you so you have to make sure there's enough cash to cover drawdowns.

One thing to note that the date you set for monthly drawdowns seems to be the date the cash is withdrawn rather than when it hits your account - 3 days later.

safe_hands2

I'm trying to work out which platform to use when I drawdown my relatively small sipp to bridge to state pension age. Do AJ bell charge £1.50 every time you sell any funds?

mrklaw

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82088984#Comment_82088984

Even MMF counts as non-cash I assume? so if you have eg 12k in the crystallised pot and you want @£1k a month FAD - you have to either liquidate 12 months into cash inside the drawdown fund so it can do it automatically, or do that every month before its taken? That sounds a bit of a pain but manageable. For the bridge it’ll mostly just be in MMF

do they pay interest on cash at all? otherwise the larger the buffer you leave the more cost you’re leaving on the table

Kryten_the_Titan

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82089125#Comment_82089125

Yes you earn 2.05% interest on cash with AJ Bell; you do not pay the 0.25% platform fee on that cash.

Holding the whole year as cash is an option, then only one sale a year and then glide in to land.

The gain in cash interest over the fees saved won't outstrip time holding the MMF and monthly sale fees but the difference isn't massive over a 1 year period.

mrklaw

thanks. not great but better than 0 and I think its like a £100-150 difference over the year. worth the simplicity to just cash in the full year and get it automated.

Chickereeeee

I had a SIPP with A J Bell, and they were very good anand efficient, but consolidated my SIPPs onto Interactive Investor for lower costs.

the only annoyance with AJ Bell (for the Isa I still hold with them) is they only pay out dividends once per month. For Vanguard etfs, this means they hold onto the money for nearly a month.

leosayer

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82089125#Comment_82089125

Correct, with MMF you need to sell units to raise cash to fund the drawdowns but £1.50 is dirt cheap.

As I recall, AJ Bell pays 2.6% on cash balances so well short of MM fund yields.

bjorn_toby_wilde

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82089266#Comment_82089266

I’m a bit confused by this.

Do you mean the Vanguard ETF pays a monthly dividend then AJ Bell hang onto it for a month before crediting it to your account or are the ETF dividends more frequent?

Their Q&A about dividends says “When you receive a dividend, we’ll pay it into your account in Sterling as soon as possible after we receive them”