Cash pension in?

omnipeta

I have a pension with NPI, I wish to cash it in but they advised this is not possible - re government regulations. Is it possible to cash in to an ISA?

EdInvestor

No. Other than the 25% tax free cash available from age 50 (later 55) you can never take cash out of a pension except under the trivial commutation rules.

dunstonh

Why would you want to take it out of a pension to put into an ISA? They have exactly the same investment options and the pension is slightly more tax efficient than the ISA.

averageguy11

Flexibility in an isa cud b 1 reason.,,,better transparency another.

dunstonh

no difference in transparency. Flexibility only matters at this stage if you want to spend the money.

averageguy11

Then flexibility is a possible reason and transparency is a definite ...u get what u c...pensions r stil to clouded in mystery for the average man in the street..still u r slightly biased

dunstonh

still u r slightly biased

Why on earth would I be biased for pensions instead of any other tax wrapper?

I just dont see the difference in transparency that you suggest. i.e. if you have invesco perpertual high income in your pension or in your ISA then its exactly the same. The only difference is the tax wrapper and the rules relating to that tax wrapper.

averageguy11

Erm i think the bias is in most of yur previous posts dur...try asking the ordinary man in the street how transparent pensions r?...like what will i get when i retire?..talk about annuities (for example) and they will glaze over..imho

jamesd

averageguy11, what income will the money be worth at age 65 in a stocks and shares ISA?

There's little difference between that one and the pension one. The problem is the same: predicting the future value of investments and how much annuity that amount will buy, then adjusting for unknown inflation. Those difficulties don't go away just because the investments are a tax wrapper called an ISA instead of one called a pension.

averageguy11

Never said tht i knew ..and u forget cash isas...i am talking about peoples perceptions of a pension...and going back to the original point of which i just mentioned 2 off the top of my head...cash/shares/stocks in an isa..u know whats ther..u can value it daily...sorry but a pension fund u cant tht easily....and i mention again flexibility a very strong advantage..given tht the header is 'cash pension in'....as u know ..generally u cant unless u r of a certain age and have a small pot..wheras ISA's u can..i'd say tht is a pretty strong difference

dunstonh

Erm i think the bias is in most of yur previous posts dur

Well only you are seeing a bias. There certainly isnt one. However, I do make a lot of posts in here trying to balance up the discussions from other one sided posts that highlight the positives but omit the negatives. In the ISA vs pension thread, I have made my views perfectly clear that when pensions best you use a pension and when ISA is best you use an ISA. There is no 100% rule though that says one is better than the other.

try asking the ordinary man in the street how transparent pensions r?...like what will i get when i retire?..talk about annuities (for example) and they will glaze over..imho

Try asking them how much money they will have when they retire and what income they will get from their ISA? They will start to glaze over then as well.

The issue you are on about is not transparency but a lack of caring and an unwillingness to spend even a few minutes to try and understand. Pensions are no more difficult to understand than an ISA. Indeed, take a look at the ISA forums and you will see many posts from peeople confused about them.

u know whats ther..u can value it daily...sorry but a pension fund u cant tht easily

Yes you can. Virtually the same investment options are available for pensions as ISAs. If you have Inv Perp high income unit trust in your ISA and your pension then its the identical investment. If you have 100 units of that in your ISA and 100 units of that in your pension then the fund values will be identical. Unit prices on all retail unit linked funds are published on trustnet and other sites.