transferring during drawdown

I'd like to start drawing down around £500 per month tax free from the SL pension so tht I can reduce my working week.

Does the SL pension support drawdown? Most of their legacy plans do not.

As I understand it if I transfer from SL to another provider then I forfeit the final bonus of around £3K

Final bonuses accrue on a daily basis and are not lost on transfer. There maybe a market value reduction or an exit charge but the final bonus itself is not lost.

SL make it clear that I have the option to move the money but they make no mention of any charges for doing so.

Every statement they issue gives you the current value and the transfer value. They can supply these two figures easily. You can also ask if there is an MVR. These are normal questions asked when considering transferring out.

Many of the old SL plans with a WP fund have a guaranteed growth rate of 4%. have you checked that?

If I move into drawdown with SL, thereby keeping the final bonus, can I later transfer to another provider and, if so, then would there be any penalty charges, or might they claw back the final bonus?

Assuming the plan can do drawdown.....
Assuming the final bonus is lost if you transferred but not if you stay....
Assuming the final bonus still exists when you later transfer.....
Assuming there is penalty charges.....

Rather than assuming, it would be best to find out. The only thing that is not an assumption is that final bonuses are not guaranteed and go up and down on a daily basis and can be fully removed.

I transferred an SL with profits pension to my HL SIPP and I got the full final bonus. Are you sure they will not give you this on transfer? They kept telling me that they could not say how much of the final bonus I would get, so I got HL to request a transfer value from SL. At that point, SL quoted the actual transfer value and it included all of the final bonus. It cost nothing to transfer it.

Thank you - that sounds promising. Fidelity said I need to take financial advice (not necessarily from themselves) before transferring because of the 4% guarantee on one of the SL funds.

Technically, a guaranteed growth rate is not a safeguarded benefit and does not need advice. Fidelity would not know if you had a guaranteed growth rate or not. Think of it a lucky miss as Fidelity is not a great platform.

f HL can take on the old SL pension with the final bonus then is worth investigating further!

The final bonus accrued to date IS included in the transfer value (minus an MVR if applicable) regardless of where you transfer it to.

The SL platform shows the with personal pension total value then it shows a slightly higher current transfer value, and if I start on the withdrawal options then it adds in the final bonus, which I realise is not guaranteed.

If you have a PPP with a guaranteed growth rate then you will not be on either of the Standard Life platforms. Those old PPPs from SL are products form an insurer. Not platforms.

I guess that was my situation. SL refused to tell me what I would get for sure if I transferred and on reading the scheme documentation I assumed it was because there could be some MVR applied.

no provider can say what it will be for sure as it changes daily. They can tell you what it is today but it could be different tomorrow. All providers will give that information as it stands today.

So I got HL to request a transfer value on the assumption I was transferring it and there was no MVR, I got the full final bonus.

That step was unnecessary in that it didnt need the receiving scheme to ask. You could have done there and then.

The risk is that the 3-4 days it takes for SL to release the funds may see a major crash and have an MVR imposed. However, if you were going into unit linked funds, then you would have suffered the loss in those had it already been there. So, its not really worth warring about.