£100 a year charges in Virgin Stakeholder Pension

[portmoon]

Hello

Hoping someone can help me with 3 questions!

Question 1:
I have a Virgin Stakeholder Pension that's valued at £35,563.23 (not much but I do have another Pension). It is a Virgin UK Index Tracking Trust, following the FTSE All-Share Index. I’m paying around £8.40 per month (£100 a year) in charges – could I transfer it to another stakeholder pension that tracks the FTSE but with lower charges?

Question 2:
If answer to 1 above is 'yes', - any recommendations?

Question 3:
I can withdraw 25% of this when I turn 55 years old in 2027 (I need to remember to do this as it chances to 57 in 2028). If I withdraw the 25% in 2027, Can I just leave the rest in there, or do I need to start drawing an income from it at that point?

Many thanks!

[Charlottesquare]

Are contributions still going in to the Stakeholder scheme from say an employer, ie is it also a workplace pension?

[portmoon]

No, I've stopped paying in as I now have a defined benefits pension.

[kempiejon]

No, I've stopped paying in as I now have a defined benefits pension.

When I had one (DC) I still paid into a SIPP, you can have both, the figuring out of the DB value for pensions input amount I found to be an armpit job.
Used this but had questions with backdating https://www.mandg.com/pru/tools-calcula ... pruadviser

[ursaminortaur]

Hello

Hoping someone can help me with 3 questions!

Question 1:
I have a Virgin Stakeholder Pension that's valued at £35,563.23 (not much but I do have another Pension). It is a Virgin UK Index Tracking Trust, following the FTSE All-Share Index. I’m paying around £8.40 per month (£100 a year) in charges – could I transfer it to another stakeholder pension that tracks the FTSE but with lower charges?

Question 2:
If answer to 1 above is 'yes', - any recommendations?

Question 3:
I can withdraw 25% of this when I turn 55 years old in 2027 (I need to remember to do this as it chances to 57 in 2028). If I withdraw the 25% in 2027, Can I just leave the rest in there, or do I need to start drawing an income from it at that point?

Many thanks!

When you take the 25% tax free lump sum then the pension pot will be crystallised but you don't need to drawdown anything more from the remaining taxable part of that crystallised pot. You can though start drawing it whenever you wish since it has already been crystallised * - though drawing any potentially taxable money will restrict any future contributions since they would then be subject to the MPAA.

* This contrasts to using UFPLS where you could find yourself able to drawdown in 2027 when you are 55 but then find yourself unable to drawdown further sums later in 2028 because you are under 57 and the funds you are trying to access are still uncrystallised.

[portmoon]

Many thanks for all the replies!