Allied Dunbar

[Paupertas]

Hello everyone

Looks an interesting site

A relative has a very old Allied Dunbar pension (taken out circa 1990 or earlier). He is now in his 70's and contacted them about taking his tax free allowance from it only to be told that they couldn't do it and he would need to transfer the pension elsewhere.

Can anyone suggest a company to transfer to please? Low cost would be nice and also one that didn't require a financial advisor's approval to transfer or do drawdown. He wants to avoid Aviva and A J Bell as he has quite a bit invested/saved with them (lucky devil) and doesn't want to put all his eggs in one basket.

[Alaric]

Can anyone suggest a company to transfer to please? Low cost would be nice and also one that didn't require a financial advisor's approval to transfer or do drawdown.

Perhaps the first decision point is whether he wants to take the money as drawdown or use it to buy an annuity. If it's the former, all the usual names of Brokers came into play as they almost all have a SIPP in their range.

[Paupertas]

He doesn't want an annuity.

At the moment the tax free cash is the attraction and he will leave the rest in the fund for a while.

[Alaric]

At the moment the tax free cash is the attraction and he will leave the rest in the fund for a while.

He may well find that the transfer process involves Allied Dunbar (Zurich) selling the units and making the transfer in cash form.

[Chrysalis]

So what he’s looking at is a drawdown arrangement, where he will take zero income from the drawdown pot.
All the big pension providers will provide such, as well as the execution only brokers (AJBell, Hargreaves Lansdown etc.)

He can also have a Pensionwise appointment which might prompt him to think about other issues, eg what does he want to happen in the event of his death.