The Lemon Fool

Hi Fools,

I'm hoping someone can offer some thoughts or advice please.

I've an account with AJ Bell. It only had my daughters Junior ISA in it until earlier this year when I asked them to collect some small workplace pensions I had strewn around and gather them into a SIPP. AJ Bell managed this reasonably well although their website didn't quite work as it should and I had to do a little work in the background. I put this down to experience.

A couple of months ago I attempted to access the SIPP and do a partial drawdown. Once again the website didn't allow me to do this. AJ Bell kindly sent me a form to fill in.

I've telephoned them earlier today and made my observations clear to their customer services department today. I've also explained to them what action I will be taking to prevent a repeat of their website failing to perform as it should. This includes

1. The removal of my daughters JISA to another provider
2. The removal of my small SIPP in its entirety to another provider
3. Not transferring my main private pension pot to my SIPP with AJ Bell

As anticipated I've had the standard [Americanised] scripted response that they are very sorry and will arrange for a senior member of their team to ring me. I've explained they have already excluded themselves from this option.

I'm looking for a decent provider. In particular a provider whose website does what it says on the tin. I don't need to pay the earth for such a service but obviously would prefer to be able to just access my funds, all of them, through a website.

Thank you for listening

AiY(D)

I'm sorry to hear of your problems.

I'm with A J Bell and have found their customer service slow, but good.

I seriously doubt that you will find a SIPP provider that INITIALLY allows good web control of a SIPP. Note the term initially. There is significant paperwork involved at the start of drawdown.

Anyway, as my SIPP is with A J Bell I can't comment about dealing with others. I do have an ISA with II, who seem similarly competent.

I agree with the response above. I think I had to use paper forms initially, but I manage my various drawdown transactions with AJBell entirely online now.

Scott.

Urbandreamer wrote:I'm sorry to hear of your problems.

I'm with A J Bell and have found their customer service slow, but good.

I seriously doubt that you will find a SIPP provider that INITIALLY allows good web control of a SIPP. Note the term initially. There is significant paperwork involved at the start of drawdown.

Anyway, as my SIPP is with A J Bell I can't comment about dealing with others. I do have an ISA with II, who seem similarly competent.

Couldn't have put it better myself. Given the complexity and potential pitfalls of getting something wrong when it comes to SIPPs, I doubt a 100% on line drawdown initiation service exists.

Now that my SIPP is fully in drawdown, I can do just about anything I can think off online. But to get to that happy state I had to sign several documents and have a couple of discussions with the platform staff. I deliberately haven't named the SIPP platform. As far as I'm aware, they're all similar.

AsleepInYorkshire wrote:A couple of months ago I attempted to access the SIPP and do a partial drawdown. Once again the website didn't allow me to do this. AJ Bell kindly sent me a form to fill in.)

Because it involves payments that may or may not be subject to tax, taking money out of a SIPP is by no means as simple as withdrawing it from an ISA or taxable account.

Old retiree(77)- retired 20+ years and well into regular drawdowns
All systems working well-was with Alliance Trust Savings which was taken over by Interactive Investor
The change over involved some paperwork-2 SIPPs and 2 ISAs-nothing too difficult
The investment platforms investors are currently using are very cost effective ie much cheaper than historical systems ……but you get what you pay for
Wealth Managers /Stockbrokers/IFAs can do it seamlessly for you but it will cost
A rather analogous situation arises in severe market drops when many investors want to trade all at once and investing platforms crash
Some patience and more understanding required by the investor
AJ Bell seem to be a reputable bunch so perhaps the fault is more with the level of expectation of the investor concerned?
xxd09

xxd09 wrote:The investment platforms investors are currently using are very cost effective ie much cheaper than historical systems ……but you get what you pay for

I'm sure one could pay more for a more personal service, but if anything I think that's more likely to be manual and paper-driven, rather than 100% web-based, which is what the OP wants.

Scott.

Interactive Investor say you can move your pension into drawdown online.

It's a 13 step process that, they say, should take around 30 minutes and it seems requires the reading of six documents, and they say it usually takes no more than 10 working days after that to set up your benefits.

https://www.ii.co.uk/ii-accounts/sipp/income-drawdown/moving-funds-drawdown

mc2fool wrote:Interactive Investor say you can move your pension into drawdown online.

It's a 13 step process that, they say, should take around 30 minutes and it seems requires the reading of six documents, and they say it usually takes no more than 10 working days after that to set up your benefits.

https://www.ii.co.uk/ii-accounts/sipp/income-drawdown/moving-funds-drawdown

If that's the case, it's changed since March this year. And is welcome news.

HMRC is notorious for being slow to change.

Last news they required "Wet" signatures on lots of forms, and I believed that this was the case with starting to draw from a pension.
This is why I posted that I thought the OP would find the same issue with all providers.

It would be good to hear if anyone has managed a purely web based move into draw down.

Urbandreamer wrote:I'm sorry to hear of your problems.

I'm with A J Bell and have found their customer service slow, but good.

I seriously doubt that you will find a SIPP provider that INITIALLY allows good web control of a SIPP. Note the term initially. There is significant paperwork involved at the start of drawdown.

Anyway, as my SIPP is with A J Bell I can't comment about dealing with others. I do have an ISA with II, who seem similarly competent.

Moved my SIPP from AJ Bell to Hargreaves Lansdown prior to drawdown. HL customer support is faster and more responsive. AJB got noticeably awkward once they knew I was moving my SIPP; freezing other accounts I wasn't moving and revoking linked account access for no reason.

With HL, accessing tax free cash and moving crystallised assets to drawdown account can be achieved 100% online. I believe taking PAYE income from drawdown account is also an online process, but not commenced that yet, nor looked into UFPLS.

deadeyedjacks wrote:Moved my SIPP from AJ Bell to Hargreaves Lansdown prior to drawdown. HL customer support is faster and more responsive. AJB got noticeably awkward once they knew I was moving my SIPP; freezing other accounts I wasn't moving and revoking linked account access for no reason.

Always good to hear personal accounts.

FWIW, in addition to an account with A J Bell and II there is also an account I have with Pilling & co stockbrokers. Their customer service is top notch. However they are nowhere near as inexpensive as Bell or II.

You make your choice and pay's your money. Hence it's good to make an informed choice.

Urbandreamer wrote:HMRC is notorious for being slow to change.

Last news they required "Wet" signatures on lots of forms, and I believed that this was the case with starting to draw from a pension.
This is why I posted that I thought the OP would find the same issue with all providers.

It would be good to hear if anyone has managed a purely web based move into draw down.

My wife moved part of her SIPP with AJ Bell into drawdown last September. All done online and was very straightforward. She also moved some more earlier this year and that was also all online although they needed to clarify a detail which was handled by email. Then in April she started regular withdrawals which was also done online.

I've used AJ Bell for decades, since they were called sippdeal, and I've usually had very good service from them. The last crystallisation (and move into drawdown) that I did in my SIPP with them was completed online with no need for any manual forms.

AsleepInYorkshire wrote:Hi Fools,

I'm hoping someone can offer some thoughts or advice please.

I've an account with AJ Bell. It only had my daughters Junior ISA in it until earlier this year when I asked them to collect some small workplace pensions I had strewn around and gather them into a SIPP. AJ Bell managed this reasonably well although their website didn't quite work as it should and I had to do a little work in the background. I put this down to experience.

A couple of months ago I attempted to access the SIPP and do a partial drawdown. Once again the website didn't allow me to do this. AJ Bell kindly sent me a form to fill in.

I've telephoned them earlier today and made my observations clear to their customer services department today. I've also explained to them what action I will be taking to prevent a repeat of their website failing to perform as it should. This includes

1. The removal of my daughters JISA to another provider
2. The removal of my small SIPP in its entirety to another provider
3. Not transferring my main private pension pot to my SIPP with AJ Bell

As anticipated I've had the standard [Americanised] scripted response that they are very sorry and will arrange for a senior member of their team to ring me. I've explained they have already excluded themselves from this option.

I'm looking for a decent provider. In particular a provider whose website does what it says on the tin. I don't need to pay the earth for such a service but obviously would prefer to be able to just access my funds, all of them, through a website.

Thank you for listening

AiY(D)

I'd recommend A J Bell I've been with them for many years and they have operated pretty much flawlessly - certainly in all the important aspects.

No idea what's gone wrong in your case - just bad luck, perhaps.
I find that with all companies in life, errors can occur. To me the important factor is how well the company sorts out the mistake and whether it is recurring. Maybe too late for you, but my belief is that they deserve a chance to put things right before anyone flounces off.

Arb.

My latest AJ Bell SIPP crystallisation (and drawdown) around May was completed online with no manual stuff required.

Regards, Puffster

AJ Bell have worked fine for me. Over the years they've handled smoothly several pension transfers from old employers. I like their cheap dealing day (£1.50) which I now habitually use. My only slight beef is that I have linked child ISAs and SIPPs which are all charged for separately, some sort of discount for giving them multiple accounts that I don't have to would be a nice customer service touch.