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Too many paltry pensions.

millymolly
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Too many paltry pensions.

#227264

Postby millymolly » June 5th, 2019, 5:35 pm

I will be 60 soon and my first paltry pension will be offered up.
I have 6 such pensions, all of which amount to very little. Obviously I can defer taking, some I might be able to consolidate.
Two at least do not perform well and I would like to move out of the providers control. I can get a better income myself ...
I still work and am perilously close to the 40% tax bracket, until I reduce my working hours I do not want any extra taxable income.
A guess would be retirement or reduction in earnings in 2022.
I have @ 350K in savings and bonds and @ 150K in stocks at HL.
I'm looking at a SIPP, happy with self investing. Know about exit charges.
Am I missing a trick ? How to get all 6 into one tax exempt bundle which I can draw-down or transfer to an annuity as a whole when I retire or at 66 years.
Any thoughts? Thanks

Alaric
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Re: Too many paltry pensions.

#227273

Postby Alaric » June 5th, 2019, 6:04 pm

millymolly wrote:How to get all 6 into one tax exempt bundle which I can draw-down or transfer to an annuity as a whole when I retire or at 66 years.


You set up a SIPP and get the other 6 transferred to it either as cash, or if they let you and you want it, in the form of the underlying investments. You are only likely to run into difficulties if any of the six are defined benefit or are personal pensions with guaranteed rates of conversion from fund into annuity.

seagles
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Re: Too many paltry pensions.

#227274

Postby seagles » June 5th, 2019, 6:06 pm

At 60 I transferred a clutch of company pensions into a sipp with Hargreaves lansdown. Was easy to do and I then put it into drawdown before buying a group off shares and ITs. Since then have transferred in another 2 pensions. I have another that I am still paying into but it looks like I will be "retiring" soon as just started to pick up my state pension. I will transfer that pension in at some point. Fortunately do not need to use the SIPP for income (at the noment).

I found it easy to do and got great help and advice from HL.

TUK020
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Re: Too many paltry pensions.

#227277

Postby TUK020 » June 5th, 2019, 6:14 pm

I set up a SIPP with HL some years ago and transferred 2 DC pensions into it without any problems.

HL will do the work for you - once your SIPP is set up with them, you fill in their forms about the pension details, and they will 'pull' the pension from the other provider.
In each case took about a month, but I didn't have to do any further work

millymolly
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Re: Too many paltry pensions.

#227293

Postby millymolly » June 5th, 2019, 7:13 pm

if any of the six are defined benefit or are personal pensions with guaranteed rates of conversion from fund into annuity.


No, none have a guaranteed final value. The only loss I can see is death in service bonuses in the case of three.
Three are within my current workplace which might be beneficial to consolidate if I can, the other three are so piddling with no obvious benefits, my only loss might be transfer fees.

I'm assuming that Hubby will get the lot if I transfer to a SIPP. Otherwise they might be lost or halved.

I'm not planning to snatch all, but 2 or 3 could put into a SIPP, they have no benefits if Hubby can inherit in full via the SIPP.
The workplace ones I can move, but I'm looking for a resting place for all six until 2026 - outside of income and tax.
Thanks.

Steveam
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Re: Too many paltry pensions.

#227295

Postby Steveam » June 5th, 2019, 7:19 pm

The SIPP is held in trust by the SIPP trustees. If you nominate hubby to get the lot if you die then the trustees will give him the money outside your estate on your early death.

Best wishes,

Steve

dspp
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Re: Too many paltry pensions.

#227297

Postby dspp » June 5th, 2019, 7:23 pm

Ordinarily I would recommend that ii be considered as a cost-effective SIPP provider to relocate these pensions to.

However I am in the process of partially transferring a current company pension, and some of the instructions ii have given are ambiguous or contradictory. As a result I checked with the ii telephone helpline - which is ordinarily very good - and in the space of 5-minutes got told several contradictory things by the same person. I indicated my displeasure. Anyway I have now mailed off the hard copy forms that they issue following completion of the web forms (which do indeed contradict the phone instructions, and helpfully one has no alert messages to realise they have issued them ....) and so cannot yet comment on the end-to-end process.

So at the moment a recommendation to consider ii would be premature for pension transfers to SIPP.

regards, dspp

Dod101
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Re: Too many paltry pensions.

#227300

Postby Dod101 » June 5th, 2019, 7:32 pm

Steveam wrote:The SIPP is held in trust by the SIPP trustees. If you nominate hubby to get the lot if you die then the trustees will give him the money outside your estate on your early death.

Best wishes,


Sorry to be pedantic but that is not quite the case. Usually the SIPP is held by trustees, and you can give them a letter of wishes as to where you would like the SIPP to go in the event of your death. The trustees have discretion, and indeed must have discretion, as to where the SIPP goes on your death, but will normally abide by the wish expressed in the letter. That allows the SIPP assets to be outside of the estate for IHT purposes.

Comes to the same thing but it is not like a Will.

Dod

Chrysalis
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Re: Too many paltry pensions.

#227352

Postby Chrysalis » June 6th, 2019, 7:48 am

Also to be pedantic, it is likely that the existing pensions also allow nomination of beneficiaries and inheriting of the pension pot on your death. That’s not something that will be changed by moving to a SIPP. If you die before the age of 75 then withdrawals by the beneficiary are tax free, if over the age of 75 they are taxable as income. Losing half went out in 2015 with the pension freedoms.

I suggest shopping around for a SIPP provider, although of course many people rate the service at HL. Fees can be high if you invest in funds rather than shares/ETFs/ITs.

swill453
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Re: Too many paltry pensions.

#227416

Postby swill453 » June 6th, 2019, 11:04 am

Dod101 wrote:
Steveam wrote:The SIPP is held in trust by the SIPP trustees. If you nominate hubby to get the lot if you die then the trustees will give him the money outside your estate on your early death.

Best wishes,


Sorry to be pedantic but that is not quite the case. Usually the SIPP is held by trustees, and you can give them a letter of wishes as to where you would like the SIPP to go in the event of your death. The trustees have discretion, and indeed must have discretion, as to where the SIPP goes on your death, but will normally abide by the wish expressed in the letter. That allows the SIPP assets to be outside of the estate for IHT purposes.

Comes to the same thing but it is not like a Will.

I don't think you contradicted Steveam, just expanded on what he said. Nobody had mentioned a Will.

Scott.

Dod101
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Re: Too many paltry pensions.

#227433

Postby Dod101 » June 6th, 2019, 11:22 am

I thought that mentioning a Will is important because the Executors of a Will do not have discretion (unless they take it to a Court of Law to challenge its terms) whereas the Trustees of a SIPP have discretion over where to pay the proceeds. That is the point I was trying to make.

Dod

millymolly
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Re: Too many paltry pensions.

#227898

Postby millymolly » June 8th, 2019, 8:15 am

Perhaps I should redefine the question.

Six pensions ending at different times until 2026. Individually, none of any great value.

My ISA's are full.

What are the options for holding them ( tax free ) until retirement?.
I can take them at a later date, put into a SIPP as they mature - are there any other options?.

As a separate question, using a SIPP, would these contributions really be topped up by the taxman ?.
I think I have already received some tax benefit on them.

Thank you.

seagles
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Re: Too many paltry pensions.

#227901

Postby seagles » June 8th, 2019, 8:27 am

millymolly wrote:Perhaps I should redefine the question.

Six pensions ending at different times until 2026. Individually, none of any great value.

My ISA's are full.

What are the options for holding them ( tax free ) until retirement?.
I can take them at a later date, put into a SIPP as they mature - are there any other options?.

As a separate question, using a SIPP, would these contributions really be topped up by the taxman ?.
I think I have already received some tax benefit on them.

Thank you.


I did not wait for mine to "mature". I moved the bulk in one go. Then when I "retired" from one employee I transferred that pension, the next company changed from a db to dc pension and as I had less than £3K in the db transferred that one. I still have one company pension on the go and when I "retire" from them (which looks to be in the next few weeks) I will transfer that. I moved 6 seperate pensions from previous employees to St James Wealth a while back but their "drawdown" range was "pants" (at the time) so moed the lot to HL, where I took 25% tax free and invested the rest in shares and ITs.

You get no added "tax" from the government on the transfer as you already got the tax relief for the original pension.

TUK020
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Re: Too many paltry pensions.

#227904

Postby TUK020 » June 8th, 2019, 9:15 am

millymolly wrote:What are the options for holding them ( tax free ) until retirement?.
I can take them at a later date, put into a SIPP as they mature - are there any other options?.


I am still working and contributing to my HL SIPP (well, my current company)
I moved 2 DC pots to this SIPP (one private, and one company one when I left that company)

I have taken the tax free lump sum for part of this (and thus crystallized this portion as a draw-down pot) to top up funds in ISAs, kids' ISAs and transfer money to my spouse (so she can top up her pension). The remaining funds stay invested, and I have not touched any taxable benefits, which allows me to continue to contribute.

HL show my pensions as two distinct pots SIPP, and SIPP drawdown, and I can manage the two of them in the same account, but cannot switch money between the two, as they are under different tax regimes. All new contributions go into the SIPP. Sounds complicated, but very easy to manage online.

From what you have said, I think you could transfer your DC pots into one SIPP, manage your investments within this, and then determine when and how you wish to draw upon them later.

swill453
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Re: Too many paltry pensions.

#227925

Postby swill453 » June 8th, 2019, 10:32 am

TUK020 wrote:HL show my pensions as two distinct pots SIPP, and SIPP drawdown, and I can manage the two of them in the same account, but cannot switch money between the two, as they are under different tax regimes. All new contributions go into the SIPP. Sounds complicated, but very easy to manage online.

FYI with an AJ Bell Youinvest SIPP it's done differently. If you have crystallised part of your pot the whole thing is still only shown as a single account, all your investments and cash are in the same place. They just remember behind the scenes what proportion is crystallised.

Scott.

gadgetmind
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Re: Too many paltry pensions.

#233892

Postby gadgetmind » July 4th, 2019, 11:33 am

swill453 wrote:FYI with an AJ Bell Youinvest SIPP it's done differently. If you have crystallised part of your pot the whole thing is still only shown as a single account, all your investments and cash are in the same place. They just remember behind the scenes what proportion is crystallised.


This is also how it works with BestInvest, which I initially found rather surprising. They even manage to keep track with my wife contributing regular and one off sums, drawing down monthly, and taking PCLS every so often!

Urbandreamer
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Re: Too many paltry pensions.

#233930

Postby Urbandreamer » July 4th, 2019, 1:11 pm

millymolly wrote:As a separate question, using a SIPP, would these contributions really be topped up by the taxman ?.
I think I have already received some tax benefit on them.

Thank you.


As Seagles says, TRANSFERING pensions does not lead to a top up by the covernment. CONTRIBUTIUONS do.

On the subject of contributions, it is worth taking a more in depth view. Many workplace pensions are sallary sacrifice, which can be used to ensure that you don't become a higher rate tax payer. That has a knock on effect upon other matters.

Likewise, while it may be irrelivent for you, calculations of student loan offers are based upon parental income AFTER pension contributions. Those who have children approaching university age may wish to boost their pension contributions rather than contribute to an ISA.

My SIPP is with A J Bell, however different providers have different charging structures. I strongly recommend investigating the charges before you make a decision. The way that A J Bell charge when you come to take the pension encourages regular drawdown, while others will be cheaper than them if you draw ad-hock amounts.


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