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Pension Advice Required


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20 minutes ago, killiefaetheferry said:

I think I'd like to move my 'big' final salary into Pension Bee. I moved a small pension there about 6 months ago and it's grown by 13%. I like the ease of keeping track and the ability to change between the various investment plans they offer. Only problem is getting a financial advisor to sign it off for me. I think I can tick the right boxes - want to move final salary in order to let my wife/kids inherit the lot if I die, it's not my only income in retirement, I understand the risks and want to 'manage' my investment choices. What should I be expecting to pay for the advice? I don't want to remain with the IFA; just need them to give me the legally required advice so I can get the pension moved into Pension Bee. 
Any advice on any of that?

I'm committed in my head that it's the right way to go. I'm carrying a bit of debt from being a student recently, plus mine and the wife on credit cards etc, and the lump sum at 55 would make us debt free, mortgage included with a bit left to have a wee indulge in some holidays, hopefully. Japan was on the agenda but obviously need to see what happens on that score.

You will need an Adviser as i understand to sign off, that it is the correct action to exit from a a Final Salary Pension (which they might not do ) and i don't think is possible if from a state employed final salary scheme ,  think it is around GBP 1,000 but i did not pay this cos Financial Consultants paid it out of their commission 

I think they are few and far between - Gerard Associates in Bristol was who my financial consultants used   

I'm not sure if you have to have further advice on investment platform/investment choices etc - coming out of a defined benefit, you could lose a lot of value quickly if you make wrong choices - my Final Salary pension was only 20% of my Pensions so was happy to take the gamble, and now grew it 80% versus the 8% RPI growth it would have had - that could be another 1%, but I really pay no attention - busy trying to fight investment platform introducing new charges on me 

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29 minutes ago, killiefaetheferry said:

I think I'd like to move my 'big' final salary into Pension Bee. I moved a small pension there about 6 months ago and it's grown by 13%. I like the ease of keeping track and the ability to change between the various investment plans they offer. Only problem is getting a financial advisor to sign it off for me. I think I can tick the right boxes - want to move final salary in order to let my wife/kids inherit the lot if I die, it's not my only income in retirement, I understand the risks and want to 'manage' my investment choices. What should I be expecting to pay for the advice? I don't want to remain with the IFA; just need them to give me the legally required advice so I can get the pension moved into Pension Bee. 
Any advice on any of that?

I'm committed in my head that it's the right way to go. I'm carrying a bit of debt from being a student recently, plus mine and the wife on credit cards etc, and the lump sum at 55 would make us debt free, mortgage included with a bit left to have a wee indulge in some holidays, hopefully. Japan was on the agenda but obviously need to see what happens on that score.

I don't know anything about this Pension Bee scheme but I would be surprised if you find any registered IFA to advise cashing in a final salary pension scheme. It would probably cost you a fortune to get a deal anywhere similar. But all final salary schemes are a wee bit different to each other so your IFA would need to look at the detail of your scheme. Your circumstances would need to be quite unusual. Like you know you are going to die before you can access your pension or something like that. Most final salary pension schemes also come with benefits which can be passed on to your spouse and family as well. Have you taken any financial advice yet? That should be your first step. The IFA would need to take your debt situation into account as well. 

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12 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

I don't know anything about this Pension Bee scheme but I would be surprised if you find any registered IFA to advise cashing in a final salary pension scheme. It would probably cost you a fortune to get a deal anywhere similar. But all final salary schemes are a wee bit different to each other so your IFA would need to look at the detail of your scheme. Your circumstances would need to be quite unusual. Like you know you are going to die before you can access your pension or something like that. Most final salary pension schemes also come with benefits which can be passed on to your spouse and family as well. Have you taken any financial advice yet? That should be your first step. The IFA would need to take your debt situation into account as well. 

We wrestled with this decision back in Feb when I turned 55 - After a great deal of thought we decided to stick with accessing my FS scheme - Albeit the transfer value did make us think seriously about moving it.

Our IFA was excellent, not pushy at all - Took us through each benefit/drawback for us as a family - Ultimately it was our decision though, and he said that if we were lying in bed 'worrying' about it, it wouldn't be the right thing to do

The tax free LS allowed us to clear our mortgage and stick a bit away - And have an additional monthly income that will allow us to travel more (when we're allowed to) while we still can.

Thankfully there's a nice amount in alternative provision for us when we need that too - Therefore the retirement 'mix' as far as we were concerned felt right. 

Everyone's situation is different, and I guess being comfortable with the balance of guarantee v risk is important.....

 

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44 minutes ago, killiefaetheferry said:

I think I'd like to move my 'big' final salary into Pension Bee. I moved a small pension there about 6 months ago and it's grown by 13%. I like the ease of keeping track and the ability to change between the various investment plans they offer. Only problem is getting a financial advisor to sign it off for me. I think I can tick the right boxes - want to move final salary in order to let my wife/kids inherit the lot if I die, it's not my only income in retirement, I understand the risks and want to 'manage' my investment choices. What should I be expecting to pay for the advice? I don't want to remain with the IFA; just need them to give me the legally required advice so I can get the pension moved into Pension Bee. 
Any advice on any of that?

I'm committed in my head that it's the right way to go. I'm carrying a bit of debt from being a student recently, plus mine and the wife on credit cards etc, and the lump sum at 55 would make us debt free, mortgage included with a bit left to have a wee indulge in some holidays, hopefully. Japan was on the agenda but obviously need to see what happens on that score.

A year ago I got an IFA to look at cashing in one of my final salary pensions. I had 2 final salary pensions, none of them large and even combined would not have been enough for me to retire on without other savings or waiting for my OAP to kick in. Thankfully I did have some savings plus my husband have a private pension, albeit even smaller than either of my final salary pensions, so the IFA made an application. I wasnt however looking to manage the funds myself , I have neither the experience or inclination to do this. The IFA were linked to a company I was happy enough with. 
It was quite a robust process and the company knocked me back as they said my outgoings were too extravagant and couldn't recommend me leaving the guarantees the final salary scheme offered. I wasn't happy as I had thought long and hard about this transfer out and for all the same reasons you have mentioned. The problem was my outgoings , but even a final salary scheme wouldnt have covered them , therefore I didnt see what difference was.

I reapplied this year , reigning in my expenditure. One final of my salary pensions was offering me 28 x salary to transfer out, the other was 44 times. It was a no brainer as to what pension I wanted to move from. This year I was accepted. The investment company look to see how much it would cost to purchase the same pension and when they looked at the cost of the more generous 44 x salary offer it was not much more to buy a similar product in the market so recommended i move out of this one. They would have rejected me again on the 28 x salary pension . 

I think you may find it difficult to get an IFA who is not linked to a company. It is very difficult to move out these schemes these days due to the mis-selling that has gone on in the past. I paid about 1.5 % for all the costs. My IFA didnt charge me anything last year as he felt he should have perhaps helped guide me better on the expenditure. 
As it happens he did me a favour as I was only getting offered 30 x times the final salary last year. 

I will ask my IFA if he knows anyone who will look at the transfer on its own, but be really careful . 13% moves in these current whippy markets is to be expected , but it could easily move the same amount in the opposite direction.  I think you are quite a bit younger than me right enough and can probably withstand large swings,  but don't get caught up in short term trends. 

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21 minutes ago, killiefaetheferry said:

17 months until I hit 55...

53 ???  Wtf. In that case I would forget Pension Bee and transfer your entire pension into whoever manufactures your face cream.

Meh, that has pissed me off no end 😞

Edited by TDYER63
Canny count
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42 minutes ago, killiefaetheferry said:

😂 It's the Stewarton air 👍. Aaid is 84.

I dont know what Aaid looks like but over the years  I have worked with 2 guys from Stewarton. One of them must have been contaminated by the Glasgow smog as he was not particularly youthful looking. 
The other one was however quite fresh faced. I cant remember much about him, just that his name was Neil and he was obsessed with Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
Do you know him ? 

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1 hour ago, killiefaetheferry said:

Of course I do. That will be Neil the Elder. Gets his love of a quiz from his Grandad, Neil the Younger.

😁 thats him ! 
 

1 hour ago, killiefaetheferry said:

Your first guy was obviously Glasgow overspill.

You will definitely know this guy. He has moved away now but lived in Stewarton for a long time and was involved quite a bit in the community. 

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14 hours ago, killiefaetheferry said:

I think I'd like to move my 'big' final salary into Pension Bee. I moved a small pension there about 6 months ago and it's grown by 13%. I like the ease of keeping track and the ability to change between the various investment plans they offer. Only problem is getting a financial advisor to sign it off for me. I think I can tick the right boxes - want to move final salary in order to let my wife/kids inherit the lot if I die, it's not my only income in retirement, I understand the risks and want to 'manage' my investment choices. What should I be expecting to pay for the advice? I don't want to remain with the IFA; just need them to give me the legally required advice so I can get the pension moved into Pension Bee. 
Any advice on any of that?

I'm committed in my head that it's the right way to go. I'm carrying a bit of debt from being a student recently, plus mine and the wife on credit cards etc, and the lump sum at 55 would make us debt free, mortgage included with a bit left to have a wee indulge in some holidays, hopefully. Japan was on the agenda but obviously need to see what happens on that score.

does Pension Bee bundle in the Management Fee's from the individual fund inside their fee ? never seen that before - i was going to say their fee's of 0.5%-1% looked high until seen that  - either/or - options on funds look low  - interactive investor have very low SIP fee's

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18 minutes ago, killiefaetheferry said:

I'm in the Future World plan. It's rated as high risk at 9 out of 10. Ethical investments, low carbon etc. They charge an annual fee of 0.95% on the first £100k and 0.48% on anything above that - fees automatically deducted on a daily basis.

High risk will be on the up just now due to the encouraging news of the covid vaccine. The US dollar is getting battered a bit as investors move out of the dollar into high risk like emerging markets and investments like those you mentioned. 

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On 12/28/2020 at 8:45 AM, euan2020 said:

Only observation is take a look at what funds those pensions are invested in - possible they are all skewed in favour of UK, because our bias is to invest in something we know - FTSE has not done much in last 5 years if compared to US Market - I believe this is because there are very few Biotechs in FTSE100 compared to other markets & problem with some private pensions is limitation of choice of funds versus as example if someone has a SIPP likely has choice of 8,000    

+ Once you leave an employer some funds charge larger management fees, than those agreed for employees 

Thanks. I’ll need to spend a bit of time looking at the management fees.
 

I must admit that I do find the whole area of charges very confusing. 
 

The first one I’ve looked at with Aegon - I believe the AMC is 0.7% which may be a bit high but there are rebates as well. I can see those figures on my annual statement - although that approach doesn’t seem to be consistent across my 3 providers. 
 

When it comes to selecting funds, the KIID for each fund displays another Charge (for example 1.01% on one of my Aegon funds). I’m assuming that those costs are baked in to my holding in the fund with units increasing/decreasing as required to pay fees. Meaning that the true cost of that fund is essentially 1.71% (Aegon 0.7% AMC + Fund charge 1.01%)? 

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I think I might have shared my experience earlier on here & with the obvious caveats that I'm not a financial adviser, everyone is different, blah blah...

However, I started to become seriously ill when I was in my early 50s & by 54 realised that my days were numbered being able to hold down any sort of serious (as in earning enough to pay the bills) job. I'd paid into various pensions all my working life & totted up that if I took no lump sum at all, I'd maybe get £7 or £8K pa (the job I was in at the time paid about £25K pa, & that was big a drop from where I'd been pre-redundancy, & I was still carrying debts as a result of that happening), plus some benefits I'd been awarded due to the health issues. Obviously if I took out a lump sum to get rid of my mortgage & other loans then you could knock a grand or so a year off that.

By pure accident I ended up talking to an IFA & eventually took a decision to shift the whole lot into a private scheme. For obvious legal reasons, the advice on paper was not to leave a guaranteed income scheme, but really I was faced with a choice between a lifetime on the breadline or clearing off everything I owed & having a reasonable disposable income but with the risk of it running out at some point.

All I can say thus far is it's the best decision I ever made. Apart from March/April time, the policy has thus far tended to make up what I draw out each month, I've cleared the mortgage & done a few grands-worth of essential house repairs that I'd put off for years. Given that my chance of ever earning anything more than peanuts is about zero, I feel like I've got a guaranteed quality of life at least into my mid to late 70s; & although my life expectancy doesn't go much beyond that anyway, all the calculations on the policy are built around a presumption that I live to be 100.

I will admit when the whole thing crashed back in spring, I was in a bit of a state of panic, but it's recovered well.

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Still planning my finances DIY but when it comes to retirement we will need to look to an IFA. 5  private pensions between us and also savings/investment ISA's. I have an offer of the table from an IFA who will charge me a monthly retainer for a year and look at our finances. Will take the plunge even though it will cost me a grand.

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On 12/29/2020 at 10:38 PM, AlfieMoon said:

Thanks. I’ll need to spend a bit of time looking at the management fees.
 

I must admit that I do find the whole area of charges very confusing. 
 

The first one I’ve looked at with Aegon - I believe the AMC is 0.7% which may be a bit high but there are rebates as well. I can see those figures on my annual statement - although that approach doesn’t seem to be consistent across my 3 providers. 
 

When it comes to selecting funds, the KIID for each fund displays another Charge (for example 1.01% on one of my Aegon funds). I’m assuming that those costs are baked in to my holding in the fund with units increasing/decreasing as required to pay fees. Meaning that the true cost of that fund is essentially 1.71% (Aegon 0.7% AMC + Fund charge 1.01%)? 

what i read is that Pension Bee bakes in the AMC inside their fee of 0.5%-1.0% so that might explain why you see a refund coming through from Aegon -so on a nett basis should not be above 1% - Pension Bee say they charge a fee and share this with the fund which i thought meant cover the AMC - then again those might be weasly words, and you are paying the fund AMC + an additional fee to them - look up the GB reference, and you will find typical fees 

ie

http://tools.morningstar.co.uk/uk/cefreport/default.aspx?SecurityToken=E0GBR00R1S]2]0]FCGBR$$ALL

https://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/funds/snapshot/snapshot.aspx?id=F00000LK2L

https://www.pensionbee.com/fees

PensionBee only makes money once your pension is invested and you begin paying our annual management fee of between 0.50% and 0.95%, depending on the plan you choose.

We'll automatically deduct your annual fee from your pension and split it with your money manager which could be Legal & General, BlackRock, State Street Global Advisors or HSBC.

Platform fees can be 0.35%-0.85% from likes of Hargreaves Lansdown which i think is high -  Interactive Investor seems more interesting with fee only

https://www.ii.co.uk/acq/see-the-light

Some of the funds may charge less when through certain platform providers, than what they sell direct to retail - so guess you need to be sure on that - although i have seen pay more through platform providers who told me they received "best rates"

 

Edited by euan2020
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On 12/29/2020 at 5:37 PM, killiefaetheferry said:

I'm in the Future World plan. It's rated as high risk at 9 out of 10. Ethical investments, low carbon etc. They charge an annual fee of 0.95% on the first £100k and 0.48% on anything above that - fees automatically deducted on a daily basis.

what is strange is if you go into the fund doc - the risk rating is 3  - says GBP 4.5B under management but none of the L&G Future Funds i looked at were greater than 280M - size of the fund surprised me compared to other ones i am familiar with.

https://www.pensionbee.com/resources/future-world.pdf 

I think their platform fees look high unless the Fund OCF/AMC is included - Typically L&G seem to be 0.5-0.66%, and nothing about volume discounts, so think PB are pocketting the 0.95%  

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  • 3 months later...
On 12/24/2020 at 12:56 PM, euan2020 said:

Pension now up 15% since June &  80% (no contributions ) since switch in 2016

Scottish Mortgage Trust is up 120% since Feb 19 - Mainly driven by Tesla where they have/ad GBP 1 Billion invested 

Seem to spend more time reviewing as i get more tired of work - turned 50 few months back 

 

Now @ 92% growth since 2016 with no contributions  - SMT up 150% since Feb 19, although think it was 180% @ 1 stage

Tipping point of being tired of work, and retiring at 53/55 so can enjoy leisure while young enough - americans at work want to work until 67 

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@killiefaetheferrydid you manage to find an IFA that would take on your pension tranfer to pension bee ? I completely forgot to post that I had asked my IFA if he knew anyone and he said ‘I don’t know any IFA that would recommend a ‘direct to customer’ platform like pension bee. It’s unlikely they would recommend a self-managed solution unless the client has an investment background. 

Hopeful you did manage to find someone. 

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  • 5 months later...

Been quite happy with Pension Bee. Bvery easy to understand and manage. As per the other thread, about 30% growth in about 16 months. Shame it's my wee pension 😂. Just sent the form today to transfer my big pension but haven't decided where to put it yet. May leave some with Origen, the company appointed by Tesco with the low transfer fee, put some in Pension Bee and explore the suggested ii company. 

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