Withdrawing Pensions Early

britboy4321 · 7 Mar 2011 at 19:53

jamief said:
Other than britboy I think the information is pretty much correct! 2.4% Trail Commission sounds rather unlikely to me, but I'll check and see what our average is at work. We have IFAs from all over so it shouldn't be too hard to work out the average between them.

Indeed. Don't know if it makes a difference, but I told the IFA I didn't want him accepting any 'kick back' from the pension providers. I wanted a completetly neutral decision from him. Perhaps if I'd let him keep any kick-back it may have been a slightly lower % ??

jamief · 7 Mar 2011 at 19:56

britboy4321 said:
Indeed. Don't know if it makes a difference, but I told the IFA I didn't want him accepting any 'kick back' from the pension providers. I wanted a completetly neutral decision from him. Perhaps if I'd let him keep any kick-back it may have been a slightly lower % ??

I think we'll see a clearer picture of what IFAs really get upto after the RDR... certainly they might be "full market" and "independent" but it doesn't mean they'll be sensible or offer you products which they don't make commission from - look at how many IFAs recommend Funds!

britboy4321 · 7 Mar 2011 at 19:58

jamief said:
I think we'll see a clearer picture of what IFAs really get upto after the RDR... certainly they might be "full market" and "independent" but it doesn't mean they'll be sensible or offer you products which they don't make commission from - look at how many IFAs recommend Funds!

What really annoyed me is I paid this guy a lot of money to choose my pension fund and at 1 point he said the sentence

'Norwich Union and Skandia looked about the same so I chose Skandia because their website seemed faster' !!!

I said 'Er, I want the absolute best one, the speed of their website I will never use is immaterial'

and he answered:

'Er .. yea .. er .. Skandia was the best one'

:/

[TW]Fox · 7 Mar 2011 at 20:00

Mason- said:
You talk of contributions, all you've done so far is annoy someone.

Not true, I also clarified that:

Some have a time limit which once reached stipulates you may not withdraw, only transfer into another pension scheme.

In the first post I made. This is a pretty crucial and important point which is pretty central to the whole question!

booyaka · 7 Mar 2011 at 20:28

So much uneducated/ill informed nonsense posted in this thread!!!

@OP - no you can not access/withdraw pension funds early - under the current rules you have to be 55 before you can access a private pension fund.

Check her current scheme - most "stakeholder" pension "should" allow a transfer in of small amounts - however some are £1k minimum as you have already found out. Depends on the type of scheme she current has.

Her dad might be talking about "triviality rules" - again this is only @ normal retirement age of the scheme - If the value of your pension rights is below a certain level, it may be possible to give up those rights in exchange for a cash sum.

From 6 April 2006, this option is only possible where the total of all your pension rights does not exceed 1% of the Lifetime Allowance. For the tax year 2010/11, this will equate to £18,000, from 2012 it's £15k. The option to cash-in a small pension can only be exercised between the ages of 60 and 75.

booyaka · 7 Mar 2011 at 20:30

britboy4321 said:
What really annoyed me is I paid this guy a lot of money to choose my pension fund and at 1 point he said the sentence

'Norwich Union and Skandia looked about the same so I chose Skandia because their website seemed faster' !!!

I said 'Er, I want the absolute best one, the speed of their website I will never use is immaterial'

and he answered:

'Er .. yea .. er .. Skandia was the best one'

:/

Get a new IFA then!! At the end of the day if you are not happy with your IFA - find another one!

You paid him a lot of money? - What for? Did you pay by fee? Commission ? What information/reports/advice/key features/quotes etc did you get before committing to Skandia? Who else was consider?

booyaka · 7 Mar 2011 at 20:31

britboy4321 said:
You can get your pension money whenever you want IF IT'S A PRIVATE PENSION - you just don't get any of the tax breaks.

If you take out enough to push you into the 40% tax bracket for that year (or are already in 40%) - you'll lose 40% of what you would have got if you'd taken it out upon retirement. Which is quite a lot to chuck up the wall ...

And thats before the pension fund put on their exorbitant 'early withdrawel' fees ..

oh dear!

britboy4321 · 7 Mar 2011 at 20:44

booyaka said:
Get a new IFA then!! At the end of the day if you are not happy with your IFA - find another one!

You paid him a lot of money? - What for? Did you pay by fee? Commission ? What information/reports/advice/key features/quotes etc did you get before committing to Skandia? Who else was consider?

I don't need an IFA now my pension is already set up.

I paid by fee.

About 18 providers were considered.

I couldn't be bothered to read reports etc. thats precisely what I paid him for.

aproctor · 7 Mar 2011 at 20:51

britboy4321 said:
I couldn't be bothered to read reports etc. thats precisely what I paid him for.

So your knowlege on the subject is limited by your own admission.

britboy4321 · 7 Mar 2011 at 21:02

aproctor said:
So your knowlege on the subject is limited by your own admission.

If my knowledge was limitless I wouldn't need an IFA, I'd already know everything!

booyaka · 7 Mar 2011 at 21:05

britboy4321 said:
I don't need an IFA now my pension is already set up.

I paid by fee.

About 18 providers were considered.

I couldn't be bothered to read reports etc. thats precisely what I paid him for.

so you paid him a fee - to produce a report which in fact is the main point of the advice - the report is likely to have all the information you require such as why he chose the company he did, what costs are involved, what fees you pay, what other products were discussed and discounted, what fees/commission you might pay in the future, relevant information to your situation. But you didn't bother reading it??? Jesus!

You dont need him now? So your happy with doing all the following and more yourself? - portfolio re-balancing, future legislation and taxation changes, fund switches, regular reviews to make sure you pension is performing well, advice on pension options, annual management charges/changes, NEST etc?

britboy4321 · 7 Mar 2011 at 21:39

booyaka said:
so you paid him a fee - to produce a report which in fact is the main point of the advice - the report is likely to have all the information you require such as why he chose the company he did, what costs are involved, what fees you pay, what other products were discussed and discounted, what fees/commission you might pay in the future, relevant information to your situation. But you didn't bother reading it??? Jesus!

You dont need him now? So your happy with doing all the following and more yourself? - portfolio re-balancing, future legislation and taxation changes, fund switches, regular reviews to make sure you pension is performing well, advice on pension options, annual management charges/changes, NEST etc?

1) I paid him a fee to tell me which pension to get. I didn't give a monkeys about whether he produced a report or not - in fact - given the choice - I'd rather watch Match of the Day then read a report by some dull IFA on how he formed his conclusions. by working out if he performed his conclusions correctly, I'm re-doing half the work I paid him to do. Whats the point? I PAID HIM SO I WOULDN'T HAVE TO!
2) I don't care why he chose the company he did .. I trust him after I gave him my spec. That was that. I can't be bothered to care WHY he chose Skandia over anything else. What is to be gained by me knowing? nothing. Whats to be lost? A load of my time.
3) Who cares what other products were discussed and discounted? Whats the point in me knowing? What's to be gained? Whether he says he discounted Abbey National because the fees were too high, or because they were due a take-over from Santandar - whats the point in knowing why those that failed, failed? Again - waste of my good time. I'd rather go and watch 'the Fighter' at the cinema personally. Wouldn't everyone else as well?
4) I already know I will pay no fees and commission in the future without written request it was in my spec.
5) I know my own financial situation I don't need him to, er, state it again in a repot thats on nice shiny paper..
6) Portfolio re-balancing seems very easy to me. The risks are all specified in fact the things are listed in risk order .. just decrease risk as the pot increases, there's about 400 examples of ways to do this on the web and I can alter the portfolio on a day by day basis on the web if I fancy it. simples.
7) Skandia and my accountant will deal with future tax and legislation changes - whats the point in me bothering to learn about it when I could be playing dead space 2? I hired the IFA and my accountant to do that boring rubbish - whilst I play computer games. Double-checking all their work sounds boring, pointless, and effort.
8) I can review whether my pension is doing well or not from the annual statements. A school kid could read them. Whether 8.5% gain on 'blackrock European pro-gold investments' is good or bad - that's 5 minutes surfing to find that out.
9) Pension options are obvious.
10) Skandia have to inform me in writing of any changes to any charges. If they ever do, I'll worry about it.

I think that's everything covered. If I pay someone to do work instead of me - I'll let them do the work - um - instead of me.

[TW]Fox · 7 Mar 2011 at 22:14

britboy4321 said:
I think that's everything covered. If I pay someone to do work instead of me - I'll let them do the work - um - instead of me.

A completely understandable and frankly reasonable way to do things.

But why then come and give advice in a thread if you freely admit you paid somebody else to do it all for you so you didnt have to worry about how it all worked :confused: