Closing Company - What happens to Company Pension?

[Cirrus]

In 1986 I started a company pension with Royal Insurance. It made the salesperson (my accountants at the time) a lot of commission, and to be honest made a tidy profit for me. I haven't put anything into it for a long time but it is still ticking over. It is now under the control of Phoenix.

It's called the MyCo Pension Plan. Have you experienced, or heard of, complications when closing MyCo down?

I could move it before the company closes but I'll have to pay for an IFA and there is talk (nothing more) that Phoenix will provide a drawdown option at some stage. Currently they don't which makes it utterly useless - high rollers like us can't live off annuities

[syrio]

I know nothing about Company Pension schemes. But I suspect you are paying a lot in charges that you could avoid with a SIPP with a low cost broker.

Can't you transfer it into a SIPP? Is this what you mean when you say transfer it?

Have you been told you have to pay for an IFA? Are you sure that is correct? I can't see why you would have to pay for an IFA to move your scheme. For instance I could move my SIPP from Interactive Investor to any other provider without talking to IFA.

Isn't everyone using SIPPs these days?

[northernladuk]

Pension Transfers | Transfer your Pension to a SIPP ?

[Cirrus]

Pension Transfers | Transfer your Pension to a SIPP ?

I'll give HL a call. I already have a SIPP with them.

[Cirrus]

Just spoken to Hargreaves Lansdown. Their guess is you don't need to see an IFA if it's a scheme you've just paid into. If it were defined benefits or had additions (life assurance etc) then that might be different. Note to get a decision from Phoenix involves some rigmarole of first getting a Retirement Options Document so no quick answer.

[VectraMan]

As it happens I've just sent off the form to transfer a previous employer pension to my HL SIPP. They claim that's all I have to do, but I did have to track down the original pension first and find account number/value etc.

But surely any "company pension", even an old fashioned version thereof, isn't owned by the company so won't cease to exist when the company does.

[FrontEnder]

Just spoken to Hargreaves Lansdown. Their guess is you don't need to see an IFA if it's a scheme you've just paid into. If it were defined benefits or had additions (life assurance etc) then that might be different. Note to get a decision from Phoenix involves some rigmarole of first getting a Retirement Options Document so no quick answer.

You only need to get advice from an IFA if it's a defined benefit scheme with a value over £30k.

[SueEllen]

But surely any "company pension", even an old fashioned version thereof, isn't owned by the company so won't cease to exist when the company does.

Yep.

Pension schemes are suppose to be all known to the Pensions Regulator.

[syrio]

Just spoken to Hargreaves Lansdown...

Just be aware that if you are investing in funds (OEICS, UTs) Hargreaves Lansdown are probably the most expensive brokers out there if you have large amounts with them due to their charging structure.

[lukemg]

First - You are almost certainly being ripped to bits on charges by this old setup, get it transferred soon as !
RSA essentially outsourced all their accounts like this to Phoenix and intend to run them down to nothing over the coming years/decades. They are happy to have people move away and probably accounts for why they have limited investment/drawdown options.

HL are good at this, I have transferred a few to them and they did almost all the work once I sent the details to them.

Consider ETF global trackers from Vanguard (VWRL) for the investment (they are classed as shares so DON'T get charged the 0.45% platform fee...)

If it's a decent chunk consider moving to cheaper platform II are good for larger sums (check out Monevator.com too)

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