Transferring from Standard life Stakeholder Pension into a SIPP

25th Apr '17 by Springfield Barton

13 comments 7898 reads

Hi All,

I am about to transfer an older Stakeholder Pension from Standard Life into a SIPP. My question is what provider to go with. The amount is about 50K, have read reviews on most and from a cost point of view iii.co.uk come out cheapest.

Before committing on the dotted line I would be interested on understanding other views and platform recommendations. I am very aware cheapest does not mean the best so would be interested to here your thoughts

The standard Life pension has to transferred internally to another standard life pension before I can transfer to a SIPP. It was an old Stakeholder with profits fund!!!!

Thanks ED

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About the Author

Springfield Barton

Premium Member

13 comments

gus 1065

26th Apr '17

Hi Ed.

I did a similar exercise last year consolidating a number of occupational and private schemes with some AVC's to put them in a single pot with a view to getting better control and having a more flexible means of accessing benefits as and when I look to access them. There are a number of factors to take into account such as how much your pot is worth, what you want to invest in (shares, funds, "exotica" etc.), how active you want to be in managing your fund etc.. You might find the attached link useful in thinking through the options.

http://www.comparefundplatforms.com/compare2.aspx

There is a bit of a trade off between flexibility and ongoing cost but other factors came into my eventual choice. It's not the simplest decision and potentially quite a major one so possibly worth investing in some professional advice from a decent IFA.

Gus.

Cuthbert C

26th Apr '17

Hargreaves Lansdown should be on your list - excellent service/functionality and very modest costs especially if you avoid OEICs.

I consolidated/switched last year and wish I'd done it years ago.

Be v careful if you use any generic cost comparisons - they are based on a whole raft of assumptions which might be irrelevant in your case. EG many assume that all or most of your investments are in OEICs.

There's a good comparison by LangCat and another by the Telegraph but both make the above assumption so need to be tweaked if your approach - like mine - is based on different assumptions.

bestace

26th Apr '17

This comparison site is also worth drawing to your attention, if you're not already aware of it:

http://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/

I also consolidated a bunch of pensions (including an old Standard Life stakeholder scheme) into a SIPP last year. I ended up going with i-web, which I've been happy with.

slopsjon

26th Apr '17

I have two SIPPS, Youinvest and iWeb. I transferred a personal pension plan into Youinvest and a company pension into iWeb both with no problems at the broker end, the problems were with the other end. AJ Bell is the pension admin for both.

I also have an ISA with iWeb.

The transaction charges are cheaper in iWeb but the admin charge is slightly more than Youinvest but both seem reasonable.

I prefer iWeb which is really Halifax Share Dealing, the customer service is a lot better, you can do live chat with them. I've heard good things about Hargreaves but never used them.

I would expect your transfer from Standard Life to take a reasonable time, less than 3 months. If it doesn't then punish them by complaining and raising a complaint with the FOS. It works. i know someone who transfer from Standard Life to a SIPP and wasn't happy with the transfer and complained.

garbetklb

26th Apr '17

I've also got 2 SIPPs - Share Centre & Alliance Trust. And with the accounts I look after for Mum, ISA / Share Dealing with IWeb / Share Centre / Alliance Trust.

As has already been said, think carefully what you will be investing in.

Alliance Trust
Can be cost effective for a large account.
Can be restrictive re investments - I've had a couple of major battles
Things go wrong more than they should; people one talks to are helpful, systems are pretty crap

IWeb
Cheap & cheerful
I don't think you can talk to someone to get a quote - where they can't get an electronic quote (some AIM etc), you deal "at best" or not. Or set a limit trade.

Share Centre
Customer service is excellent in all aspect
You need to look carefully at dealing costs - depending on how much you trade it may/may not be worth buying the frequent dealing option. This can be turned on/off at will.

Overall, I'm happiest with Share Centre. Also satisfy yourself re security of investment - FSCS scheme limits etc

Springfield Barton

27th Apr '17

Thanks you All for your feedback, will continue the investigation and update you on what I find and the decision I make.

jjis

27th Apr '17

The Jarvis Self Invested Personal Pension

One last one for you to consider in the cheap & cheerful category is offered by X-O see the link above. Not used it myself, but quite happy with dealing / ISA offering & as a shareholder in Jarvis Securities (LON:JIM) too.

If you open a dealing account the SIPP is then fee free + £5.95 dealing if their range of investments should suit your requirements.

Rusty2

27th Apr '17

I don't know Jarvis, had a quick look at their site (don't like the orange colour), could not access much, what are they like for buying overseas shares such as European and American? Who do they hold your investments with, is cash spread over several different banks. Jarvis only has £40m mcap, how secure are they?

I'm considering HL at the moment, they are good but probably a bit more expensive.

jjis

27th Apr '17

ISA options for dealing - You can invest in a wide range of ISA eligible products including UK listed shares, Gilts, Bonds, Exchange Traded Funds, Investment Trusts, shares listed on the IRS (International Retail Service) and CDIs of US stocks.
Re: Cash - you would need to check with them & satisfy yourself as to their solvency, but they have £5m+ cash & bigger market cap than Share Centre also mentioned in this discussion stream fwtw. They would have usual FCA safeguards like all the others, but obviously HL, Equinity (Selftrade) etc. bigger & more well known so as ever you pay your money and take your choice having DYOR as to what suits your requirements. Hope this helps?

Rusty2

27th Apr '17

OK thanks I will look into it further.

dscollard

28th Apr '17

just in the process of doing similar on an AVC which is in the 6 figures so amenable to cash bonuses from various providers on switching.
I have chosen AJB/YouInvest as it wins on most metrics in my book. I've had a SIPP set-up with AJB for my wife for a few years so already know their service and offerings .
I was keen on getting "hello money" but on scrutiny realised brokers offering these deals take this back in fees in a remarkably short time. They also have barriers to exit with hefty costs to transfer out. All part of the mix in deciding who to choose

https://www.youinvest.co.uk/sipp/charges-and-rates

AJB has low fees, very low execution costs and allows dividend reinvestment ideal for SIPPS

It has £30bn AUM, has been around since 1995 and has good management

Not of that much significance but they also offer Shares Mag free as part of the deal

Hilariously I had to do a telephone "Scams interview " as part of the AVC transfer-out protection, that was a revelation in the puerile but most pension providers seem to insist on that these days: mind you 3 magic beans and all .

slopsjon

28th Apr '17

I tried to transfer a company pension to Youinvest and they wanted a certificate from an IFA to prove I had advice. That would have cost £1000-£2000 pounds so tried iWeb and they didn't require that so iWeb got my money.

jonesj

1st May '17

I transferred a company pension from a former employer to an existing SIPP at AJ Bell. The law requires me to take financial advice, but my ex employer had engaged a third party to provide free financial advice. Obviously a conflict of interest there, but since I was going to make decisions on my own analysis, no problem.
The financial advise was about 60 pages to trash. Also, it only considered the risks of moving away from the deferred final salary scheme, but did not consider the risks of staying there (inadequate inflation indexation).

AJ Bell impressions:
Positives: Reasonable charges, nice phone app. I tried dealing on the phone app for the first time recently. One can log in to trade & it stays logged in for one to monitor trade execution, but has password security for later transactions. Very convenient.
Negatives: Annual fees increased from zero to up to £300 (depending on your investment mix). Utterly irrational fiddling around with the website, so statements no longer follow the logical industry standard order & are a now a PITA to download to my spreadsheet. Why do they waste money on this ? The statements should follow standard industry format and should NEVER be changed.

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Transferring from Standard life Stakeholder Pension into a SIPP

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Springfield Barton

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