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Fidelity require me to have an adviser to access my SIPP

smokey01
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Fidelity require me to have an adviser to access my SIPP

#270091

Postby smokey01 » December 9th, 2019, 1:43 pm

Hi,

I am a bit shocked by Fidelity's response to my query to them asking how I go about putting £30,000 of my £250,000 SIPP I have with them into drawdown.

'...Please note that the drawdown instruction will need to be placed by your adviser, as it is a regulatory requirement for all clients to receive positive advice to begin accessing pension benefits.'

I do not have an adviser and was not aware of requiring one to access a DC pension.

Is this really the case?

Alaric
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Re: Fidelity require me to have an adviser to access my SIPP

#270092

Postby Alaric » December 9th, 2019, 1:51 pm

smokey01 wrote:I do not have an adviser and was not aware of requiring one to access a DC pension.

Is this really the case?


I would rather suspect they are making that up. It might be an internal Fidelity rule or a misinterpretation of something else from the FCA.

Dod101
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Re: Fidelity require me to have an adviser to access my SIPP

#270105

Postby Dod101 » December 9th, 2019, 2:47 pm

I would ask them where there requirement comes from and personally think it must be a nonsense.

Dod

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Re: Fidelity require me to have an adviser to access my SIPP

#270116

Postby Howard » December 9th, 2019, 4:07 pm

Might be worth considering moving your SIPP?

Mine is with AJ Bell and they have been very helpful in the past. I use a stockbroker to manage the investments in the SIPP but between the two the costs are modest and my drawdown arrangements have been handled very well.

Obviously there are other providers. I have heard good reports about iWeb's SIPP. Having moved all my Fidelity ISA investments to them they are a lot cheaper for OEIC funds and easy to deal with for ISAs.

I guess there are several other SIPP providers who may be more helpful than Fidelity.

regards

Howard

Dod101
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Re: Fidelity require me to have an adviser to access my SIPP

#270122

Postby Dod101 » December 9th, 2019, 4:37 pm

Howard wrote:Might be worth considering moving your SIPP?

Mine is with AJ Bell and they have been very helpful in the past. I use a stockbroker to manage the investments in the SIPP but between the two the costs are modest and my drawdown arrangements have been handled very well.

Obviously there are other providers. I have heard good reports about iWeb's SIPP. Having moved all my Fidelity ISA investments to them they are a lot cheaper for OEIC funds and easy to deal with for ISAs.

I guess there are several other SIPP providers who may be more helpful than Fidelity.

regards


I have had no problems or queries/comments like this from Alliance Trust Savings either but the point surely is not whether there are better providers, but whether Fidelity's attitude to this request is something that the FCA now require before commencing drawdown.

Dod

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Re: Fidelity require me to have an adviser to access my SIPP

#270149

Postby ursaminortaur » December 9th, 2019, 5:35 pm

Dod101 wrote:
Howard wrote:Might be worth considering moving your SIPP?

Mine is with AJ Bell and they have been very helpful in the past. I use a stockbroker to manage the investments in the SIPP but between the two the costs are modest and my drawdown arrangements have been handled very well.

Obviously there are other providers. I have heard good reports about iWeb's SIPP. Having moved all my Fidelity ISA investments to them they are a lot cheaper for OEIC funds and easy to deal with for ISAs.

I guess there are several other SIPP providers who may be more helpful than Fidelity.

regards


I have had no problems or queries/comments like this from Alliance Trust Savings either but the point surely is not whether there are better providers, but whether Fidelity's attitude to this request is something that the FCA now require before commencing drawdown.

Dod


I didn't have any problem with Youinvest a couple of years back. My understanding is that you only need get advice if you are transferring a DB pension worth more than £30,000 to a DC pension or are dealing with a DC pension worth more than £30,000 which has some sort of guarantee and the action you want to take would deprive you of that guarantee.

https://www.pensionwise.gov.uk/en/financial-advice

You must get independent financial advice, by law, if you have a:

final salary or career average pension (known as a ‘defined benefit’ pension) worth more than £30,000 and you want to transfer it to a defined contribution pension scheme

defined contribution pension worth more than £30,000 with a guarantee about what you’ll be paid when you retire (eg a guaranteed annuity rate) and you want to give it up to do something else with your pot

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Re: Fidelity require me to have an adviser to access my SIPP

#270153

Postby Alaric » December 9th, 2019, 5:53 pm

ursaminortaur wrote: are dealing with a DC pension worth more than £30,000 which has some sort of guarantee and the action you want to take would deprive you of that guarantee.


Perhaps Fidelity or the person making up rules forgot about the "give up guarantee" stipulation.

But if they are incompetent in their understanding of the legal background, that's a reason for transferring away from them.

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Re: Fidelity require me to have an adviser to access my SIPP

#270162

Postby swill453 » December 9th, 2019, 6:14 pm

I think there must be some kind of regulation enforcing "advice" (in the loose sense) before drawdown. Every year I fill in a UFPLS drawdown form with Youinvest and it makes sure you have had an illustration of benefits given to you before you can proceed.

So if Fidelity don't have that kind of facility, maybe they just cop out and say you have to have a financial adviser.

Scott.

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Re: Fidelity require me to have an adviser to access my SIPP

#270170

Postby ursaminortaur » December 9th, 2019, 6:27 pm

swill453 wrote:I think there must be some kind of regulation enforcing "advice" (in the loose sense) before drawdown. Every year I fill in a UFPLS drawdown form with Youinvest and it makes sure you have had an illustration of benefits given to you before you can proceed.

So if Fidelity don't have that kind of facility, maybe they just cop out and say you have to have a financial adviser.

Scott.


As I recall when I started drawdown with Youinvest there was some suggestion about contacting either an advisor or getting a free appointment with Pension wise and I think there may be regulations which force them to say that. However for a DC pension without any guarantees there is no requirement to actually comply with that suggestion.

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Re: Fidelity require me to have an adviser to access my SIPP

#270191

Postby smokey01 » December 9th, 2019, 7:29 pm

I have gone back to Fidelity to query my issue about needing an adviser but I’ve just found this comment regarding Fidelity on another forum

When you telephone their retirement team they allocate a time and date for you to speak with an advisor and then they send out the forms for signature. It is all handled efficiently and completely free of charge so in my opinion you can’t get better than that for value.


So maybe it is not as bad as I thought.

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Re: Fidelity require me to have an adviser to access my SIPP

#270197

Postby Chrysalis » December 9th, 2019, 7:53 pm

Ursaminotaur is correct, the only requirement to seek advice is for people with ‘safeguarded benefits’ - ie guarantees - worth more than £30k. And then only if they want to take action which would result in loss of those benefits.
A lot of pension providers give the impression (deliberately or otherwise) that regulated advice, or a Pensionwise guidance appointment, is a requirement before accessing pension benefits. Neither are.


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