Transfer of a SIPP in drawdown

[billG]

Hello,

Apologies if this has been asked before....

I am in my early 60's and I have a largish SIPP in drawdown in L&G tracker like funds on a platform managed by Willis Towers Watson who have a long track record in the UK. The service they provide is fine but have an ad valorem fee structure. I would save a few thousand a year by switching to a platform like Vanguard or ii. I am inclined to transfer to one of the cheaper providers. I am more than happy to make my own investment decisions and have been investing for 35 years both in my SIPP and ISA.

So the questions I have for this forum are.

1. In your experience typically how long do such transfer take?

2. Can anyone vouch for the service/quality of either/or ii/Vanguard?

3. Does anyone have a view if ii/Vanguard are serious and likely see me through the rest of my
retirement. Say 25 years.
I am not sure I want to keep transferring to the cheapest provider if these guys quit the endeavor.

4. If I transfer to Vanguard, I will have to invest in Vanguard products. That is fine. Would it then be
prudent to transfer Vanguard funds in my ISA to other providers such as iShares to avoid putting all
my eggs in one basket?

5. Is there anyone else I should consider as a SIPP provider who charge a flat fee structure that they
would recommend?

6. Any other salient question I should have asked?

Thanks for your help.

Moderator Message:
This post is not primarily about retirement investing, and so has been moved to a more appropriate forum. Many thanks to the poster who kindly pointed this out. -- MDW1954

[BullDog]

Interactive Investor are a great choice for a large SIPP. As long as you're happy with choosing your own investments and managing your finances yourself, I can't really see a drawback to II. You say you’re happy with that, so I would say go for it.

Personally I wouldn't be happy with Vanguard because I couldn't possibly be confined to their range of investment options.

If you need a referral to Interactive Investor to save on the first years fees, myself or any other II customer here can refer you. Hope that helps.

[mc2fool]

Vanguard is, of course, also an ad valorem charger but, as I'm sure you're aware, that's capped at £375 and there are no other fees. In regards to your questions:

1) No personal experience of transferring a SIPP but the general comments on these boards about transferring between brokers, be it SIPPs, ISAs or general accounts, is that it takes yonks, longer than you'd expect, and at some point both brokers will blame each other for the delays. The practical upshot is that you should expect your holding to be in limbo for quite a while, so you should do any expected trading beforehand.

2) I have a general a/c and an ISA with ii and ... well, they're fine when they're not changing their website!

3) One might hope that with the recent buying of ii by Abrdn they might stay under the same ownership for a while ...

4) Several eggs in several basket is definitely a good idea.

5) Take a look at IWeb. I have my SIPP with them and am happy to do so. They're part of the Lloyds Banking Group so likely to be around for a long time. They do charge for drawdown though, so check out all their charges.

[GeoffF100]

1. Transfer times were terrible. The situation appears to have improved. The transfer will probably be completed within a month, but be prepared for it to be delayed for a few months.

2. Vanguard service is OK. It is not always great, but the same applies to their competitors.

3. I think that we can be pretty sure that Vanguard is here to stay. II is more likely to be sold off or have its prices significantly increased.

4. Perhaps, but any risk is tiny and I have not bothered. My admin is complicated enough as it is.

5. iWeb is OK. If you use ETFs, you avoid percentage charges with several platforms. AJ Bell is good if you use ETFs.

6. Vanguard offers more pension options than some of the others. You do not have to go into draw-down at age 75, for example.

[MickR]

Are you in investments that are specific to your existing platform? If so, I would assume you would need to sell all of you investments so the transfer would be in cash. It "should" be a lot cleaner if so.

I transferred my HL SIPP into ii, and they identified a couple of funds that couldn't transfer so I sold them. However, the transfer got held up as it turned out they struggled with another couple of funds and the transfer ended up taking weeks, with each side blaming each other. I really wished I had cashed in all of the funds and repurchased .Stocks and IT's went through fine

iI customer service is excellent

Mick

[NearlyThere]

I transferred a SIPP from Willis Towers Watson to ii back in 2021. It was made as a cash transfer and took 65 days to complete. I had to chase WTW a couple of times.

At the same time I transferred another smaller SIPP (also cash) from L&G to ii. This was completed in 36 days.

I found ii's customer service very helpful. I selected them based on cost and availability of investment options, but everything currently sits in a global index tracker.

I'm not in drawdown yet, but have taken some tax free cash. The process was straightforward with ii.

HTH
Neil
(edited typo)

[xxd09]

All sounds possible but you need to have some cash aside to cover what could be serious delays to your retirement income stream
A couple of years living expenses as a minimum?
Possibly you are doing this already as part of managing your retirement income stream during stockmarket downturns
xxd09

[scrumpyjack]

I have found transfers happen very quickly and without problems if both parties are large established firms, who will have automated procedures for it, and the investments are all UK quoted mainstream. Your L&G trackers with Willis may well not be supported on another platform so you might need to encash before transfer. If so check with the brokers the expected cash transfer time as there might be a risk of the market moving suddenly whilst you are stuck in cash. Obviously that risk goes both ways and you may be happy to take the risk.