Pension SIPP from Work

🤝 Help
1

HI Guys
Are you only allowed 1 SIPP per person.
Like my work based 1 only have 4 funds which are not very good and expensive.
Am i stuck with it or can you open more than 1?

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You can have multiple SIPPs and you should be able to transfer existing pensions into a SIPP - not talking about company pensions which may be salary linked but you can transfer in pension policies and consolidate SIPPs

Edit: beware that some pensions can have special benefits so you should get advice before transferring them into a SIPP - eg an executive pension (policy from the 80s/90s) which gives higher tax free allowances based on your previous earnings

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I personally wouldn’t advice to transfer company pension to a SIPP unless you know what you’re doing or consulted a professional advice. When transferring SIPPs or consolidation, check check check all associated fees.

You also need to check what the new provider is offering and weather that suits your strategy.

Vanguard are cheap but only offers it’s funds & ETF’s - no advice given here

Yes you can have as many SIPPs as you want but remember you’re the one managing it

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As @Zrtz points outs, be careful of losing any benefits when transfering work pensions. Some providers offer discounted rates, for example.

You wouldn’t want to switch a gold-plated defined benefit pension or something.

I pay into a HL Sipp as the broker takes employer contributions, unlike many others, then transfer
holdings and cash somewhere cheaper.

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Also I would question why you would want multiple SIPPs.

Not talking about company pensions that may have extra benefits and shouldn’t be transferred.

If you have a broker SIPP (ie AJ Bell or Interactive Investor…) you will be paying fees so why would you want to double up on the fees. Have one SIPP and pay one lot of fees.

Obviously take care, do full research and if necessary get professional advice especially if you have pension pots with additional benefits

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@WakeMeUp and anyone that has SIPP with AJ Bell.

I recently opened a SIPP with AJ (salary sacrifice), however i haven’t invested the money - just cash sitting on the pot. My issue is the fees which seems high and wrong. CUkX is 0.07%, however on AJ it’s 0.09%. Also there’s a 0.21% transaction charges bring a total of 0.30%

Add to the dealing charge and custody is a whooping 1.55% to buy a supposedly very low cost index etf

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I’m pretty sure you get those transaction fees with any broker. It’s for things like tax and investing charges incurred by ETFs when rebalancing etc. AJ Bell seems to be better than most at actually disclosing them.

I’d imagine the 0.2% discrepancy with the ongoing charge is a website error. As it comes off the ETF’s return, you’ll pay the correct OCF.

You may be able to invest cheaper using regular investing. HL lets you buy a decent range of ETFs commission-free when investing monthly, for example, but it charges a capped 0.45% on exchange-listed securities.

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I agree that AJ Bell are expensive but I was highlighting that it might not be a good idea to have multiple SIPP because you then may be incurring duplicate/additional fees. AJ Bell aren’t bad for small pensions (ie at the start) but ii works out much cheaper once the size of the pension starts to increase. At present I haven’t found a low-cost pension provider

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Fee-wise, Freetrade and Vanguard are good options. It’s hard to beat VG’s 0.15% unless you have around six figures.

As @wakemeup says, II’s reasonable. It charges £5.99 a month on up to £50k.

I’ve always wanted to like II but I can’t get on with its platform and I had a bad experience with customer service once.

I have a couple of Sipps. It’s handy to keep my HL one open as you can make employer contributions relatively easily then transfer the funds elsewhere.

I’ve toyed with using two: FT for buying commission free then HL for holding the investments. A combined £320 a year’s not bad value but I don’t trade enough to justify an extra £200 a year.

Monevator’s comparison table’s handy for working out the cheapest broker for your use case:

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One of the big issues/questions is whether you are happy just putting the money into funds (so Vanguard and others would be fine) or want to be able to invest in wide range of shares

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Yeah, it all comes down to what you want to invest in, how often etc.

Buying an OEIC can actually be quite reasonable with HL if you don’t have tonnes to invest as there’s no commission to pay. 0.45% isn’t much on smaller amounts.

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Thanks a lot gents/ladies for all your inputs. So i have opened VG account and will keep my AJ for plays not covered by VG.

I noticed VG doesn’t allow cash deposit for you to make a trade at a later date. It seems you must buy an etf/funds immediately while putting in cash…is this normal with everyone?

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You can make a cash deposit with Vanguard and hold accordingly. When you go to make a payment there is a list of fund/ETF categories when you click "Add More Investments: -at the bottom there will be ‘Cash’ - click on this and you’ll see a sub-line saying cash and a box for you to put the total in, Do this, make your payment and the money will be held as cash.

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That’s brilliant, i was initially a bit confused if the ‘Cash’ was a MMF. Thank you