OH wants to draw down or cash in or whatever its called part of his pension but the man from the Pru says he must get a financial adviser first! He is furious. How much do they cost? Bet you dont get many of those to the pound.
Seek CAB advice first. Many people think they know best with pensions. Some do.
Call MAPS the free, neutral UK Government Pensions advice line and they will explain. 9-5 Monday to Friday UK time. You can also book an appointment for a more indepth discussion. Tel. + 44 207 9325780.
Please post if you do find an adviser in the UK as after some heavyhanded legislation which was too late anyway, it seems fewer advisers are willing to undertake this work.
Be careful of companies hijacking what you might search for on Google - there is one particularly active one that keeps hijacking searches for pension advice based on your searching in English from an IP address in France, not all are as pure as the driven snow and that"s all I’ll say.
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Do you need a UK financial advisor, or a French one? I would have thought the French tax implications are more important, and anUK advisor won’t necessarily know that. Even one with a passport to advise foreign based clients.
I seem to remember there was a list of FAs with passport on the MoneyWise (aka Gov’t pension service) website.
When I did this recently, with Prudential, online, I went through an online procedure that asked me if I had sought financial advice, and when I said no, it asked me several times if I was sure, and advised me to take financial advice but in the end it allowed me to draw down from uncrystalised funds. Note that I was not cashing in the whole pension, just a lump sum that was part of the fund. Also, my pension is a SIPP, so other pensions may vary.
Prudential are terrible for this, it’s like they don’t want you to have the money. We didn’t take advice either (it’s a very tiny amount) they did pester but we got the pension.
They do pester you to get advice, and it seemed an interminable process online to get there, but what they are doing is just covering thier bum in case you lose your shirt and complain.
The problem is the legislation requiring “advice to be taken” from an adviser in order for certain options to be able to be taken on a lot of pensions, requires a UK-authorised adviser.
To make it worse some pension providers and places you’d invest, are overegging it and requiring “advice” to be taken from an authorised adviser, for things or amounts of money for which “advice” is not actually required by the legislation.
I strongly suggest you talk to MAPS. 3 different services have been consolidated into the MAPS service by the govt in the past year or so, and that includes the Pension Advice Service and, I think, the Money Advice service, and one other public financial advice service.
All providers are now practically required by the regulator to ask the questions referred to by @hairbear, indeed to cover their bums, but a separate issue is some providers taking it too far and actually refusing without you having taken the “advice” of a UK-authorised Financial Adviser.
You could follow the approach suggested by @rendi60 above, and push back and say “show me the legislation that requires this”, especially as you’ll have enough trouble finding an adviser anyway (and the list on the website won’t be much help) but I’d strongly recommend a call to MAPS anyway.
I have tken sums form my teeny weeny pension pot with the Scot Wids. Every withdrawal, be it for just ÂŁ200, is accomapanied by an intensive 20-25 minute cross examaination and explication of the rules and regs.
There are always the questions “Have you taken advice? Have you consulted a financial advisor?”
I tell them I have had numerous chats with the Pension Advice Service [ 
] and as for financial advisors’ the ones I have consulted in the past have cost me tens of thousands of GBP [ 
] and I regard them all as wastes of space.
I do understand why the pension companies go thru’ this tedious rigmarole. Last time was particularly difficult because not only was it the usual interminable ramble but the person dealing with me spoke English with a very heavy West African accent and was, from time to time, unintelligible.
Another problem with Prudential was they kept asking if we’d shopped around - as it was a rare type of pension with a minimum income guarantee their info actually said we would lose this guarantee if we moved the pension.
I battled the Prudential for over six months to get my pension transferred out to a QROP - they made it very difficult and on many occasions found new reasons for me to have to provide yet more ID, signed forms, HMRC forms etc that they had already been sent.
Given the shitshow that’s happening in the UK, and the effect the current government is having on financial markets, and the fact I’m now in the EU, I’m thinking of moving my Prudential SIPP to a QROPS. I know there are no QROP compatible product in France, so it will be a case of finding the correct venue within the EU. How easy did you find the process, putting aside the problems with the Prudential ?
Thank you Karen. It’s my OH’ pension. He has spoken to Pension Wise who said nothng about financial advisers. OH cashed in pension £3000 with Avivia who paid up no bother. OH has another phone appt with PensionWise on Monday. Good advice re hijacking I was about to start out on the trail. Peeps are so helpful on this forum.
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Thank you Graeme. Will do.
Hello Jane, UK financial advisor.
I seem to remember there was a list of FAs with passport on the MoneyWise (aka Gov’t pension service) website.
We missed that. Will take another look. Thank you Jane.
Thank you hair bear. OH has another tel rdv with pensionwise on monday after which he will browbeat the Pru to cough up. He too only wants a lump sum. No idea what SIPPor uncrystalised funds are - expect OH does. Have sent him all the emails from you lovely people.
Thank you Rendi60 - prob is the good old dependable friendly Pru has been merged into a soul less conglomerate - OH will keep trying.
yes - i dimly emember some scandal or other involving a lot of people cashing in pensions and losing money
Thank you Karen. All taken on board. OH has a another tel rdv on Monday. Yes. The Pru ARE refusing unless OH takes advice. He will have another go at the Pru.