Help needed with buying an annuity with my personal pension funds

[Keith5588]

Just now, BritManToo said:

Contact  Hargreaves-Lansdown https://www.hl.co.uk/

These are the only investment company that didn't try to cheat me, they have many options for you to to choose from.

Thank you @BritManToo  that's good information. I will either contact Hargreaves-Lansdown or Interactive Investor. 

[Lacessit]

13 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

 I don't see how they are cream for the insurers. The annuity value at death is paid to the estate. unless the owner arranded for the anuity to continue for a spouse's benefit.

My mistake, I thought annuities stopped on death, with nothing going to the estate.

[Keeps]

4 hours ago, Keith5588 said:

Thank you @Oliver Holzerfilled A good read.  I still have not fully decided except that I need to move the money from my old pension funds. 

Annuity rates are up at the moment but I could also move all the money to a SIPP and take a regular draw down.

I have made an appointment for tomorrow morning to have a 1 hour phone chat with a UK government person from Pension Wise.

A lot of misinformation contained within this thread from various parties.

 

I would agree with one of the comments to use Hargreaves Lansdown. You can transfer your entire pot to them and you do not immediately need to decide what to do with the money. It would involve transferring any holding within a SIPP. You can leave it sitting there as cash until you decide what to do.

 

I have done this myself and transferred various pension to them and also contributed directly to my SIPP.

 

You do not have to buy an annuity with your entire pot. That is an option. You could decide to buy an annuity with, say, £100k to cover guaranteed outgoings. You could choose to leave the remainder in cash (yes, they do pay interest on cash holdings) or invest in cautious funds or bluechip dividend paying companies.

 

There are numerous annuity options available (all within the Hargreaves platform). flat level for life, guaranteed for a number of years, built in increases per annum etc. There are obviously sliding scales of return depending on which option you take. You could probably achieve between 8% decreasing to 4% depending which option you decide to take.

 

Hargreaves also offer a 'health declaration' whilst seeking annuity quotes. The more health issues you have the higher the annuity income.

 

Don't forget though, with some of the options, you will lose the pot if you suffer an untimely demise. At least if the money (or partial pot) is invested, you can detail a nominee for your remaining money to be paid to. You provide the nominee details to Hargreaves Lansdown. They have no contractual obligation to do so but will respect people's wishes to the full extent they can. 

 

There is also the option to move partial amounts of the pot into drawdown whilst receiving 25% tax free lumps. Once in drawdown, you can then withdraw an income from the drawdown pot. I would advise against moving it all at once. Just move/take what you need. This also provides the benefit of allowing the SIPP pot to continue to grow, thus enhancing any future tax free amounts.

 

Be aware that there is an annual charge to hold within Hargreaves Lansdown of circa 0.45% per annum, collected monthly. There is no charge for holding cash and holdings of shares are capped per annum at a lower level.

 

If you require any further information, please send me a personal message. I beg you not to listen to much of the misinformation already posted.

 

Lastly, I had a pensionwise telephone discussion around 18 months ago. I didn't personally find it of much use but they will explain your options.