Am I paying too much in SIPP fees?

I have around £840K in a SIPP from transferring out of my company scheme last year. The charges are around 1.5% per annum which includes managing my investments and platform charges. When I look at SIPP charges they are a lot lower than this. Am I paying over the top in charges? Obviously I want to reduce charges eating into my pot, as I plan to retire next month.

Hi Andrew,

If you are managing your own pension, then I would typically expect to pay about 0.3% - 0.45% for the administration or platform charges and then investment fees on top of this.

If you are building a portfolio from a collection of actively managed funds then you will pay an additional 0.7% - 0.9% as a rule of thumb. I would not expect pay more than 1.5% a year for a DIY managed pension. If you visit our Fees Calculator on our site, it will show you the specific platform costs for holding a pension on all the major available brands.

Of course if you are choosing your own portfolio of individual shares, all using passive funds, then the total charges will be lower.

A word of caution
If you have a drawdown pension then the charges can suddenly increase and become a lot more complicated to work out (sorry!).

For example, some providers will charge you to drawdown cash and to make changes to your portfolio. So do make sure you read the list of associated costs for managing a pension which is in drawdown.

I hope that helps good luck!

Holly