Is there a way to transfer the final salary pension into the defined contribution one without incurring large fees?

I have two pensions, one final salary and one defined contribution. I want to transfer the final salary one into the defined contribution one and am being quoted £30k by the provider for advice to do this. Is there a way to combine the pots without incurring such large fees?

Hi Jon,

The fee can vary greatly from firm to firm but unfortunately this is now an expensive area of advice for Financial Planners as it is one of, if not the most heavily regulated pieces of advice that we provide.

However, I am surprised that the Pension Provider/Administrator has quoted this and £30,000 seems particularly high - regardless of the amount you may be looking to transfer. It's possible you have slightly misread the section where the scheme have explained when advice is required. Essentially, if you have a Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV - which is the amount the pension scheme would transfer to you if you transferred away from the scheme) of more than £30,000, then you are required to obtain advice from a regulated pension specialist to transfer, and the scheme will not take an instruction directly from you. Anything less than £30,000 and they would likely transfer without advice, if requested. Although this is also at their discretion.

If you have been quoted £30,000 by a Financial Planning firm, then I would suggest that this is expensive and you could carry this exercise out (if advisable) for much cheaper if you shopped around. Most firms, like ours, have a cap on this type of fee, which is significantly less than £30,000.

I hope you found this helpful Jon.