How to transfer a SIPP and maximise your pension

Your Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) may be one of your most important assets outside your home. You should feel comfortable with how your provider manages the service and the quality you receive. We explore why you might leave a SIPP, and how you should go about it.

Reasons why you may be considering leaving your SIPP provider

1. You want to consolidate your pensions

People no longer have a 'job for life.' Many people may now have multiple jobs, alongside periods of self-employment, retraining, travel or caring responsibilities. This all adds to life’s rich tapestry, but it can play havoc with your pension arrangements.

Savers may end up with multiple pots from multiple providers, all in different investments. This adds costs and makes them hard to manage. Bringing them together can help ensure that they are managed with a coherent investment strategy and at lower cost.

2. You’re unhappy with your provider

The service may be poor, the charges too high, the technology clunky, or the helpline staff incompetent. The pensions market is highly competitive, so there’s no need to put up with bad service. High costs should be another red flag.

If a pension provider charges a percentage fee, it might have seemed fair when your fund was small. However, as your fund has grown, the fee now seems too high. Switching to a lower cost or fixed fee provider can save you cash that could be better spent tackling your bucket list.

3. You want more flexibility

Personal Pensions have improved a lot in recent years. Most of them now offer a vast choice of investments, ready to suit every style of investor.

If your SIPP doesn’t do that, and you want to be more adventurous, then you might want to leave your existing provider and set up shop elsewhere. The opposite can also be true. If you prefer a simple life, and your provider offers too many extras, it may be time to think about a change.

Finding a new provider

Transferring your pension is a good deal simpler than it used to be, but it still takes time and effort, and there can be costs involved, so – ideally – you only want to do it once.