Pension transfer advice from FCA-regulated specialists
Moving a pension is irreversible. Before you do it, get a clear, written comparison of what you would gain and what you would give up — free, and with no obligation to proceed.
A pension transfer means moving the money in one pension into another. People do it to cut charges, widen investment choice, consolidate several pots, or gain the drawdown flexibility that older plans often lack.
It can be a genuinely good decision. It can also be an expensive mistake — older policies sometimes carry guarantees that are worth far more than the headline transfer value suggests, and once you have surrendered them they cannot be reinstated.
That is why our panel of FCA-regulated pension transfer specialists starts by establishing whether a transfer is right for you at all. If your existing scheme is already the best home for your money, you will be told so plainly.
What a transfer review actually examines
- Charges, in full. Not just the headline annual management charge, but platform fees, fund fees, adviser charges and any exit penalty on the plan you are leaving. A difference of one percentage point a year compounds into a very large number across a twenty-year retirement.
- Guarantees you might lose. Guaranteed annuity rates, protected tax-free cash above 25%, and protected pension ages are the three most commonly overlooked. All are valuable, and all disappear on transfer.
- Investment choice and risk. Many older workplace pensions sit in a default fund chosen for no one in particular. Whether that still suits your age, your goals and your tolerance for a fall in value is a question worth asking regardless of whether you transfer.
- Flexibility at retirement. Plans written before the 2015 pension freedoms often cannot offer flexi-access drawdown. If you want to draw variable income rather than buy an annuity, that matters.
When transferring tends to make sense
- You hold several small pots from previous employers and the combined charges are high.
- Your existing plan cannot offer drawdown and you do not want an annuity.
- Your money is in a fund that no longer matches your risk profile, and the plan offers no reasonable alternative.
- You want your pension consolidated so your family can deal with one provider rather than five.
When it usually does not
- Your scheme carries a guaranteed annuity rate — these are frequently worth more than the transfer value.
- You hold a defined benefit or final salary pension. See our final salary transfer page: the regulatory starting position is that staying put is best for most people.
- You would trigger an exit penalty that outweighs the saving.
- You are being pressed to move quickly. Legitimate advice is never urgent.
Questions we get asked
Talk it through — free, and with no obligation
A short conversation with an FCA-regulated adviser will tell you where you stand. There is no cost and no pressure to proceed.