Exactly right Peter.

Hello. We'd much appreciate if you could please let us know the name of the pension provider you transferred to? Thank you.

Also I know of several people who are not yet 55 and have quite their jobs on the strength of these massive CETVs when they turn 55 and made all their retirement plans around receiving huge pay offs. They have very badly miscalculated.

Good points Michael.

Thanks for the feedback, really appreciate it.

Possibly easier to transfer to a DC first but shouldn't have to be. The advice is the same whether it's appropriate to transfer or not. The problem will be if your Adviser doesn't recommend a transfer then it will be difficult finding a provider willing to accept the transfer if you wanted to go against the advice.

All valid points Guy

@@carlrobertsifa The problem is duff information starts to creep in and becomes the norm.. Even allowing for the additional rules brought in Nov.21 unless you are transferring your money say to a" mountaineering school in Holland" , the pension trustees should carry out your wishes after you have bought and paid for financial advice. A carefully worded letter to your existing pension provider can often be all that is required. My own experience found multiple IFAs willing to help if I allowed them to take over my whole pension pot and for them to charge me an annual management fee indefinitely . You should seek an IFA who is willing to provide a one off fee for a one off piece of advice and a report.

It’s the financial regulator that has come up with a rule that states you must seek advice if the benefits are more than £30k. People should be treated as adults though and this should not be mandatory.

You are absolutely right that you only need to SEEK advice if benefits are £30k or more. You DO NOT have to follow the advice. The problem is pension providers are no longer accepting a DB transfer unless the Financial Adviser has positively recommended it. I am not currently aware of a provider that allows it. Not what the rules state but it's where we are. Pressure needs to be put on the regulator to force providers to accept this legitimate business as it is not in the spirit of the rules.

You seem to have a rather misguided and inaccurate view on the DB Advice process. 99% of pension schemes will not accept a DB Transfer if the client was not advised to transfer. Furthermore, they won't accept a transfer unless the advice is explicitly to transfer to their pension. There are only one or two pension schemes in the UK that accept clients with a negative transfer outcome, and they are all adviser led, to cover the risk and liability. Whilst it is technically true that you are allowed to transfer, regardless of the recommendation by the PTS, in reality no pension scheme will accept it, and many advisers will refuse to even sign the form, in case it falls back on them (which the Pensions Ombudsman ruled it will, as that is considered "facilitation"). With the new Pension Transfer Regulation, which came into effect on 30th November, your existing DB Pension Trustee very much DOES have a right to ask questions about your advice, your transfer rationale, where it is going, and how it is invested. The Transfer also indeed must be signed off by a PTS, both in terms of the Transfer Out Forms from the Scheme, but also for the Transfer In forms for the new DC pension. If the PTS will not sign them, as he has advised you not to transfer, or advised you to transfer to a different pension, then they will not sign those forms, and nor should they have to. Your existing pension scheme would also block the transfer if you tried to transfer to a pension that was not advised in the DB Report and/or on the Financial Advice Declaration form. If you try to transfer to another Scheme, your existing scheme will refuse to release the funds. DB Advice costs significantly more than £1500, heck that wouldn't even cover the PI Insurance required to provide the advice, let alone cover any other expenses and generate a profit. DB Advice is incredibly complex, incredibly risky, and for most people it is not suitable for them to transfer, so the liabilities are massive. This is why there are less than 1000 advisers in the UK regulated to provide the advice, because it is just too expensive and risky to do so. It takes weeks and weeks of work just to provide the advice, costs 10s of thousands of pounds in terms of wages, insurance and training to provide, and the transfer can take another 3 months after the advice is provided to complete. A financial adviser will be lucky to barely break even by the time the transfer is complete, and all the costs tallied. Which is why 99% of advisers will only provide DB Advice if the client wants to become a long term client, as that is the only way they make money AND the only way they make sure the client doesn't do something stupid and put them and their company out of business, which all it takes is one silly client to do so. If a firm did execution only DB Advice, they would A. be likely providing unsuitable advice, because retail clients need ongoing advice and B. all but certainly a ticking time bomb before they either have a claim that wipes them out, or their insurance provider won't let them renew.

@@Jonathan_Laws Everything I said in my original post was perfectly true and valid up until recently. I was charged £1500.00 as a one off payment. The advice was NOT to transfer. I contacted my pension provider and insisted they let me transfer. I am now many thousands of pounds BETTER OFF because of the transfer. I would suggest however that you have been " taken in " by the industry. You say transfer advice is incredibly complex and incredibly risky. No it isn't . Its not even GCSE maths complicated. Financial advisors want you to believe that it is so they can get their hands on your pension pot and charge you an on going annual fee to " manage " your pension. Its an absolute racket and a massive CON . You say retail clients need " ongoing advice" ...... Bollocks. That comment assumes the client is completely STUPID and can't possibly handle basic arithmetic. You say they might be facing a claim that " wipes them out "....... Cobblers !! It works like this. Someone asks you to advise whether to transfer. You ask certain questions and do about a couple of hours work on a report. You advise them NOT to transfer. They transfer anyway. What possible come back on you is there ??

@@Jonathan_Laws Ha ! I take it you work in the industry ? That would explain a lot. If its true that you do then that would explain the absolute nonsense you speak about all these" massively complicated" decisions that people have to make and the utter crap about all this work that has to be done in order to give appropriate advice. The facts are pensions transfers DO NOT have to be complicated at all. The financial advisers MAKE MONEY out of making them complicated. I repeat the truth is we are talking about basic arithmetic that the vast majority of people with even moderate intelligence could work out for themselves after a few hours research on the net. Just because a very small number of idiots have their fingers burned and been ripped off the vast majority of people must be penalised and prevented from doing exactly what they want with THEIR OWN MONEY. The whole liability insurance is a complete red herring perpetrated by the industry itself. A simple disclaimer declaration is all that should be required to prevent such claims. As for zero understanding of the advice industry its actually because I have a much better understanding of the industry that I know what an absolute RACKET it is.

@@Jonathan_Laws My final comment to you is the fact that you are an advisor and a qualified PTS speaks volumes. Have you never thought about getting an honest job ? All I can say is thankfully I had enough Dunning Kruger to steer well clear of your type of " expert " and as a result I am quite literally thousands of pounds better off. I have managed my affairs in such a way as to be able to settle my mortgage at 33 yrs old. Finish full time employment at 38 whilst securing myself and family a very good and comfortable income for the rest of my natural. Not too bad from a fella brought up on a council estate is it ?? Have a nice day.