Any one of a number of reasons.

Most frequently though, in our experience, there could be one or more of four main reasons a money purchase scheme member wishes to consider a transfer:

• poor investment performance in the existing pension arrangement;
• high charges in the existing contract;
• consolidation of a number of small pension arrangements;
• little or no structure to the investment portfolio with no ongoing advice.

Poor investment performance
….might not be the main indicator of future poor performance, but reports from the IMA and the FSA indicate that it could certainly be a legitimate factor to consider. An important start point is to assess how the investor’s funds have performed against their benchmark indices; not simply how they have performed in absolute terms.

High charges 
Some investors fear that they are paying unduly high charges but our investigations reveal, in fact, the charges under their existing contract are actually very reasonable. Others believe charges must be reasonable because their policy is with a well known pension provider, yet a recent case advised by The Pensions Office revealed annual charges of 4.3% per annum on a fund of around £40,000!

Consolidation 
This is a very commonplace reason for many clients considering a transfer, in our experience. Transferring a number of (usually disjointed) pension contracts into a single arrangements might be an attractive option to investors seeking to ‘tidy up’ their financial affairs, but an assessment still has to be made about the potential advantages and disadvantages of transfers out of each policy.

Little or no portfolio structure, or advice
Usually not the main motivator for clients in their initial approach to The Pensions Office, nevertheless this is one of the main benefits of most of our recommendations. We structure a portfolio for each client based on sound asset allocation procedures and fund selection criteria. We also provide an ongoing service at a modest cost to clients.

The Pensions Office has worked closely with introducers for more than ten years, providing bespoke advice to pension scheme members with an agreed share of remuneration. The Pensions Office takes all compliance and regulatory responsibility and introducers therefore do not have to be authorised to give this advice. Contact us now to discuss either a particular client or a likely regular flow of introductions.