Transferring your Defined Benefit pension requires a great deal of time from the moment you decide to transfer, to the moment you can withdraw your pension from your choice of pension product. Getting transfers completed quickly takes time, effort, energy, money and salaried staff.
In this article, we discuss how to get your Defined Benefit pension transfers completed quickly, how your IFA can help you, things you may not be aware of that can slow down the process, and how the process of Defined Benefit pension transfers works at Cameron James.
We also discuss this on one of our videos on our YouTube channel. Watch the video and subscribe to our channel if you want more information and updates on the UK pension transfer industry.
The Problem with the UK Ceding Scheme
Most of the time, the UK ceding schemes make the Defined Benefit pension transfers slower. For example, here at Cameron James, we got to the point where the IFAs and the admin staff were continuously having to call the ceding schemes. In fact, we realised that it was turning into its own full time field of work. As such, we created a department for it. We hired four full-time staff who currently spend every day from 9-5 in the UK calling the ceding schemes in the UK to find out what is happening with the Defined Benefit pension transfers, what the hold ups are, and what needs to be done.
For example, when you meet us as a client, we will normally place a Letter of Authority (LOA) on file with your UK scheme to attain all of the required information. Clients sometimes have a bit of the paperwork and a CETV, but it will almost always be missing information. Typically speaking, an LOA can take up to 10-15 working days to be placed on file by the ceding scheme. If you had a hands-off approach, and you let the ceding scheme in the UK do whatever they wanted, it would take a very long time.
At Cameron James, if the ceding scheme say 10 working days, we’ll write that down, and we’ll call the scheme again in 10 days. However, most of the time the problem with the ceding scheme is they give you a timeline, and then they just change it and keep moving the goalposts. At this point we say that we’re very disappointed about that and ask the ceding scheme to ensure that they will meet their deadline.
That is an example with LOA, not to mention the calls we have to go through getting the CETV with the correct information, making sure that we secure the CETV value of our clients before it passes the expiry date, processing the documentation which take a long time from the ceding scheme, and the financial advice process which could swallow weeks and up to four months, depending on your availability.
At Cameron James, we are often ahead of the curve with the ceding schemes in the UK. Very frequently, we actually know what they need before the pension scheme comes to us to request documentation.
Chasing the Ceding Scheme Is the Key
At Cameron James, our chasing department will find out all the information that is required and will start to get that to the ceding scheme. It’s safe to say, chasing the UK ceding schemes is how you get Defined Benefit pension transfers done quickly. From a client perspective, you want your Defined Benefit pension transfers to be done as quickly as possible, unless you want things to be done very slowly. You also have to remember that your CETV value is fixed for three months. As such, you want to try and get the transfer secured as quickly as possible and not be stressed as you are nearing the final weeks, days or even hours before it expires. Which can get really stressful for you as a client.
How Your IFA Can Help You
Now that you understand our chasing department and how we handle things internally to make sure the Defined Benefit pension transfer is completed quickly, we believe that other advisory firms have dedicated chasing departments to actually following up the ceding scheme. This is something you should ask your IFA. You should ask them what is their average turnaround time on paperwork, what is their average turnaround time on requesting CETVs, do they have a dedicated team member who will be updating your case from time to time?
If you just leave it to the forces of nature, Defined Benefit pension transfers can take anything from 3-9 months, which means you could be paying for 3 CETVs with different values, which could even be decreasing at worst. We have seen this happen multiple times, when clients were losing their CETV value just because of the inefficiency of the pension transfer process.
Let Cameron James Help Ensure Your Defined Benefit Pension Transfers Are Completed Quickly
Cameron James is a Financial advisory firm that has invested in staff, which is expensive, to provide you with a high-quality level of service. Advisory firms that don’t invest in staff and don’t invest in high-quality service levels, should be charging you a very low fee in return for poor quality service.
At Cameron James, we would rather not be the cheapest in the industry because we know what it takes, we know the poor level of service that you’ll receive as a client, and ultimately this means you will leave over the course of time because you won’t be happy with the service. We invest in our staff, to provide you with the highest quality of service, and to help you get your Defined Benefit pension transfer completed quickly and efficiently.
Hit the button below for a free initial consultation with one of our qualified IFAs, and get your Defined Benefit pension transfers sorted out in the most efficient way possible.
