A pension transfer usually means giving up your retirement income for life in return for a cash value. There are pros and cons to this. It’s a serious decision and not always in everyone’s best interests. Generally, you are required to take financial advice and gain approval to transfer before a transfer can take place.
Depending on your circumstances, legislation and the safeguarding checks now formally required by the Trustees, it can take up to nine months for a pension transfer to complete.
This section explains the transfer process. Scroll down to see the steps and what’s involved.
Understanding your options
If you’re interested in transferring your Scheme pension, visit My Retirement Planner to find out your options and potential figures. You can view your retirement figures here when you’re within a year of your earliest retirement age, (usually age 54, but might be 49 if you left due to redundancy).
To visit, login to Pension self-service My Retirement Planner can be accessed from ‘Your Services’.
If you can’t access My Retirement Planner, please contact the BW admin team to request a retirement quote.
If you are already receiving your pension you no longer have the option to transfer.
Things to be aware of when transferring your pension
Who you can transfer to
You can transfer your Scheme benefits to another HMRC registered pension arrangement, including:
- Another occupational pension scheme
- A personal pension, e.g. a self-invested personal pension (SIPP) or other individual pension arrangement
- A qualifying recognised overseas scheme (QROPS).
Before you transfer
You will need to:
- Take financial advice if your transfer value is more than £30,000. This is so important and in some cases a legal requirement.
- Fully understand the implications of transferring out, i.e., what this means for you and whether it’s right for you. Transferring your benefits out of the Scheme is a serious financial decision.
Watch out for pension scams
Pension transfers are a primary target for fraud so be aware of pension scams. There are a lot of illegal approaches from cold callers pretending to undertake a pensions review in your best interests and many people have lost some or all of their hard-earned benefits to sophisticated scammers.
Make sure any financial adviser you speak to is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) at: www.fca.org.uk.
You can avoid and report pensions scams via The Pensions Regulator: Avoid and report pension scams | The Pensions Regulator.
Requesting a transfer value
You have a legal right to apply for a transfer value at any time up to one year before your pension is due to start. You are entitled to one free transfer quote a year from the BW admin team. If you are within one year of your normal pension start date, or if you are over normal Scheme retirement age, you will need Trustee approval to transfer.
