Transferring final salary pensions: the good, the bad & the ugly

What on earth has happened? The gilt-edged final salary pension scheme used to be untouchable. Once upon a time, if it was offered, a final salary pension was one of the main reasons to work for an employer. However, since the new pension freedoms have arrived in town, people are almost being rounded up and advised to transfer out of these schemes in droves. A casual observer could be excused for thinking that we’ve returned to the lawless wild west; the gunslingers are after the gold!

There are varying opinions on whether this is really for the good or bad. My colleague, James Biggs, has previously written about the very valid reasons employees might want to consider such a transfer. Here’s a quick reminder of some of those reasons:

The good

pass the whole fund to your family on death (final salary benefits typically die with you, or are at best lousy if you die early)
no paying for a spouse’s pension if you’re single
flexibility to withdraw money as you need to, either to change income levels, or take lump sums from time to time
control the amount you take as a pension to suit your tax rate
if you transfer to a personal pension, you get 25% as tax-free cash and can take this and your pension at any time from age 55 – they don’t have to be taken together
if the final salary scheme goes bust (this is very unlikely, but still a possibility as many of them are in deficit), then you’ve got your money out

The Pensions Protection Fund (PPF) is the ‘lifeboat’ for final salary schemes. It currently limits cover to 90% of the first £33,600 per annum of pension income, but this fund is under stress with all the claims.

Let us also now consider the very ugly consequences if it all goes horribly wrong…

The bad

you are giving up the guarantee that your retirement income will never run out
you are often giving up a guaranteed spouse’s or dependent’s pension
you may be giving up an inflation-linked or increasing pension
if you withdraw too much, you could pay excessive tax

The ugly

the markets crash
you (or your adviser) manages your investments really poorly
you spend too much too quickly (boats, fast cars, holidays)
you live much longer than you expect or need long-term care

All of these examples mean you run out of money early… now that’s really ugly!

So, what’s the answer?

Any employers who are providing their employees with access to independent financial advice around their final salary benefits, should make sure their chosen advisers are suitably experienced in this specific area. They need to have a strong pensions background and preferably have been extensively involved with final salary schemes for employers.

Will advisers one day be seen as the outlaws who were responsible for robbing these poor unsuspecting people of their right to a stable and predictable retirement? We’ve seen the regulator move the goalposts before (with the benefit of hindsight). This does worry many firms offering final salary transfer advice. So don’t expect this kind of advice to come cheap; there are simply a hell of a lot of costs and risks associated with providing it.

Transferring could be a great decision for many people. But for others, for goodness sake stay put and whatever you do, watch out for those outlaws!

Rhys Francis is CEO of Lorica.

This article was provided by Lorica.