Is it possible to change financial advisor linked to a pension?

St1mpMeister

I got my pension setup by an independent financial advisor and the pension was setup with a large well known brand.

I haven't dealt with the pension company myself as all communications/actions have so far been through the financial advisor, plus he is on the usual setup commission that financial advisors receive for setting up pensions.

The problem is, he's not great, makes mistakes and doesn't generally answer emails for days despite me sometimes needing an urgent reply (never answers phone). And I don't send that many emails, perhaps one a month or so.
Initially when I was setting up the pension he seemed ok, so I stuck it out.

So the question is: can I go it alone without a financial advisor, or can I change to someone else?

Will the pension company then deal with me directly whenever I need to change the monthly pension payments etc?

Trish56

Yes your new Broker can get you to sign a form to transfer to his/her agency.

AndrewJRenko

Monthly contact seems a bit unusual for a pension set up. Usually, once these things get set up, there are few contacts, if any. I'm not sure that any pension provider would be expecting to service queries each month.

If you need to rebalance your portfolio regularly, you should be looking for a provider with a self-service portfolio.

St1mpMeister

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Monthly contact seems a bit unusual for a pension set up. Usually, once these things get set up, there are few contacts, if any. I'm not sure that any pension provider would be expecting to service queries each month.

If you need to rebalance your portfolio regularly, you should be looking for a provider with a self-service portfolio.

Not every month, just some changes required while setting up the pension as there were a few changes required in December / January.

So perhaps an email in October ... then another in December, etc.

But even a response like "I'll get back to you on this" is better than just silence for 2-3 weeks.

W had an agreement that he was to provide ongoing consultation for a year due to a very large commission.

St1mpMeister

Trish56 wrote: »

Yes your new Broker can get you to sign a form to transfer to his/her agency.

One still needs to go through a broker right?

It's not possible to deal with the pension company directly after?

AndrewJRenko

Honestly, your best bet is to hound the current guy to get your policy set up as you need it, and then just let it sit. The effort involved in moving policies to a different broker far exceeds the effort in addressing your current issues. You really don't need regular contact with your pensions broker.

jimmy456

St1mpMeister wrote: »

One still needs to go through a broker right?

It's not possible to deal with the pension company directly after?

The pension policy is your policy and ultimately the funds are yours in trust. Every pension company should deal directly with you as things stand. Just contact their customer service team and they will be able to assist with any queries.

Once you have found a new adviser you just instruct the pension company to transfer the agency on the policy to the new adviser. (Please note that you maybe restricted in transferring the policy due to "large commission" from the outset.

Pension providers do prefer to have agents linked to these policies so that they can be satisfied that you have received financial advise.