For those people fortunate enough to have benefits within a Final Salary or Defined Benefits pension scheme there may be the option to transfer out the benefits.

This process effectively converts the promised income for life built up within the Defined Benefits pension scheme in favour of a lump sum of cash to be transferred to an alternative pension scheme arrangement.

This is a very complex area of pensions advice and should not be taken lightly. This will not suit everyone, the case for transferring benefits out will have to be established before this is considered.

If you’re in what’s called an ‘unfunded’ public sector pension scheme, you won’t be able to transfer your pension.

Examples of an unfunded public sector pension scheme are the Teachers Scheme and the NHS scheme.

If you decide to transfer out of your workplace defined benefits pension scheme, the trustees who run the scheme convert the benefits you’ve built up into a cash sum.

This is called a ‘transfer value’ (also known as a ‘cash-equivalent transfer value’ or ‘CETV’).

You must then invest this in a:

• Personal or stakeholder pension
• Pension scheme with another employer
• Self-invested personal pension (SIPPs)

Not all employer pension schemes, personal pensions or SIPPs accept transfers, so check first.

Due to the complex nature of the service and the costs involved we would only accept fund values of £200,000 or more.

If you feel that this is something you wish to investigate further please contact us on 0330 024 1999