Please can someone advise me? My brother is 55 years old and has a personal pension policy, which is currently worth around £10,000. He is long-term disabled and in receipt of DSS bens. i.e.Income support,Disability Living Allowance.

He is looking for advice on cashing in part of this pension-but cannot find help locally and do not know Who can assist.

Please can anyone offer any advice on who we should contact? We have tried the company who holds his policy and and a number of Independant financial Advisers but none have been able to give assistance.

Many thanks,

katykatz:confused:

Hi Katykatz,

The company he has the pension with should give him details of the options open to him, I would write to them and tell them exactly what you want and they will reply accordingly.

I can't see why an IFA can't help either, but there is a lot of work involved with Pensions and with the value of this one their fee may be too high.

Dotty50,

Thanks very much for your advice and your time to respond to my query about my brother's pension. I think that I did contact the company Royal Liver who holds his policy-but they had said that my brother had opted to have his pension in 2020 and therrefore he could not taken any part of it until then. I only asked them on my brother's behalf because of the government ruling that opened up the option for people of 55 years cashing in part of pension. But, I believe the government has now withdrawn this option.

Though, I thought that some companies would "allow" pension policy holders to cash in at 55 years and not sure how my brother would go about transferring his policy from Royal Liver-an IFA explained that the costs of doing this would be too high for the amount of money my brother has.

I should have added this in my original query-but I had lost some of the papers and wrote in as my brother had been asking me to, without the full details, for that I apologise.

Thanks again,

katykatz

Dotty50,

Thanks very much for your advice and your time to respond to my query about my brother's pension. I think that I did contact the company Royal Liver who holds his policy-but they had said that my brother had opted to have his pension in 2020 and therrefore he could not taken any part of it until then. I only asked them on my brother's behalf because of the government ruling that opened up the option for people of 55 years cashing in part of pension. But, I believe the government has now withdrawn this option.

Though, I thought that some companies would "allow" pension policy holders to cash in at 55 years and not sure how my brother would go about transferring his policy from Royal Liver-an IFA explained that the costs of doing this would be too high for the amount of money my brother has.

I should have added this in my original query-but I had lost some of the papers and wrote in as my brother had been asking me to, without the full details, for that I apologise.

 

Thanks again,

katykatz

Hello there.

I wouldn't dispute what Dotty50 has said and she's probably much more up to date than I am. But when I had dealings with this sort of plan, there were options for people in ill-health and for early retirement, I think.

Are you able to tell us what the policy document says about early or ill health retirement please? And can you tell us the name of the plan in case its terms are available on the internet?

I can see that an IFA would need to charge for the work involved in advising on this sort of transfer to another pension provider because the process is quite lengthy.

My best, HB

Re: My brother's pension query-thanks everyone who has given advice. My brother's pension details: the policy justs states that it is a "Personal Pension" and when we asked Royal Liver via Finacial Adviser (who gave this help with no charge) for a "Triviality Form" due to my brother's ill-health Royal Liver advised that they were unable to provide this form as the minimum age for triviality was 60 years-this was in October 2010. Thanks

Please can someone advise me? My brother is 55 years old and has a personal pension policy, which is currently worth around £10,000. He is long-term disabled and in receipt of DSS bens. i.e.Income support,Disability Living Allowance.

He is looking for advice on cashing in part of this pension-but cannot find help locally and do not know Who can assist.

 

Please can anyone offer any advice on who we should contact? We have tried the company who holds his policy and and a number of Independant financial Advisers but none have been able to give assistance.

 

Many thanks,

katykatz:confused:

Hi Katy,

How and when did your brother take this out? Did he use a Financial Adviser?

Your brother should have full details in a policy schedule or something similar, if he hasn't, then he needs to write to RL and ask for copies and, as I said before, details of what options are open to him.

As said in previous posts, Pension advice is a very complicated and regulated area, which may be why you are finding it difficult to get help, however you should be able to find an IFA with a qualified pension person to take a look and give you some basic information for a small fee but you will need ALL the paperwork relevant to the plan.

Try alerting the site team to see if they can point you in any direction to someone on here who is qualified to assist

If you live in the UK you can contact ‘IFA Promotion’ who will be able to provide you with a list of independent financial advisers local to your area. Their telephone number is 0800 085 3250 or you can go to their website http://www.unbiased.co.uk

Just had a quick look on the Royal Liver site, not much info there but did spot this for you if it's any help.

Or here

http://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/

Hello again guys. I'm really rusty on all this, but I thought 'triviality' was to do with the possible pension available being so small that it could be 'commuted' for cash. There are rules for this which I haven't looked at so far, but I would say they are nothing to do with being in ill-health. Of course ill-health would have to mean inability to work ever again, I think, rather than a temporary disability.

Ill-health in my view is not the same at all as triviality.

Can you help me here Dotty?

My best, HB

Sorry HB I am no expert!

Sorry HB I am no expert!

Nor am I! But I'm not sure this is right. I'll go and have a quick google and try to update myself.

My best, HB

Hello again. Dotty, you've shamed me into doing this .

Katy, here is a page from the Pensions Advisory Service that Dotty mentioned, about ill-health retirement. I hope it might help a bit.

http://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/personal-and-stakeholder-pensions/stakeholder-pension-schemes/ill-health-retirement

My best, HB

Well done HB, you dug a bit deeper than me!

Impaired Annuity may be an option in view of the health issues

Let's see Dotty when Katy replies to us .

My best, HB

Hi Dotty50,

Thanks very much for all your time and help with this pension situation-really appreciate this. My brother took this pension out I beleive, in 1983/4. He did not get independant financial advice at the time, it was just that the company he worked for Arjo-Wiggins, were offering it to its employees-most of whom did take up the offer.

Un-fortunately, I am disadvantaged on many counts here-1. My brother does not have the original policy details 2. His ex-girlfriend burned all his possessions (including papers relating to his pension) in an 'amicable' break-up a couple of years ago and 3. I totally do not know what I am doing-as Financial matters are foriegn to me-so all in all...my brother has more hope of winning the lottery that he does'nt even participate in- than me sorting this out.

What I will do now tho' is contact Royal Liver as you advised and ask for a copy of his pension policy.

I do have trouble negotiating this site,as excellent and really helpful as it is, so please could you let me know how I go about contacting the site team? Thanks

Again thanks Dotty50 for your considerate and helpful advice

katykatz

Hello again. Why would you want to contact the site team here please? I'm confused.

My best, HB

Hello again guys. I'm really rusty on all this, but I thought 'triviality' was to do with the possible pension available being so small that it could be 'commuted' for cash. There are rules for this which I haven't looked at so far, but I would say they are nothing to do with being in ill-health. Of course ill-health would have to mean inability to work ever again, I think, rather than a temporary disability.

 

Ill-health in my view is not the same at all as triviality.

 

Can you help me here Dotty?

 

My best, HB

Hi HB,

Many thanks for your time and help. The only Financial advice my brother received (last year, as it was free) :was to ask the company (Royal Liver) for my brother to cash-in part of his pension under the "triviality clause" as he had recently suffered a stroke and then another unknown brain trauma and because of these health problems, he could apply to cash-in part of pension through "triviality".

Appreciate your time with this problem Honeybee13-thanks

Katykatz

Hi Katy,

Your very welcome, any questions just ask and if I can help, I will or many of the others on here.

To alert the site team, you just hit that little triangle at the bottom of the post (it will say report post when you hit it) but don't worry that's what it's for and the site team may be able to find someone to assist further.

However, without a copy of the pension you will not get anywhere so get that first and when you've got it, come back on here and let us know. You will need to write the letter to Royal Liver in your brothers name as they will not be able to release any information to you due to data protection but he could ask that you are put on their system as an authorised person to discuss it on his behalf.

Hi HB, I suggested the site team in case they knew of a pensions expert on here.

Sorry HB, Its just something that Dotty50 advised that I might try alerting the site team to see if I can be directed to more help-though I must say-I have received tremendous help and advice here both from Dotty50 and you Honeybee-thanks a lot to you both!

Hello again. Why would you want to contact the site team here please? I'm confused.

 

My best, HB

Great idea (about asking my name to go on their system,as authorised person on my brother's behalf) I shall put a letter together for Royal Liver asking for policy details and will include a letter signed by my brother authorising me to act on his behalf.

Shall get back in touch when I have this-and thanks for clarifying this for me-as I did not know where to start.

Thanks again for yours and Honeybee13's time and advice.

Sincerely,

katykatz

Thanks for the advice re: Impaired Annuity, Dotty50, I shall make a note of it now

katykatz

Sorry HB, Its just something that Dotty50 advised that I might try alerting the site team to see if I can be directed to more help-though I must say-I have received tremendous help and advice here both from Dotty50 and you Honeybee-thanks a lot to you both!

Sorry, I missed that. I can't remember the last time, if ever, I saw a pensions expert here. My OH is a pensions bore, but doesn't deal with this type even when I can get him to comment. Dotty and I may be the best you can talk to for now, unless someone else turns up.

I would definitely speak to the PAS if you haven't already. It's free and I believe they know their stuff. There are so many different pensions and annuities out there these days that it's very confusing. My knowledge dates back to before many rule changes.

My best Katy and Dotty, HB

Also Katy, beware of putting personal details on here as the forum is anonymous. (you mentioned his employers in an earlier post)

Hello again ladies. I apologise if this has been posted before, it's from the PAS about claiming an ill-health pension.

Dotty I apologise again, but triviality and ill-health are not the same argument. If I go back to the last page to see what you wrote I shall lose this, so I'll post and then go back to check.

http://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/personal-and-stakeholder-pensions/stakeholder-pension-schemes/ill-health-retirement

My best, HB

Hi HB,

I've not mentioned triviality, I don't know anything about it myself!

Only that an impaired annuity MAY be a possibility.

Hi HB,

 

I've not mentioned triviality, I don't know anything about it myself!

 

Only that an impaired annuity MAY be a possibility.

Very sorry about that, Dotty. I knew it had been mentioned, my mistake, it was LV.

So what are you planning to do, Katy? Sometimes with insurance/pension companies you need to be persistent and also gather as much information as you can to back your case or at least make them examine other avenues.

There's nothing to stop you contacting LV direct rather than paying someone to do it for you. Do you think you've had a full explanation from them, or has it been dribs and drabs of information?

My best, HB