Pensions in drawdown:

I am clearly a lot older than most Freetrade investors. What happens when a SIPP holder reaches age 55 and wants to withdraw his/her tax free lump sum? I assume that currently they would have to transfer to another platform which can cope with pensions in drawdown. I have a large pension in drawdown on another platform and would like to transfer it to Freetrade hence my question.

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Hi Dick.
One of my pension pots is quite small so transferred it into a Freetrade SIP. As Im over 55 I enquired about drawdown and was told it was not something Freetrade was able to do at present.

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I agree that FT does not currently have a SIPP drawdown facility. The present option is by way of the uncrystallised funds pension lump sum route I understand. Check out the SIPP Megathread for further info and indeed don’t hesitate to drop FT a line in chat to enquire where things stand on their roadmap.

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@Luccathedog is right.

If your pension is in drawdown we won’t be able to accept it. We have a facility to allow an uncrystalised lump sum withdrawal but this doesn’t really help in your situation it seems.

Were aware developing the SIPP is important and plan to do more work on it in the coming months!

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Thank you all - answers as I suspected. I am encouraged to learn that this issue is in the development plans! It is a shame to hand existing business to other competitor platforms not to mention the scope for investors like me to transfer large sums in.

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As an FT investor it pains me too. Fingers crossed they can accommodate sooner rather than later.

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Alas a lot later, if at all.

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Any news on FT Sipp developments?

I suggest you address that to @acamp

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We’ve got a list of improvements we want to make to our SIPP over the coming months and drawdown is on it (alongside things like withholding tax on US dividends).

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Is employer contributions on that list?

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I’m coming close to withdrawing from my SIPP and looking at options. Flexi-access drawdown is looking quite good. Personally, I’d be happy for another level of subscription (e.g. another £4.99 a month for example) to allow me to take this option on Freetrade and keep my SIPP running alongside. At the moment I would need to transfer to another provider. UFPLS was my original route but with people throwing some consultancy my way I need more tax efficiency options.

Is employer contributions on that list?

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@acamp please consider employer contributions for the list of SIPP improvements, I’d love to transfer in my HL SIPP which I use purely as a relay for my employer contributions to Freetrade