I appreciate it’s frustrating that your transfers have been delayed.
Since we launched our SIPP, we have been clear that it is a product intended to help you build up a pension pot, but that would not (at least for now) pay out an income once holders reach the pension age. We made it clear to customers that when it came to the point you wanted to take benefits you would need to transfer to another pension in order to do so.
This approach (which is not unique to the Freetrade SIPP) and in particular the wording of the terms which explain this was challenged by some pension providers with HMRC when they were asked to transfer plans to Freetrade.
To resolve the issue we are in the process of issuing an update to the wording of our SIPP terms and Key Features. We will also make it possible for customers to draw benefits directly from their SIPP by Uncrystalised Funds Payment Lump Sums (UFPLS) at retirement. HMRC have confirmed they are satisfied with this approach and have relayed this to the challenging providers, confirming all is in order.
We’re disappointed that this has caused some (though not all) providers to delay transfers in to the Freetrade SIPP. As soon as the new terms are sent to customers (which will follow shortly), we will begin to chase up these outstanding transfers.