Transfer your pension
Give your pension a new home at Freetrade. With a low monthly fee, your pension pot can grow without growing your fees growing too.
Capital at risk. Please remember tax relief depends on your personal circumstances and current rules can change.
SIPP is a pension product designed for people who want to make their own investment decisions. You can normally only access the money from age 55 (57 from 2028). Before transferring a pension please ensure that you will not lose valuable guarantees or incur excessive transfer penalties.
When to consider transferring your pension
Reasons to transfer:
You’ve changed jobs and lost track of your pensions. Consolidate them under one pot.
High costs and commissions are eating into the value of your pension pot.
You don’t have visibility on what your pension is invested in.
Your investment choices are limited and not aligned with your personal needs.
Important information: It is up to you to ensure that the Freetrade SIPP is the right product for you and that making any transfers to it would be in your best interests, with the help of a financial advisor, if required.
Why move your pension to a Freetrade SIPP?
For more info, see our SIPP Key Features Document, Terms and Conditions, Charges Schedule and SIPP Declarations.
What to consider before transferring your pension
Combining all your pension pots will give you better visibility on how your retirement plan is shaping up and should help to cut down costs in the long term. Focusing on growing your pension is great; however, before making any changes to your current plan, you should make sure that transferring it is the right thing to do, with the help of a financial advisor, if required.
👉 Is your current provider going to charge you any exit-fees?
👉 Will any market value adjustment (MVA) apply on transfer from your existing provider?
👉 Will you lose any valuable benefits or guarantees?
👉 How long might the transfer take and what impact might this have on your existing portfolio?
Can you transfer your existing pension plan investments without cashing them in? Your current provider may charge you for this, but there may also be costs for cashing in, as well as the risk of missing out on investment growth while you’re out of the market.
How to transfer your pension
It only takes a couple of minutes to open a SIPP with Freetrade and start the transfer process. Download the Freetrade app, choose the Plus plan for £11.99 per month and then follow the steps below.
1
Ensure a SIPP is right for you
Make sure a SIPP transfer is right for you.
Before starting a pension transfer make sure it's the right decision for you. Some people speak to a financial advisor to help them make this decision.
Check out our SIPP guide too.
2
Request transfer
Head to the app and make sure you're on the Plus plan. If not, you'll need to upgrade.
Then go to your Profile icon and open a SIPP account.
Tap on 'Transfer a pension' to kick off the process.
3
Transfer is confirmed
Once your current provider accepts the request, they will initiate the transfer of funds to us. At this stage, we will be able to provide you with the exact date when the transfer will be reflected in your account.
SIPP fees and charges
Your SIPP is included as part of the Plus plan for just £9.99 per month. With a simple and low monthly fee, your pension pot can grow without your fees growing too.
From May, monthly subscription fees will change to £5.99 per month for our Standard plan and £11.99 per month for our Plus plan.
Buying or selling shares
Read more
transfer-out fee
(per holding)
Buying or selling shares
Buying or selling shares
Disclaimer: Comparisons to other SIPP providers are based on our understanding of their published costs on their websites as at 5 July 2022, for trading shares and ETFs within a SIPP account. They are shown for illustrative purposes only. For confirmation of their up to date charges and product information, you should visit their websites.
Before initiating a pension transfer make sure that you believe, with the help of a financial advisor if required, that this is the right action for you to take. This requires you to read and understand the Freetrade SIPP Key Features Document, Terms and Conditions, Charges Schedule and SIPP Declarations.
Comparison Disclosure ⓘ
Hargreaves Lansdown:
SIPP account charges are 0.45% of the value of shares in your account, capped at £200/year.
Fee per trade reduces to £8.95 per trade for 10-19 trades, and £5.95 for 20 or more trades.
FX fee reduces to 0.75% after £5,000 value of trades, 0.5% for the next £10,000 and to 0.25% for over £20,000 value of trades.
Interactive Investor:
We compared to the Pension Builder Plan account for ease of comparison, where you get one free trade per month, then £5.99 per trade.
FX fee reduces on a tiered scale, based on transaction value: £25,000 - £49,999 is 1.25%, £50,000 - £99,999.99 is 1%, £100,000 - £599,999 is 0.5%, and £600,000 - £999,999.99 is 0.25%.
AJ Bell:
SIPP account charges 0.25% of the value of the shares in your account, capped at £10/ month.
Fee per trade reduced to £4.95 when there were ten or more share deals in the previous month.
FX fee reduces on a tiered scale, based on transaction value: for the first £10,000 is 0.75%, £10,001 - £20,000 is 0.50%, and 0.25% for over £20,000.
Transfer out charges. No charge for transfers out in cash to another UK registered pension scheme. £9.95 per holding (excluding VAT) for in specie transfers to another UK registered pension scheme.
What can I invest in?
See which are the most traded shares by the total value of buy orders over the past week on the Freetrade app.
US, UK and European stocks
Invest in thousands of companies listed on the LSE, NYSE, NASDAQ and across Europe.
ETFs
Choose from a wide range of exchange-traded funds covering index funds, stock and bond ETFs from providers like Vanguard, iShares and Invesco, as well as HSBC and Xtrackers.
REITs
Diversify your investments with REITs, which allow you to add residential or commercial real estate assets to your portfolio without the hassle of buying and managing the properties yourself.
Investment trusts
Choose from over 150 investment trusts to diversify your portfolio across a wide range of sectors, geographical areas and markets worldwide.
Learn more about SIPPs
Pension transfer rules and FAQs
What type of pension can I transfer?
You can transfer the below types of pensions to a Freetrade SIPP:
⬤ Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP)
⬤ Individual Personal Pension (IPP)
⬤ Stakeholder Pension Plan (SHP)
⬤ Contract-Based Workplace Pension Plan*
⬤ Trust-Based Workplace Pension Plan*
*Subject to current plan rules. Some workplace pension plans cannot be transferred whilst still active.
Currently, we are unable to accept Final Salary Pensions, Defined Benefit Pensions or any pensions that contain Safeguarded Benefits which includes Protected Tax Free Cash (PTFC), Protected Retirement Ages (PRA), Guaranteed Annuity Rates (GARs) or Guaranteed Minimum Pensions (GMP).
What investments can I transfer?
You can transfer any stocks that are available on our stock list and can be held in a Freetrade SIPP. If there’s an exception and a stock cannot be transferred, we will always contact you to discuss your options. When it comes to transferring stocks away from a Freetrade SIPP it’s a similar story except for US stocks. To transfer US stocks away from a Freetrade SIPP, you will have to sell them first and transfer the amount as cash. We will always reach out to you first and we’ll never sell any stocks on your behalf.
What information do I need to provide to request the transfer?
To start your pension transfer, we will need your personal details, including your National Insurance Number, as well as details of the pension you wish to transfer:
⬤ Pension provider’s name
⬤ Pension provider’s address - many providers have multiple addresses, so we need to capture the right one.
⬤ Pension plan reference
⬤ Type of pension to be transferred
⬤ Full or partial transfer
⬤ Amount to be transferred in cash
⬤ When transferring investments, then a full list of investments
If you've forgotten old pension details, check our guide on how to find lost pensions and consolidate them.
How long will the transfer take?
Transfers usually take up to 8 weeks to complete, and there is no need to contact us during this time, we will contact you as soon as we have any news. We will handle your transfer and work hard to get it completed as quickly as possible.
What are the charges for transferring to Freetrade?
There will be no fees from us for doing so, although your provider may charge you exit fees. If the transfer is in the form of cash you should consider any additional dealing charges for selling the investments in your portfolio. Alternatively, if investments are to be transferred your provider may charge you extra, often for each investment being transferred.
Are there fees for transferring away from Freetrade?
If you decide to leave Freetrade, you can transfer out UK or US securities as cash or stock. At the moment, to transfer any non-UK or non-US securities away from Freetrade, you will have to sell them first and transfer the amount as cash. When you transfer as cash you’ll be out of the market, so you may miss out on the ups and downs during your transfer.
Stocks can only be transferred as whole shares. If you wish to transfer a fraction of a share, you will have to sell it first and transfer the amount as cash. There is no fee to transfer out UK securities or cash. Transferring out US securities will incur a cost of £17 per holding. We charge this amount to cover the fee our service provider charges us.
Your new provider may not be able to accept transfers of all securities you hold with Freetrade. It’s worth checking if they can support your stocks before you start your transfer.
Your future broker can send an electronic transfer request to us at: transfers@freetrade.io.
Can I transfer a personal pension to a SIPP?
Yes, you can transfer your personal pension to a Freetrade SIPP.
What happens if I want to transfer my SIPP to another pension provider?
If you decide to transfer your Freetrade SIPP to a different provider, you can do this free of charge.
Is there a minimum transfer value?
There is no minimum transfer required when you move your pension to Freetrade.
Can I transfer a SIPP to another SIPP?
You’ll normally be able to transfer your SIPP from a different provider (subject to terms and conditions). There will be no fees from us for doing so, although your provider may charge you exit fees, as well as dealing charges for selling the assets in your portfolio or charge extra for transferring investments.
Important information
SIPPs are a pension product designed for people who want to make their own investment decisions. You can normally only access the money from age 55 (potentially 57 from 2028). Current rules can change, and tax relief depends on your personal circumstances.
When you invest, your capital is at risk. The value of your portfolio can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you invest.
Before transferring a pension, you should ensure that this is the right thing for you to do and in particular, you will not lose valuable guarantees or incur excessive transfer penalties. If your pension is transferred as cash you will be out of the market for a period and therefore there is a risk you may lose out on investment gains during this period.
Freetrade does not currently offer drawdown products for our SIPP.
The fees displayed on this page do not include any fees which may be charged by product manufacturers (e.g. ETF management fees).
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