Does it usually take this long to move funds

Hi there,

I have a question about my company pension fund, just over 300 active and deferred members of the scheme were recently given the option to put a portion or all of our pension fund in one or a number of different funds. I opted for one particular fund and provided the normal written approval signed etc – I just checked with our pension provider and there was a time lag of nearly 2 months until all members were transferred to the new fund options – my question is – does it usually take this long to move funds ?

Thanks.

According to the Pensions Regulator there is no set time in legislation as to when it must happen (custom & practice could be a challange to this). If I were you I'd watch this as there's no reasonwhy there should be such a delay - the money is somewhere earning interest. I was "caught" like this myself twice. 1st time

Sorry didn't finish:
1st time I got the interest added to my a/c,
2nd time where there was a loss incurred due to the delay - I'm still fighting this 1 i.e. had it been invested in the new fund in a timelier manner I would have gained.

I had a similar experience some years ago. 4 months elapsed between the day my decision form was received by the administrator, and the date shown on the insurance company investment certificate. The amount of the investment was substantial, and the chosen funds had increased in value by just over 10% in the 4 month period.

I sent the administrator a short sharp shock letter, asking them to either compensate me for the difference, or let me have the name and address of their PI Insurer. I subsequently sent then 2 very sweet (not) reminders at 7 day intervals. All correspondence by registered post of course.

I received a revised investment certificate from the insurance company 3 weeks later showing an additional contribution, roughly equal to 10% of the initial contribution.

I believe this is rampant practice particularly amongst the big administrators, it's a nice little unseen earner for them. We trust them with our money - like the banks - and they tell us all about the tax advantages, so don't think they won't screw us!

If you send in a letter that is dated and received by the insurance company and datestamped, they will honour the unit price as at that date. So it could work both ways.

Hi Banger

There should be a guideline in place from the Trustees on this. They should have agreed a service level with the administrators.

I'd reccomend you contact a Trustee and bring this delay to their attention and ask them what the service level agreed with the provider is? And what the cause of this delay is.

In this case as they are waiting for 300 defferred members there may be an open time window that they are waiting for replies from 300 people before executing one grouped change. Rather than 300 small changes.