Final Salary Pension Transfer Service
We offer specialist advice on final salary transfers from our two experienced Chartered Financial Planners, Sam Henderson and Bill McCowie. However we take the view that a final salary pension transfer away from a pension scheme with guaranteed benefits is unlikely to be in the best interests of most people, and our criteria for whether we might be able to help you or not, has become more stringent.
The FCA are increasingly concerned over advice around transferring guaranteed benefits to personal pensions since pension freedoms were introduced in April 2015. Transferring your final salary pension, also known as a defined benefit (db) pension, means losing the built-in guarantees and inflationary protection and will also result in substantial ongoing charges for the pension, investments and advice.

If you meet all the following criteria, we will most likely be able to offer you full final salary transfer advice:
- You are a deferred member of the scheme (ie you have already left the pension).
- You have a transfer value of £100,000 or more.
- You are at least 54 years old.
- You are under 54 years old and your life expectancy is severely limited.
- You are resident in the UK.
Final Salary Pension Transfer Advice Options
We offer both abridged advice (our fee is £500+VAT) and full advice (the fee for which is determined only after our initial understanding of the work involved).
Please note, we do not make exceptions for ‘insistent clients’ and will NOT arrange a final salary transfer for you if we recommend that you remain in your scheme.
Final Salary Pension Transfer Client Education Guide
Should you get in touch with us regarding the possible transfer of your pension, and before we discuss your particular situation, we will send you our Client Education Guide (you can also request our guide here). The purpose of our guide is to help you better understand your scheme, including the benefits and drawbacks it might have, and it should help you decide on whether you want to take advice or not. It covers the following:
- The main differences between a defined benefit (final salary) and a defined contribution pension.
- Comparison table comparing some of the features of a defined benefit pension scheme with a defined contribution pension scheme.
- What you should consider before taking advice
- What advice we can offer you.
- The difference between ‘abridged’ and ‘full’ advice.
- What the next steps are.
We do not advise on current membership of a defined benefit pension scheme where the member is still employed and accruing benefits in the scheme. You must be a deferred member before we can advise you on the appropriateness of a transfer.
Useful links:
A useful guide from the MoneyHelper website…
Pension Transfer Gold Standard
We have signed up to adopt and promote The Pension Transfer Gold Standard and its principles. The Gold Standard is a voluntary code of good practice for safeguarded and defined benefit pension transfer (final salary transfer) advice and has been established by The Pensions Advice Taskforce, a representative industry body set up by the Personal Finance Society*.

We did this because we want our clients to better understand what ‘good advice‘ means in the area of final salary transfers, and for them to be confident we offer advice in an ethical and professional way, with their best interests at the very heart of what we do.
If you come to us for final salary transfer (db pension) advice we will:
- Help you understand the implications of a final salary transfer, so you can decide whether taking advice is appropriate, before you take it and incur any costs in doing so.
- Ensure that the advice supports your overall wellbeing in the context of your stated objectives, needs and wants.
- Use appropriately qualified technical skills to advise on whether to transfer, and what to transfer into, in order that you have the best chance of meeting your objectives.
- Only recommend mainstream investments from regulated investment companies.
- Be fully transparent and take necessary steps to ensure that you understand all the costs involved.
- Draw your attention to any Conflicts of Interest in giving pension transfer advice and how these are managed in your best interests.
- Share with you our experience and the outcomes of advising people on final salary transfers.
Read more about the Pension Transfer Gold Standard… Pension Transfer Gold Standard Guide
*The Personal Finance Society is the professional body for the financial advisory profession in the UK, whose role is to promote ethical behaviour, high standards of professionalism for technical knowledge and client service for the ultimate benefit of the profession and consumer alike. It is part of the Chartered Insurance Institute, the world’s largest professional body dedicated to insurance and personal finance that seeks to ‘secure and justify the confidence of the public’.
Transferring out of a Defined Benefit scheme is unlikely to be in the best interests of most people.
The value of an investment can fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you have invested.
Talk to us
A no-obligation initial discussion is always at our expense*
Call our friendly support team on 0141 729 8500
Transferring out of a Final Salary/Defined Benefit scheme is unlikely to be in the best interests of most people.
The value of an investment can fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you have invested.