Equitable Life..... again

[Amaryllis]

Over the past year I have received reams of documentation from Equitable Life about their plans to sell of their business to a company called Utmost (formally Reliance). I have spent hours reading said bumpf and researching online, and my head is spinning! This is where I'm at in terms of deciding what to do:
- It appears to be advisable to vote FOR the proposal to transfer all with-profits policies to Utmost.
- My forecast suggests that my 46k with-profits fund will be 'uplifted' to around 59k.

I am supposed to choose from amongst the investment options by 13 December 2019. If I don't my fund will automatically be invested in Utmost's 'secure' cash fund on 1 January 2020; then, after 6 months, it would automatically be invested in one of their unit-linked funds.
However, it appears I can wait until the end of June 2020 (without risking a drop in value) to decide what to do with my fund. Choices are:
- keep the money in one of the funds offered by Utmost; or
- transfer it to another provider. As I understand it, this will be free of any transfer charges, at least initially.

Somewhere it is stated (I think - cannot find it now...) that Equitable's terms and conditions, including no transfer charges, will remain unchanged.
Have I got this approximately right so far?

I'm not keen to invest in any of the funds offered by Utmost. There are only few, they don't have a real track record, and the charges seem high. (The charges are not immediately obvious, but information found online suggests 5% entry fee plus around 1.8% management fees per year.)
From what I can gather, Utmost offer just 6 equity based funds (UK FTSE tracker, plus regional funds for UK, Europe, US, Asia and Global), 2 bond funds, and 1 money market fund. Also, it is not clear to me whether Utmost will be offering a draw-down facility, or repeated taking of cash lump sums.  

Equitable are offering 'reduced cost' (£95) telephone advice via JLT Wealth Management and Hargreaves Lansdown - but I'm not sure whether this advice is worth having...  

NB: I'm in my mid-60s but do not actually need any income from this pension fund as yet. I'm thinking of transferring the fund out as soon as the uplift is added in January, though I'm not sure whether to transfer it to my existing SIPP with AJ Bell, or alternatively buy an annuity. My existing SIPP is mostly in a variety of JP Morgan funds, plus c. 12% in Vanguard Life Strategy.

Any thoughts or suggestions? (Sorry about the length...)

[Alaric]

I'm thinking of transferring the fund out as soon as the uplift is added in January, though I'm not sure whether to transfer it to my existing SIPP with AJ Bell, or alternatively buy an annuity.

If you decide against an annuity, transferring to your existing SIPP would seem the most flexible approach giving a choice of the whole market place of funds and shares.

I would suspect most of the Utmost funds will be rebranded versions of the ones already offered by Equitable.

[scottnsilky]

Amaryllis,
Are you a member of EMAG, I'm not sure what the M stands for, but the other 3 letters are Equitable......... Action Group, they may have some help and suggestions, they also have a Facebook page,if you have membership of that.

They are still campaigning for a fair recompense for what we lost.

dp

[DrBunsenHoneydew]

Amaryllis,
Are you a member of EMAG, I'm not sure what the M stands for, but the other 3 letters are Equitable......... Action Group, they may have some help and suggestions, they also have a Facebook page,if you have membership of that.

They are still campaigning for a fair recompense for what we lost.

dp

Equitable Members Action Group Limited, a company limited by guarantee

https://www.emag.org.uk