I need help from an pension expert.

[Mrr T]

When I retired I amalgamated my pension to HL. I discover I had one pension with Aviva with protected rights, so I drew that with them and then transferred. I had two only pensions, both subject to a pension sharing order from my divorce. One SW was 100% hers and had been claimed by her 20 years ago. The other was shared and now run by ReAssure. A shaded pension can not be transferred so we took it as a lump sum. It was not big so only subject to 20% on the taxable portion.

Since then I had drawn some HL SIPP. I have an amount undrawn I decided I might as well draw it. When I contacted HL to do this I was told I needed to provide Benefit Crystallization Event certificates for the 3 other pension. I have that now from Aviva but SW was 20 years ago. I spoke to them and they said they would try, I have also contacted ReAssure but my experience is they are useless. Since I had drawn with HL before I asked why theses where needed now. I was told it had changed and they now needed to check my LTA. Does any one know is this a regulatory or tax law change or just HL creating paper work?

I ask because I can see it may be problem to get from SW because of time and from ReAssure because they are useless.

[Mr Pointy]

Try reading through this (the tests changed in April 2024):

https://adviser.royallondon.com/technical-central/...

[Mrr T]

Mr Pointy said:

Try reading through this (the tests changed in April 2024):

https://adviser.royallondon.com/technical-central/...

Thank you very much. Now I understand.

Can I just check my understanding. It says any sum under £10k is not counted against the LSA. The SW pension was very small 25%, the rest had to buy an annuity, so less than £10k. So even if they do not have the exact figure, I know they have the annuity purchase so that should show it's less.

Does that mean I could draw £30k, so £7.5k tax free, would it not need to be checked?