It might be possible to agree this kind of arrangement with your trustee, ryan, but you should proceed with caution. Make sure you get it agreed in writing by your trustee before you take any steps towards cashing in your pension.

Are you able to cash in just £10k rather than the whole £30k?

Hi Ryan

If you were to take out a lump sum, then the Trustee may/will claim an interest in this and this would be seen as separate from your contributions.

If you took out the funds and put these to another account, it would be seen as hiding assets.

Mark

Thanks for the replies. My concern is that if I tell my trustee that I may be able to withdraw 10k they can force me to withdraw it all. Also if I do withdraw 10k, clear my TDthen decide to take the other 20k out months later they can come back and take that.

Generally speaking, funds invested in a pension can not be sought by a trustee in an insolvency procedure (though there can be exceptions made if a trustee can convince a sheriff that the contributions made previously were excessive and were made to put funds out of reach of creditors in the first place).

Once you are discharged then your trustee can have no further claim on any funds you draw down from your pension, but it would be wise to wait until this has happened before doing so.

Thanks Kevin. So I will be above board if I withdraw 10k pay my TD get settled then later withdraw the remainder to get me back on my feet. And if the pension company only agree to make one payment i.e the whole 30k I should leave alone as it will probably all get taken by my trustee.

Thanks Kevin. So I will be above board if I withdraw 10k pay my TD get settled then later withdraw the remainder to get me back on my feet. And if the pension company only agree to make one payment i.e the whole 30k I should leave alone as it will probably all get taken by my trustee.

Hi ryanmac77.

I think the advice is to do nothing at all until you have written confirmation from your trustee of a plan that you're happy with.

You might also want to speak to an IFA about the longer term consequences of using hard earned pension entitlements in this way.

Ryanmac, I would proceed with caution, personally if I was in your position I wouldn't cash in. Not only do you have you debt to pay back but also your trust deed fees, which I found to my to my cost were astronomical, I paid my trust deed off early, and the trust deed fees for my trust deed that ran roughly about 1 year was £6k this was after negotiating a £1k reduction , it's something to think about.

Ryanmac, I would proceed with caution, personally if I was in your position I wouldn't cash in. Not only do you have you debt to pay back but also your trust deed fees, which I found to my to my cost were astronomical, I paid my trust deed off early, and the trust deed fees for my trust deed that ran roughly about 1 year was £6k this was after negotiating a £1k reduction , it's something to think about.

The other thing is, when you took out your trust deed,they would have asked about assets, insurance policies and pensions, so in fact if you were to cash in, the trust deed would have already informed them that they have an interest in any monies, which would automatically go through the trust deed. Let me explain my situation, I when I took out my trust deed I had a critical illness policy,which I made a claim on, I wasn't aware that the trust deed had even contacted them beforehand. the critical illness insurance must have had a indicator on it so any claims would go through my trustee, it took months to sort out. My advice, hold onto your money and don't even let them know cashing in early is an option, they may take the whole lot off you and after your debt and fees thee might not be anything left .

Hi ryanmac

I must admit, I can't disagree with fizzy.

There are too many unknowns here and while personally I would always try and look at some sort of balance in these things, the forum shows that things don't always work out how you expected.

The trustee won't be able to force you to take it, so it may be worthwhile asking their opinion on what would happen.

Mark