- Pension transfer times depend on the assets and provider involved
- Regulations can make the process slower, especially for overseas investments
- Be clear on all the necessary steps to make the transfer smoother
A pension transfer doesn't need to be a long or difficult procedure, but there are a few potential complications you may encounter along the way. So if you are planning to move a pension to a different provider, perhaps because you want access to a broader range of investments, to pay lower fees or to consolidate your pots so that they are easier to manage, it helps to know what to expect, how long it is likely to take and where things could go wrong.
The average pension transfer time has lengthened in the past couple of years. According to Origo, which provides the electronic transfer service used by most pension providers, it took 13.7 days for the average pension transfer to complete in the year to 31 March 2023. This measures the amount of time it takes for ‘ceding’ providers to process a transfer request from an ‘acquiring’ provider. It was significantly lower at 8.8 days over the year to March 2020.