Property fund suspensions - Platform questions and answers

No, our products and platform functionality continue to operate during this time with transactions working around the suspended fund.

Yes. The value of units in any suspended property fund will be included in the overall value of your investments shown online or in your statements. At the moment, the suspended fund will still be priced each day and we will provide an update if this changes.

Not while it is suspended. If we receive an instruction including any suspended property fund we will ask you for a revised fund choice. 

If you invest in a model portfolio that holds a suspended fund then that investment can still take place. The money intended for the suspended fund will either be invested proportionately across the other assets in the portfolio or go into cash within the portfolio, depending on the rule set up by your financial adviser for that model portfolio. 

Not while it’s suspended. You can switch other funds as normal.

Yes, but any suspended property fund will be excluded from the transaction.

If you invest in a model portfolio that holds a suspended fund then the suspended fund will be ignored as part of any restructure or realignment switch. If you are switching out of a model portfolio then the suspended fund will be left as a loose asset (i.e. not held within a model portfolio). If you are switching into a model portfolio the money will be invested proportionately across the other assets in the portfolio. 

Both automatic rebalancing and phased investment will continue.

Any phased investment into suspended property funds that aren’t part of a model portfolio will be invested proportionately into the other assets in your instruction. If you are phasing into a model portfolio, the money intended for the suspended fund will either be invested proportionately across the other assets in the portfolio or will go into cash within the portfolio, depending on the rule set up for that model portfolio.

Rebalancing will continue, with no money sold from the suspended fund and any purchases made proportionately across the other assets in the portfolio. 

Any part of a Direct Debit payment that is currently allocated to a suspended property fund will instead be invested proportionately across the other assets in your instruction while the fund is suspended. 

Redirections (changing your Direct Debit instructions)

If you want to redirect your Direct Debit to other funds, you can provide us with new instructions, as long as the alternative funds are not suspended.

We will continue to pay into your pre-suspension fund choice once the suspension is lifted, except if you have provided us with a new instruction since then.

It is important that you speak to your financial adviser before making any investment decisions.

You can still take withdrawals from other funds in the investment but not from any suspended property funds.

Benefits cannot normally be taken from your Quilter pension before you have reached the normal minimum pension age (NMPA) of 55 (or any earlier protected pension age or ill-health early retirement age).

If you have reached this age, and you wish to start taking any benefits for the first time (such as a pension commencement lump sum (PCLS), drawdown income or lifetime annuity income), we will pay benefits from any part of the account (excluding the value held in the suspended fund), where permitted by legislation, pensions rules and the terms and conditions of the account. This means the value of the suspended fund cannot be included in your retirement benefit instruction.

If you do not have enough money in any other fund(s) to meet your request, we may pay the full amount of your unsuspended fund(s) to you and defer paying the remaining amount until the funds unsuspend.

Therefore, for example, if you wanted to use the whole of your Quilter account to purchase a lifetime annuity, and you hold assets in a suspended fund, you will need two separate lifetime annuity contracts (subject to the provider’s minimum purchase price) to cater for the two separate Quilter payments.

If you only want to start taking benefits using some of your pension, known as a partial crystallisation, we recommend you either specify the assets to use, and not select any suspended funds, or request it proportionately, in which case we’ll automatically use just the non-suspended funds in your account.

The full value of the account can still be viewed daily (including the value held in the suspended fund, using the available price on the day), however any withdrawal requests, whether for regular income or an ad hoc lump sum, will only be made using unsuspended funds.

If you are already taking pension income from your CRA and wish to take a further one-off withdrawal, we will try to take the withdrawal amount from any other (unsuspended) fund(s) in your account. If you do not have enough money in any other fund(s), if permitted by our terms, we may pay the full amount of your unsuspended fund(s) to you and defer paying the remaining amount until any property fund is unsuspended.

These withdrawals will be unaffected because we will raise the withdrawal amounts by selling units from the other funds in the investment, where you are withdrawing proportionately across all your assets, or via your chosen disinvestment strategy, where you are withdrawing from specific assets in your portfolio. Where this is not possible, we will contact you as soon as we can to let you know.

If your current withdrawal instruction is to sell assets proportionately across your portfolio these will be unaffected because we will raise the income payments by selling units proportionately from the other funds in your account.

Where your current withdrawal instruction is from specific assets and that includes a suspended fund, the income payment will cease. Please update your account to select proportional withdrawal across all funds to restart your income by speaking to your financial adviser or contacting us on the telephone number below.

If you have any questions about using our tax-efficient regular income options, please speak to your financial adviser, or call our Customer Contact Centre on Freephone 0808 171 2626.

Yes, however, we can only sell units from the funds which are not suspended. We will send you the proceeds from the sale of non-suspended funds in the normal way. Once the suspension is lifted, we will require a further instruction from you or your financial adviser to complete the closure and send you the remaining proceeds from the suspended fund.

If you are closing a Collective Investment Bond we will issue the appropriate Chargeable Event Certificate, including the value of any suspended property fund as at the date the other funds were sold. After the suspension is lifted and if you request that we send you the proceeds of the fund, we will issue a replacement Chargeable Event Certificate.

CIB

If the policyholder is the last life assured on the account then we would close the whole account, including any suspended property fund and pay out the full proceeds, using the available price we have on the day of that transaction. 

CRA

We would close the whole account, including any suspended property funds, and pay out the full proceeds, using the available price we have on the day of that transaction.

ISA/CIA

When an accountholder dies, the CIA/ISA will remain invested and the investments can then be passed on to a new owner as required.

This will depend on whether the transfer is by re-registration or cash.

Re-registration

Suspended funds can be re-registered to another provider, provided that they are willing to accept them, but as the fund suspension applies across the industry, the new provider will not be able to sell it until the suspension is lifted. 

Cash transfers

CIA – We can transfer the cash proceeds from all other funds held in the account, but we will not be able to send the proceeds from any suspended property funds until the suspension is lifted.

ISA - It is not possible to complete a cash transfer, because we will not be able to sell any suspended property funds.

This will depend on whether the funds within your pension being transferred are uncrystallised or crystallised. Please speak to your financial adviser who can provide more information and advice about this. 

Transferring an UNCRYSTALLISED arrangement to another provider

This is possible if the new provider can accept the transfer in instalments. The first instalment will include the value of all units apart from any suspended property funds. We will send the value of any property fund units to the new provider once the suspension is lifted.

However, if you have a scheme-specific (greater than 25%) pension commencement lump-sum entitlement and/or protected pension age, it is not possible to make a partial transfer and retain the entitlement. Therefore, we would not normally complete such a transfer until the fund suspension is lifted.

Transferring a CRYSTALLISED account to another provider

As it is not possible to make a partial transfer of a crystallised (drawdown) pension arrangement to another provider, we cannot complete this transaction until the fund suspension is lifted.

These will be added to the largest non-suspended fund in your investment.

For ISA and CIA, if you have opted for income to be paid to you, any distributions we receive for any property fund will still be included in your income payments.

Rebates are a form of discount we receive from some fund managers. If your investment is on our latest charge basis (Charge Basis 3), these will largely be passed on to you in the form of additional units.

Where you normally receive rebates, these will continue to be received in respect of any suspended property funds but they will be added to cash in your account.

These will be unaffected if we can raise the fee payments by selling units from the other funds held in your investment.