Half a million defined benefit members to transfer under pensions freedom

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A substantial minority of defined benefit (DB) pension scheme members are intent on transferring out to take advantage of pensions freedom, research has found.

Hargreaves Lansdown analysis found almost 8% of DB members intend to transfer after the new rules come on into force on 6 April. However, two thirds of those surveyed said they had no intention of moving their funds. With 6.87m deferred and active DB members this equates to 535,860 members quitting their schemes. Hargreaves Lansdown head of pensions research Tom McPhail (pictured) said: "There is a substantial minority of final salary scheme members who are interested in moving their guaranteed benefits into a money purchase pension. "It will potentially create a great deal of work...

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