General FAQs

By setting up a James Hay Online account, you can:

• Begin or review a new product illustration
• Apply for new products using a digital signature (in conjunction with your financial adviser)
• Use online investment tools to conduct fund research
• Buy, sell or switch investments within the James Hay Investment Centre, our in-house fund platform
• Send and request money to be transferred between your product and an investment manager/stockbroker
• Monitor your investments and view valuation reports
• Amend the level and frequency of any existing income payments
• Send and receive queries and instructions via a Secure Messaging service.

You product bank account is designed to hold cash for short periods of time, to facilitate the payment of money in and out of your product. Your investments, and any charges incurred, will also be funded from the relevant product bank account, and so you will need to monitor your balance regularly.

Please see the Bank Accounts page of our website for further information, including details of any applicable interest rates.

We take initial and ongoing administration charges for all products. These are detailed in the relevant product's Charges Schedule, which can be found on our Literature pages.

You may also pay charges to other parties, such as fund providers, investment managers and stockbrokers, depending on the investments you choose, as well as charges to your financial adviser for the services they provide to you.

We do not provide financial advice. Your financial adviser should always be your first point of contact for any advice. If you do not have a financial adviser, you can visit Unbiased at www.unbiased.co.uk or call them on 0800 023 6868 to find regulated financial advisers in your area.

You can also visit www.moneyhelper.org.uk in order to access further support and guidance from Pensionwise, The Pensions Advisory Service and the MoneyHelper.

You can transfer your product away from James Hay at any time. You should read your James Hay product's Charges Schedule, and check with your current fund providers/investment managers, to see which charges may be applicable when selling or re-registering assets.

Please note that we are unable to confirm how long it may take to transfer out of your product, as we are reliant on third parties for part of the process.

The Investor Guides on our website provide further information on our processes, including what you need to do to instruct us.

You can also view the Technical Guide for your product, found on our Literature pages, for more in-depth detail on how your James Hay product works.

You can contact us via Secure Message from your James Hay Online account, or for generic non-personal information, via email sent to jhcontactcentre@jameshay.co.uk. Your financial adviser can also contact us on your behalf.

You can also call our Contact Centre on 03455 212 414, Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm.

You can write to us at Dunn's House, St Paul's Road, Salisbury, SP2 7BF.

You, your employer, or a third party can all make contributions to your SIPP at any time. Your product bank account details can be found on the Trustee Cash screen of your James Hay Online account, and details of your contribution should be provided to us either on your original product application or on a Supplementary Contribution Form; available from the Literature pages of our website.

Please note that if a third party is making contributions on your behalf, we will not be able to accept money from them until we have completed a verification of their identity. This is to ensure we comply with the UK Money Laundering regulations.

If you are eligible for tax relief on your personal contributions, we will reclaim the basic tax relief from HMRC on your behalf. This can take between 7 and 11 weeks to be credited to your SIPP bank account.

If you are a higher rate tax payer, you may be able to claim the difference between the basic tax rate and the higher tax rate on your tax return, or by contacting HMRC.

Please note that employer contributions are treated as gross contributions and we therefore do not reclaim tax relief on them.

To check your eligibility for tax relief, and to understand your Annual Allowance, you can visit our Making a Contribution page, and speak to your financial adviser about your personal circumstances.

You can transfer in savings from any other UK registered pension scheme, such as a personal pension or an employer pension scheme. You may also be able to transfer in pension savings from a qualified recognised overseas pension scheme (QROPS).

Please note that we can only accept pension transfers from defined benefit (occupational final salary) schemes if you have received advice from an appropriately qualified financial adviser, and they have recommended that you proceed with the transfer.

For transfers from defined contribution (occupational money purchase) schemes, if the transfer includes any safeguarded benefits then you must have received advice from an appropriately qualified financial adviser, recommending that you proceed. Alternatively, if the transfer does not contain any safeguarded benefits, you can proceed without financial advice if you provide us with written evidence from the transferring scheme that the transfer does not contain any safeguarded benefits.

You may be able to transfer in your existing pension assets without selling them. This is known as an in-specie transfer.

By transferring in-specie, you may be able to avoid selling and buying costs, and you can continue to benefit from uninterrupted investment performance.

Please note that it may not always be possible to make an in-specie transfer, as it depends on the investments held in your existing pension scheme. Any transfer is subject to both our acceptance and the agreement of the administrators of the transferring scheme. We strongly suggest that you obtain financial advice before instructing any form of pension transfer.

You can request a cash transfer from the Portfolio screen of your James Hay Online account.

Alternatively you can submit a completed 'SIPP Cash Transfer In Form' or 'SIPP In-specie Transfer Form' found on the Literature pages of our website, along with any supporting documentation, such as discharge forms.