Before submitting a crystallisation request you may wish to produce a review illustration for your client - here's how you do that; Creating an illustration. 

Crystallisation is normally only available for clients above the age of 55. If you have an exceptional case, please contact us at servicecentre@soderbergpartners.com. We will review this for you and advise next steps.

N.B. you cannot set up a regular crystallisation and complete an ad hoc crystallisation as part of the same application. If you need to do both, you should first submit the regular, followed by the ad hoc instruction.

• Locate your client in the system, either via the Clients tab in the top menu, or by using the Client Search function. 

• Go to the client's SIPP account, click Account actions and Crystallise. 

• At the top of the form you'll find a link to the Retirement Factsheet and you need to ensure that your client has received this information.
• You must confirm that advice has been given to the client about the crystallisation and enter the FCA number of the adviser providing the advice.
• Confirm whether your client has received guidance from pension wise - this is for reporting purposes and does not affect the application.

• Answer the questions around lump-sum and death benefit allowance. 

• You'll be asked if the client has taken benefits from their pension pre April 2024, if they have you'll be asked if the client is applying for a transitional tax-free amount certificate. If yes, you can enter the transitional tax free amount and you'll be required to send a copy of the certificate to us via email.

• If No, you'll be asked if you know your clients calculated LTA used prior to April 2024 and again if No, you'll be presented with the known LTA figures prior to 6th April 2024. If the client has previously crystallised on our platform we'll have a record of this, and we also record LTA figures with the previous provider upon transfer. You have the opportunity to add additional LTA used if you're aware of anything further that our system hasn't captured.

• You are then directed to the Lump Sum Allowance section. Anything used with us will again be recorded, and you can add a record of LSA used with other schemes which will then be retained in the system and presented in this journey next time.

• You then scroll down to the Pension Protection section. If you select Yes, the system will generate further fields to confirm which protection the client has. If you select No, then you will be diverted to the Crystallisation details. 

• Under the crystallisation details section you can opt to fully crystallise, in which case the system calculates the PCLS amount. Please note that currently if you are fully crystallising, you will only be given the option to do this via FAD and not UFPLS. This functionality is in the roadmap to be added and we will communicate when it is ready.

• If you select no to a full crystallisation, you will need to enter the amount that you would like to crystallise. 

• You are asked which pension access option you wish to use; UFPLS or FAD. The system will then confirm the amounts payable.

• If you wish to move the crystallised assets in to flexi-access drawdown, select FAD. You will then be prompted to select a drawdown account for the funds to be moved in to. You can select a pre-existing drawdown account, or you can opt to create a new account. If you choose the latter option, you simply need to choose an account name, and the rest of the account details will be reflected from the uncrystallised account.

• You can then instruct a single taxable withdrawal of either the full amount, or a specified gross figure.

• If the client is not taking the full amount as income, the option to set up a single and regular taxable income will also appear. If setting up a regular withdrawal, you will need to select the payment date, you'll need to opt for an automatic disinvestment to raise funds each month, and you will need to select whether this should be proportional, or from the largest holding. 

• Where a client has not taken income from the platform before, we will use an emergency tax code to tax their first payment. We can use the client's correct tax code if you provide us with a P45 or P60 prior to completing this process. Please send this to servicecentre@soderbergpartners.com.
• Please note any uninvested cash will be used to fund a crystallisation, then any shortfall will be funded by proportionately selling down assets. You are however given the choice of whether you would like to sell down assets to raise funds when setting up a regular withdrawal as a part of a single crystallisation. If you select 'no' to this, you will be responsible for ensuring there is sufficient cash available 6 working days before the income payment date.
• After completing the full form click Review to see a summary of the crystallisation request.

• Please go through the submission details carefully to make sure all of the information is correct. If you need to change anything click Edit, and once done click Submit. 

• Next you will be presented with the Terms and conditions on screen and these need to be accepted in order to continue. Click Accept. 

After the crystallisation request is completed, the client will receive a Retirement Options Pack document, and a Pension Choices document in the Client Portal.

FAD timescale:

If the client has sufficient funds in cash, the PCLS is paid immediately via BACS. If there are linked sale orders, the PCLS payment is made via BACS when the order is executed (which is usually 1-2 days later). The payment is sent to the client's bank account, the crystallised funds are moved into the chosen drawdown account, and a RBCE statement is made available in the Client Portal.

Our pension payroll dates are on 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th of the month. The client will receive their single or regular payment ON one of these dates, or the previous working day if this lands on a weekend or bank holiday.

The payment transaction, along with any linked trades, are created 6 working days prior to the payment date, so the cut off for new payments or amendments is 7 working days prior.

Once the payment has been made, a payslip will be made available to the client in the Client Portal. 

UFPLS timescale:

Any sale orders that were part of the crystallisation request will trigger and the client will receive one payment ON the next available income payment date; 7th, 14th, 21st or 28th. The payment cut off date for each payment date is 7 working days prior, and if the payment date falls on a bank holiday or weekend, the payment will be received the prior working day.