Transferring a Legal & General pension to Trading 212: you can keep paying in

If your workplace pension is with Nest, you cannot move it while you are still paying in. Nest will not release a pot that is still receiving contributions, and our Nest post has to open with that.

Legal & General works differently. If your scheme allows it, you can move part of your pot to the Trading 212 SIPP and leave the rest where it is, with your employer still paying in every month.

The fee question is harder with L&G, because what it charges you depends on a deal your employer struck, and on L&G's own figures the charge on the same default fund can be more than three times higher at one employer than at another.

I moved my own Aviva workplace pension into the T212 SIPP earlier this year, so I know the receiving end. The L&G end needs some checking before you start.

Check your pension is still with L&G

If your L&G pension is a workplace scheme you joined through an employer, it is almost certainly still with L&G, in the WorkSave Mastertrust or the WorkSave Pension Plan. Skip to the next section.

If it is an older personal pension, the answer may be no. In 2017 L&G agreed to sell what it called its mature savings business, the "traditional insurance based pensions, savings and investment products" it no longer sold, to ReAssure. The High Court approved the move on 20 August 2020, and around a million policies went across on 7 September 2020. ReAssure has since become part of Phoenix Group, which renamed itself Standard Life plc in March 2026.

Your statement may still say L&G anyway. ReAssure's welcome page for L&G customers says the money continues to be managed by Legal & General Investment Management, so the funds kept the L&G name even though the policy moved.

If your last letter came from ReAssure, every transfer step below happens with them. The checks matter more on these older policies, too:

• A start date before 6 April 2006. Trading 212 cannot accept a pension set up before that date, whatever it holds. A personal pension started in 1998 fails on the date alone
• A guaranteed annuity rate or a Guaranteed Minimum Pension. ReAssure lists both as safeguarded benefits. Trading 212 accepts neither, and where they are worth more than £30,000 the law requires regulated advice before you can give them up
• A with-profits fund. ReAssure can apply a market value reduction when you transfer, which cuts what leaves. It does not apply if you take your benefits at the policy's original retirement date

A guarantee or a pre-2006 start date means Trading 212 cannot take the pension. For a with-profits fund, ask ReAssure for a transfer value in writing, so you see any reduction before you commit.

What L&G charges depends on your employer

On the workplace side, L&G sets the annual management charge separately with each employer. Some employers pay part or all of it themselves. So two people in the same L&G fund can pay quite different amounts.

L&G's 2026 chair's statement for the Mastertrust lists the total charge for every employer and fund combination. Most members have now been moved into one of two default ranges. On the bigger one, the Target Date Funds, the total runs from 0.15% to 0.52% a year depending on the employer, and the middle of the table is about 0.28%. Transaction costs come on top.

Your own figure is on your annual benefit statement, or in the L&G app under your documents. Compare against that figure.

On the Trading 212 side, the platform discloses one fee on the SIPP, 0.15% on currency conversion, and nothing at all if you buy investments priced in sterling. But the funds you buy still charge you. A global tracker like Vanguard's FTSE All-World ETF (VWRP), which trades in sterling, has an ongoing charge of 0.14% a year.

So the honest comparison is your L&G total charge against about 0.14%, not against zero. At the bottom of L&G's range, 0.15%, the two are level, and moving buys you nothing on cost.

If you have read that the T212 SIPP carries an annual operator fee of around £90, that figure is wrong. We published it ourselves and have corrected it.

Moving part of it while your employer keeps paying in

L&G's transfer-out page says that if your scheme allows partial transfers, "the minimum amount you can transfer to a new provider is £2,000" and you must leave at least £100 in the account to keep it open. Trading 212 accepts partial transfers coming in.

That matters because the Trading 212 SIPP cannot take employer contributions. If your job comes with an L&G pension and an employer paying into it, you want to keep that arrangement running. Opting out to move your pot would cost you far more than any fee saving.

A partial transfer gets you both. Your employer keeps paying into L&G. Every so often you move the built-up balance across, and invest it how you want.

Before you plan around it:

• Check your scheme allows it. L&G's own wording is "if your scheme allows". Your member guide on the L&G microsite will say, and L&G asks anyone still paying in to speak to their employer before going ahead
• Each move is a separate transfer. Each one has its own few weeks out of the market and its own paperwork, so once or twice a year is more sensible than every quarter
• Do not move the lot by accident. If you transfer the whole pot, L&G closes the account, and your employer has to set up a new one before contributions can continue

What you can lose by moving

Even a clean workplace pot can carry two protections that a transfer to Trading 212 ends.

Some members are entitled to more than the usual 25% tax-free, which is called protected tax-free cash. L&G says that if you transfer your full pension out "you may lose any protected tax-free cash you have", and a partial transfer loses it on the amount that moves.

Some L&G members also have a protected retirement age, which lets them take their pension earlier than the normal minimum. That minimum rises from 55 to 57 in April 2028, and some products are protected from the rise. Trading 212 says it can accept a pension with a protected pension age but the protection "will be lost once the transfer is completed". If you are 50 and counting on taking your pension at 55, moving it would push that back to 57.

L&G lets you check for both by logging in and going to Help.

How long it takes

L&G uses the Origo transfer service, and so does Trading 212. Through Origo, L&G says a transfer out usually takes "5 to 10 working days after we receive the request and all the information we need". Its chair's statement reports hitting a five working day target for transfer payments in every quarter of the last scheme year.

Trading 212 quotes two to eight weeks for a cash transfer from start to finish, because the time depends on both ends. Your L&G funds exist only inside L&G, so they are sold and the proceeds land in your SIPP as cash. Nothing is invested until you buy something.

Two practical points from L&G's page: make sure your name, address and other details match what you gave Trading 212, because mismatches cause delays. And if L&G has any concerns, it may ask you to get guidance from MoneyHelper before it lets the transfer go.

Once it completes, Trading 212 gives you a 30-day cooling-off period in which you can ask for the transfer to be reversed, though your old provider does not have to take the money back.

What the charge difference is worth on £30,000

Both are 40, both have £30,000 in an L&G Target Date Fund from a job they have left, and both can take their pension at 57, seventeen years away.

Daniel's old employer agreed a total charge of 0.52% a year, the top of L&G's published range for those funds. Sophie's employer negotiated 0.28%, about the middle. Either of them could move to the Trading 212 SIPP and buy VWRP at 0.14%.

At 5% a year before charges, here is what each option costs over those seventeen years, measured against a pot that paid no charges at all.

Staying costs Daniel £5,832 over the seventeen years. Moving would cost him £1,618, so the transfer is worth £4,214 to him. That is enough to act on.

For Sophie the same move is worth £1,583, about £93 a year. Four weeks out of a market returning 5% a year costs about £115 on average on a £30,000 pot, so the transfer itself could cost her more than the first year's saving. A bad month would cost far more.

The chart leaves out a bigger difference. A Target Date Fund moves money from shares into bonds as the date approaches, and VWRP stays in shares all the way. Whether that is a reason to move depends on what else you own, which our Nest post goes through at length. For Sophie it is a better reason than £93 a year.

So should you move it?

Find two things before you decide: whether your pension is still with L&G or now with ReAssure, and the total charge on your own statement.

Move it if it is an L&G workplace pot on a charge well above 0.14%, it started after April 2006, there is no protected tax-free cash or protected retirement age on it, and you will invest the money when it lands. If you are still employed and your scheme allows partial transfers, keep the account open with your employer paying in and move the balance across once or twice a year.

Leave it if your charge is near the bottom of L&G's range, because doing it yourself will cost about the same. Leave it if it is an old policy with a guaranteed annuity rate or a pre-2006 start date, because Trading 212 cannot take it anyway. And leave it if you are relying on a protected retirement age.

The wider checklist, including bundled life cover and what catches people out at the receiving end, is in our walkthrough of moving a workplace pension into the T212 SIPP.

Frequently asked questions

Can I transfer my Legal & General pension to the Trading 212 SIPP?

Usually, if it is an uncrystallised defined contribution pot with no guarantees attached and it started after 6 April 2006. L&G workplace pensions generally qualify. Older L&G personal pensions may now be with ReAssure, and any that began before April 2006 or carry a guaranteed annuity rate cannot go to Trading 212.

Does Legal & General charge to transfer out?

Not on its workplace pensions. L&G says it does not charge a fee for transferring to another provider, and Trading 212 does not charge to accept a transfer. Older with-profits policies that moved to ReAssure can have a market value reduction applied on transfer, which lowers what arrives.

Can I transfer my L&G pension while I am still paying into it?

Often yes, if your scheme allows it. L&G accepts partial transfers of at least £2,000 as long as £100 stays in the account, so your employer can keep paying in. Trading 212 accepts partial transfers. L&G asks members who are still contributing to speak to their employer first.

My old Legal & General pension says ReAssure now. Can I still transfer it?

Yes, but you deal with ReAssure, not L&G. Around a million older L&G policies, including traditional personal pensions and with-profits plans, moved to ReAssure in September 2020. Check the plan for a guaranteed annuity rate, a start date before April 2006 and any market value reduction before you ask for a transfer.

How long does a Legal & General to Trading 212 transfer take?

L&G says transfers through the Origo service usually take 5 to 10 working days once it has everything it needs. Trading 212 quotes two to eight weeks for a cash transfer from start to finish. Your money is sold and out of the market for part of that time.

Where can I get free guidance before I transfer?

UK savers aged 50 and over with a defined contribution pension can book a free Pension Wise appointment through MoneyHelper. gov.uk's pension transfer guidance is the official starting point for everyone else.

The takeaway

With L&G, start with what your employer agreed to pay and whether you need to leave at all.

If the charge on your statement is near the top of L&G's range, moving to a cheap tracker in the Trading 212 SIPP saves real money over a decade or two. If it is near the bottom, the saving is small enough that a bad month during the transfer can wipe out several years of it.

If you still work there and your scheme allows partial transfers, keep the employer money going into L&G and move what builds up.

This is illustrative, not financial advice. Pension rules change, personal circumstances matter, investment returns are uncertain and past performance tells you nothing reliable about the future. The right answer for me may not be the right answer for you.