TURIN
I am no finacial adviser and pensions are a minefield so would suggest that everyone takes individual advice.
However, my own experience is as follows:1) CETV will be large - it is typically around 20 times pension value -
2) I don't believe you can draw down a defined benefit pension (ie final salary) - only a defined contribution (ie money goes into stock market)
3) Transferring out of a DB scheme is not straight forward - you need to get a quote (official CETV) - then you need to get advice which will be paid for. Advice will almost certainly tell you that it's not a good idea to transfer your DB pension out. You can appeal on the grounds that it's what you want to do and it's your pension (and YOUR money) but the Ombudsman thinks people are stupid and also likely to decline your appeal. No financial advisor is likely to tell you it is a good idea to transfer and the govt has massively increased fines for bad advice which means financial advisors can't afford the risk (and can no longer get risk insurance) and a lot have stopped advising on pension transfers.
Personally, I think it's scandalous that you can't transfer a defined benefit pension (or at least it's near impossible). After the TATA pension debacle where so many were advised to transfer out of their DB pension and got ripped off and ended up with little or no pension the Govt has basically made it impossible to do otherwise (ie transfer). BUT, it is your money , your pension so for Govt to make it impossible via regulation to transfer is not on and you should complain to your MP.
BTW - Something else I consider scandalous - if you die (prior to taking your pension) current legislation allows you to pass on your pension pot as part of your estate. This can be a lot of money. However, DB funds will typically only return PREMIUMS paid into the scheme and NOT its value. So, if your CETV is 200K then you may only have paid 30K of premiums and that's all you get back. If 200K was in a defined contribution scheme then you could pass on all of that.
As per my opening comment - the above is just my experience, I am not a financial advisor so you should take independent advice. I do have a DB pension (but I am not retired so it is deferred) so have done a lot of investigation into what I can do with it hence the post above.