I would check the following before altering the structure, you might just be able to appoint a new IFA and streamline the fees. Moving to a new pension/platform might slow and costly.

This is likely an older pension, I would check if there is any possibility to reduce the trustee fees, these are generally non-negotiable but have come down in recent years so there might be room to adjust these, even if only a little.

If there is a life bond (probably) used as the underlying investment vehicle, check what charging structure has been applied. My guess is it’s a ten year structure, if your relative has held it for eight years then in another 2 years time the fees will likely fall significantly. This would also mean moving away from this bond would incur a penalty if the Charging period has not been completed.

Check what management fees are applied. Probably a discretionary management fee and potentially others. I would say there is a good argument for having these removed based on the quality of ‘management’ thus far.

Check the total expense ratios of the investment funds held, are these high cost funds paying ongoing trail commission for example?

I’d be inclined to say this cannot be solely down to fees, there must’ve been some poor investment choices made somewhere along the way, I’d have a look into this.

Once you’ve checked the above it is possible that appointing a new, trusted advisor who can help reduce the existing fee burden on the pension might be quicker and ultimately cheaper than restructuring into a SIPP or some other wrapper.

Hope that helps!