Standard Life Pension

wymondham

Hi All

I've just taken out a SL SIPP pension with the following investments:

M&G Recovery fund 20%
Pension Pacific Basin One Fund 20%
ResoAsset Argonaut European Alpha Fund 20%
SLI Global Equity Unconstrained Fund 20%
Standard Life Investments UK Equity High Income Fd 20%

I'm not too bad on my risk attitude, so just wanted anyones opinion on these choices recommendaded by my IFA and the pension generally. As I understand it these gloomy times are good times for taking this out and investing monthly??

opinions welcomed!!

dunstonh

Is this a regular contribution or a single premium or transfer?

As I have said before, I am not a fan of the standard life SIPP. It is past its sell by date as SL havent kept it up to date with more recent launches which are cheaper. Its one of the reason SL have experienced a big drop in SIPP sales whilst others are increasing. That said a few of those funds would be in the mutal funds part and could be cheaper than in unit trust form depending on the charging structure used by the adviser.

Its easy to be critical of another persons choice of funds as fund selection is a matter of opinion. The odds of getting the same selection from an adviser or an experienced investor are highly unlikely. That said, it is clear to see that there is no structure to the allocation (5x20% leaves areas of investment missing and indicates no real thought put into where you invest). If its monthly only then that is fair enough to a point in the short term. Although personally I would favour a structured stakeholder over an unstructured SIPP any day. Especially if the charges are high on the SIPP. (by structure I mean something like sector allocation, high yield or other investment strategy. Not just a random selection of funds).

wymondham

This is a regular contribution, in addition to a bad company pension which i'm keeping purely as the company put a small amount into it (it's a company pension)..

Is it right that now is a good time to be investing whilst the market has dropped considerably??!

the investments are quite a broad spectrum to begin with....

bigbloke45

I go along with DH on this to a certain extent, but the great thing about investment asset allocation is that no-one really has a clue.

If you choose a "theme" e.g high yield or growth, then you are betting all your funds on the same "horse". High yield was the place to be for quite some time, but then growth stocks came back into fashion very quickly and most people missed the boat on the change in sentiment and the subsequent changes in "themed" funds.

Your 5 times 20% asset allocation will annoy some people, but they don't really know what's going to happen; sometimes your choice will be good, sometimes it won't, but the most important thing is that you take the responsibilty of saving for your retirement now.

Go for it!

EdInvestor

wymondham wrote: »

Is it right that now is a good time to be investing whilst the market has dropped considerably??!

Yes. I'd say the selection is OK,several quality funds there. Indeed it could do very well over the next few years. Equally, as it's all equities, don't expect it to behave like a managed fund, it could rise and fall by significantly more than would be typical of the latter.

wymondham

Thanks for all your replies, I do appreciate you taking the time!!

I'm glad nobody has jumped up and down and shouted 'oh my god what have you done!'. Pensions are odd things as nobody can be 100% sure of anything and I'm a suspicious chap having being stung with my last investment venture (endowment!). I'm tired of looking at wavy graphs now and need to lay down!!

bigbloke45

wymondham wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies, I do appreciate you taking the time!!

I'm glad nobody has jumped up and down and shouted 'oh my god what have you done!'. Pensions are odd things as nobody can be 100% sure of anything and I'm a suspicious chap having being stung with my last investment venture (endowment!). I'm tired of looking at wavy graphs now and need to lay down!!

Don't worry, if we thought you'd done something really stupid, you would have known big time!

Take a rest now!

dunstonh

When i suggested strategy I was thinking sector allocation or asset allocation. High yield is better suited to income generation and does have good and bad times. Sector/asset allocation is better for the long term.

Stakeholders limit your investment options but you can stil get the main sectors from it. Fixed interest, property, US, UK, Europe and pacific.

Personal pensions allow the other sectors to be included as well, such as global emerging markets, specialist, international fixed interest, far east exc japan and japan (in place of pacific).

SIPPs allow really diverse investment options.

Ignoring every other fact, if someone was investing in to just 5 funds then I would say stakeholder. No point paying any of the extra charges of the SIPP if you are not utilising any of the features.

I would encourage a stearing towards a personal pension to get full sector allocation (9 sectors, 3 of which allow quite wide diversification options). However, if that was getting to complicated for the individual I would fall back to stakeholder (unless under 40 in which case a factory gate priced personal pension utilising internal funds is the cheapest option).

The funds recommended are fine. I just personally question the need to be in the SIPP to utilise those funds. Although with it being monthly, its going to be a good few years before it really makes a lot of difference what sort of allocation you use.