prudential pension question..

dunstonh

Both.

A fund recommendation would be seen as just that. You could complain and I would be potentially liable for giving advice and it would almost certainly be upheld as I havent complied with FSA guidelines.

That being said, I have done a few fund recommendations behind the scenes (via PM, email and royal mail) where I have issued full disclosure documentation, ascertained attitute to investment risk and made the recommendation formal. If you want to do that, then PM me.

EdInvestor

Interesting to note there is no With Profits (non-Cash Accumulation) fund.

I wonder why.

whiteflag_3

EdInvestor wrote:

Interesting to note there is no With Profits (non-Cash Accumulation) fund.

I wonder why.

Eh?

Pal

EdInvestor wrote:

Interesting to note there is no With Profits (non-Cash Accumulation) fund.

I wonder why.

Eh?

EdInvestor

Pal wrote:

Eh?

Earlier dunstonh posted that the WP (Cash accumulation) fund was a kind of lower risk WP fund that the Pru offered.

Then the OP posted the full list of available funds.So I commented that there didn't seem to be a normal (as opposed to lower) risk WP fund listed.

I asked this because the Pru is one of the very few insurers where the WP fund can still be recommended, if the poster still wanted normal risk WP.

Sorry for the confusion.

dunstonh

Pru did/do have two with profits funds with different degrees of risk and reward. I guess some of the legacy products only offered one of the versions. Current products can offer both of the them.

dunstonh

I also asked her if we would be hit with a penalty to transfer the pension fund, her answer was we may or may not be hit with a penalty or value deduction which I thought was a bit silly, but I am sure there must a logical answer? Shouldn't there?

They disclose whether or not there is an MVR/penalty on the policy information they send to IFAs upon request. It is required by us to do a proper transfer analysis. I cant see why they couldnt tell you or at least send you the same information.

I am wondering if anyone can tell me if this Personal Pension with Prudential can indeed be moved into a SIPP and if not, what are my alternatives?

It can be. My experience is about 1 in 5 of the Pru plans havent been transferred after I have reviewed them because they have some guarantees that are attractive. If you want a general rule of thumb (and note this is an observation only and may not be fully accurate), then the personal pensions sold by the Pru rep seem to not have the guarantees or the lower charges. Teachers FSAVCs would be an exception.

Should I even be considering Hargreaves Lansdown?

Depends on what you are doing with the SIPP, what you intend to invest in and whether the SIPP will be taking regular payments in addition to the transfer value. Regular payments can make a big difference to the charges and require more work from you when it comes to investing.

If its investment funds, you may be better off waiting to the insured/hybrid SIPPs coming from the fund supermarkets (and a few others) after A day. These should be cheaper than full SIPPs and have less administration.

EdInvestor

teddyco wrote:

Prudential recently contacted me about contracting back into the S2P and it irritated me a little that their letter seems to be pushing us to make a decision and therefore it has prompted me to move it elsewhere.
I contacted Hargreaves Lansdown about their Vantage SIPP and I really like the investment choices that are available, but now I am not sure if I am able to switch this Prudential Personal Pension into a SIPP?

It sounds as though this is a protected rights pension as a result of contracting out of SERPS/S2P? At present PR pensions cannot be moved to Sipps, but this is likely to change when Sipps become regulated in 2007.In the meantime you could move it to a stakeholder or just leave it where it is.

I assume it is in the With profits fund? The Pru's fund is about the only one worth staying in these days IMHO, if you like that kind of opaque investing which is now very much out of fashion.

Two things to look for here:

1)Is there an MVA penalty to leave ( if there is it should be pretty small by now unless the money was transferred into the Pru within the last few years)

2)Any guarantees attached to the fund ( particularly guaranteed annuity rates/options - GARs/GAOs)? These can be valuable - they can double the amount of pension you eventually get - and if you have one of these you shouldn't usually move the money.

My wife also has a second pension with her other employer and we would like to transfer that into Hargreaves Lansdown. It appears that we will have to wait until A-Day per my conversation with their pension consultant for that one to transfer. So we will wait to transfer that one.

I assume this is a money purchase (D/C) pension? If so the best thing might be to set up the HL Sipp with this pension.

HL is an excellent Sipp provider for people who want to invest in funds.
People who want to invest in shares are probably better with Sippdeal, and for investment trusts, Alliance Trust.All are low cost providers with efficient admin.

dunstonh

So I vote to try and keep a lot of the investment at home or in my own backyard. Any thoughts?

Its about getting balance. Why not offset the higher risk of the asian/emerging economies with UK property/euro property/global property funds and then periodically move gains into safer areas. Then if there are drops, you take money out of those safer areas and put them back after the drop?

EdInvestor

The Government has said it plans to allow protected rights money into Sipps after they become regulated in 2007.

There is a possibility the money will be moveable earlier (after A-day this year) but with very restricted investment options such as err,cash only. :rolleyes: So there may be little point.