halifax personel investment plan

wainsworld

I retired early due to ill health im 52.
In June this year I got a lump sum payment from my employer of £90.000 as I worked for them for 34 years we have had accounts with the Halifax for many years and they were the ones that we took advice from I am worried now because we took out an private investment plan for £62.800 and 2 investment isa’s £3.600 each but with all the goings on with these banks I enquired today as to what is happening to my money and the Halifax has confirmed that we have already lost a total of £4.800 since June when the plan started they have told us to stay with the plans they have put together but myself and my wife are very worried if we are going to lose every think this is all we have and I am not going to work again .I have worked all my life for this money and to see it all disappearing in front of my eyes is sole destroying what should I do draw this money out and split it into high interest accounts or should I leave it for the whole 5 years.

dunstonh

my wife are very worried if we are going to lose every think

Its not possible to lose everything. You would need every investment within the funds to fail and that isnt going to happen. Well, technically it could but that would result in anarchy and breakdown of Govt and civilisation as we know it. You would go shopping with leaves from trees as they would have more value than the pound.

I have worked all my life for this money and to see it all disappearing in front of my eyes is sole destroying

Being a little harsh on you here but if you value the money that much, what made you go see a tied sales rep from a bank with a reputation for having some of the worst investment funds there are? Why didnt you go to a real financial adviser?

what should I do draw this money out and split it into high interest accounts or should I leave it for the whole 5 years.

I would get an IFA to see you and get them to explain investments to you in more detail. That way a bit of knowledge may help you understand more and make you feel more comfortable. They can also move the investments to something better if they feel you are happy with investing, if not you can call it a day and suffer a loss.

One thing to note is that investments zig zag in value. That is normal and that is to be expected. You have only suffered a 5% loss which isnt very much. Yet you are already concerned about it. So, it may be that investing isnt for you as over the next 5 years you are likely to see other negative periods as well as positive. Are you going to get nervous every time?

willt

Wouldn't an IFA charge a fee or recommend a product with some upfront cost ? Typically this can be 5% of the investment can't it ? So the OP would have lost a similar amount as now before the money had even been invested. Another hit in the markets and they could be looking at 10% overall, not 5.

If this is your life savings then I would say too much of it is in equities and that you should have more in cash deposit, you could 6.5% if you tied it into a bond for 12 months.

wainsworld

thanks for your advice its one of those things you work all your life and dont know how these things realy work and with never having that amount of money in one go you think were do we go from here we made this choice its only now that we see some of this money gone due you panick i just dont understand money matters as good as i should thanks again to anyone for their advice

dunstonh

Wouldn't an IFA charge a fee or recommend a product with some upfront cost ?

Not necessarily. The fund based trail would be around £450 a year and a small charge or 1-2% would be possible.

Typically this can be 5% of the investment can't it ?

Typical maximum is 3% and average is 1.8%. 5% is well off the mark nowadays.

So the OP would have lost a similar amount as now before the money had even been invested.

Whatever the OP did they would be down but Halifax have the worst funds out there of all the banks. Consistently bad. Plus, I bet you that its all in one fund.

Another hit in the markets and they could be looking at 10% overall, not 5.

I doubt its in the markets to any large degree with a drop of that size. Probably their cautious managed fund.

If this is your life savings then I would say too much of it is in equities

There has been no mention of equities.

willt

3% is still a big chunk, almost £2k with no guarantee of getting that back in performance. The investment must be predominately in equities if it's in their cautious managed fund, no mention but it must be the case.

I still say he should be more in cash than the markets, 62k in the markets and only 7200 in cash isa's is too risky for this guy I would say.