Pension Help please...

walsgravematt

Hi

I am really dumb when it comes to pension - i have just received my annual statement from Friends Provident and it tells me i have a "Managed (series 7)" New Generation Personal Pension Plan

over the year my employer has put in £1035 - I have not added to it at all

There is a 1% annual management charge (calculated daily)

This fund has been the only one that payments from this employer have been made into over the past 4-5 years, (for some reason that I still don't understand, previous to this I was given a new policy for every years payment rather than simply adding to one policy over the 11 years that I have had pension cont's by an employer paid to Friends Prov)

The total is now at £4742.68 with an annual expected pension of £1610

My question is

What sort of pension is this - Stakeholder or otherwise
Does this sound like a good deal?
Is 1% a fair annual charge
Are there better pension options open to me
Is there anything else I need to know or am I missing anything

Please help cos i really don't understand this

Many thanks in advance

WM

dunstonh

What sort of pension is this - Stakeholder or otherwise

FP offered their New Generation product in either personal pension or stakeholder pension flavours. The NGP product was withdrawn for new business last year. What you describe could be either version. There is little difference between the stakeholder or the personal pension versions but the personal pension did have the better fund range.

Does this sound like a good deal?
Is 1% a fair annual charge

Depends what you mean by good deal. Its not a fund that I would use but thats my preference. The charge is standard for an internal pension fund.

Are there better pension options open to me

There are personal pensions and stakeholder pensions available that could shave 0.1 -0.2% off (on equivalent terms). However, many of the alternative FP funds are quite good so staying put but looking into the other fund options could be better.

Is there anything else I need to know or am I missing anything

Charges are not everything. My highest charged pensions also tend to be the ones that have the best performance. That is because they use the "better" funds available from external managers and these cost more. Charges are about getting value for money. Not about having the cheapest.

EdInvestor

Is there anything else I need to know or am I missing anything?

Hi WM


I think you've covered the issues related to the pension tax wrapper quite well.

What you haven't mentioned is the investment performance - what funds the money is invested in, how they've performed so far, are there better choices and should you move the money?

So if you'd like to start by telling us what funds you put the money in now......:)