Standard Life Sterling Fund

EdGasket

I had a look at the factsheet and it says that the price is not guaranteed and the price may fall if income is less than the charges and also if there is a default by a bank they have invested the funds with :eek:
So this is probably a better bet than the Sterling Fund which has dodgy 'asset backed' investments, but if the income may be negative due to the charges (can't these guys get more than 1% on their investment, the price of the manged fund fell on friday and they should not need to take a 1% charge for just placing money on deposit!!!) or even drop due to banking default then I think the best bet is to go for Index-Linked gilts for anything other than a very short term.

I notice the Sterling fund continues to fall, down 0.31% on friday - thats about a year's worth of interest in some of the more miserly bank accounts ! Deposit funds with most other (but not all) pension providers e.g. Scotish Life, always show a gradual increase as they should !

rups

I originally wrote a complaint letter to Standard Life on 23 January, claiming not only for the 5% to be added back but also claiming for amounts lost in the past on switching from Sterling Fund to other funds. I did the latter by comparing what the fund price of the Sterling fund would have been had it been earning the base rtae less charges to the actual fund price quoted on the day I switched.

In addition to this redress amount I have asked for compensation for time, inconvenience and stress. Whilst the 5% has been added back I have still not had a response to my complaint and simply get letters apologising and saying that I can complain to the FOS if I wish. I have made numerous phone calls, each time being told you'll have a response in a week or 2. These have proved to be false promises.

When I called today, it seems the person who was dealing with my complaint has left and a new person has been assigned. I was also told that the customer services team are waiting for a response from legal as to which complaints will be upheld and they could not give me a timescale.

I said that I would expect statutory interest at the rate of 8% p.a. to be added to my redress amount for the so far almost 4 month period that my complaint has been outstanding. She said that it was their policy to add statutory interest for the upheld complaints. I also said that I would be expecting even more compensation due to ridiculously long time they are taking over this. The customer services lady seemed as frustrated as me, she apologised again and said they felt like they were in the middle of all this and hoped legal would get back soon.

I asked to speak to someone more senior to help accelerate my complaint. Her manager (Christopher Laurie) will call me on Tuesday when he's next in.

I am holding off going to the FOS until I have had their final response as I'm hoping it won't prove necessary.

Anyone else still waiting for a final response to their complaint?

wonderman

Yes exactly the same story - they keep writing to me every 30 days saying they are sorry they can not deal with it yet and I can complain to the FSA. Frankly I would rather they sorted it - it seems quite straightforward - they messed up with the literature of the fund, denied it, then admitted it, then put money back into the fund - by that time I had seen enough and exited but dont see why I should not be compensated too. I am blowed if they are going to get away with it but also blowed if I am going to waste my time phoning them.

EdGasket

I think you will be lucky to get that claim upheld. You may well have only switched out of the Sterling Fund because of it falling but they will argue that you chose to switch funds and took on any risk associated with whatever you switched into.

Good luck anyway and keep us posted; I'll be watching !

Tom8_2

Since the forced revaluation of the fund in February the value has steadily declined. As noted by wonderman on 13 April it seems Standard Life are quietly devaluing the fund in order to achieve their desired goal. Steady devaluation avoids the risk of widespread outcry as happened last December and January but the outcome will be exactly the same.

For those close to retirement the choice is between the devaluing Sterling One ‘cash’ fund or the Managed Cash fund, about which there is no publicly available data. Switching providers so close to retirement is not an option given the impact of management charges and bid/offer spreads.

Can anyone suggest if the performance of the Sterling One fund over the past 3-months could give rise to a legitimate complaint with the Financial Ombudsman Service – or the FSA – especially for those very close to retirement?

EdGasket

If you are in a stakeholer pension then the charges for switching from one provider to another are negligible; there are no bid-offer spreads with stakeholders. I just switched from Equitable to Standard Life and had no charges whatsoever so presumably I could do the same again. I'm not sure what 'Sterling One' is; I thought this thread was about the Sterling Stakeholder fund but perhaps they are the same? Sounds like it as both going down !
I doubt the FSA would be very interested to be honest; probably just go on about exceptional times and volatile markets etc. but it costs nothing to try a complaint if you want to.

shaunrc

Hi Guys

I was concerned about this happening when this whole issue blew up. Having gone as far as they could to avoid paying out it seems that Standard Life have adopted the policy of death by a thousand cuts.

Last time I contacted Moneybox on Radio 4 and found them not only helpful but willing to publicise the issue. I felt that it was the bad publicity that really put pressure on Standard Life. My suggestion to those who are unhappy is to contact them and try the same methodology....

Good Luck

For EdGasket Standard Life's usual policy is to give a fund an additional name to represent which type of pension it is i.e stakeholder or pension one. The underlying fund is usually the same.

Tom8_2

Given your background as an IFA - and understanding that you are not giving financial advice - are you able to make any comment about the Managed Cash fund versus the Sterling One fund?

wonderman

Tom8 wrote: »

Given your background as an IFA - and understanding that you are not giving financial advice - are you able to make any comment about the Managed Cash fund versus the Sterling One fund?

The managed cash fund is invested in cash deposits and Gilts (roughly 75/25 ratio). It is therefore about as "safe" an investment as is available. The downside is that Std Life see fit to charge a 1% mgt fee for this fund which is completely outrageous. The Sterling fund is invested in a mixture of things - heaven knows what it is as access has been "temporarliy unavailable" for the last several months. Prior to that it was a mix of bonds and "asset backed securities" - about 50/50. Asset backed securities usually means mortgages I believe.

EdGasket

Thank you for the information on the Managed Cash fund.
1% is a lot for just putting money in the bank (or even just for keeping it there !) however as its the only charge on a stakeholder pension I suppose its not too bad; they have to make their money from somewhere. Still I suppose over say 25 years, its a almost staggering 25% of your pension if rates of return are not much above 0% !!!:eek: