Pension advice.

ReportInvestor

whiteflag wrote:

Sorry whats happened to that famous sense of humour Ed uses?

That's more unnecessary, off topic, unproductive, personal innuendo since this was a comment about my post, not Ed's.

dunstonh

Normally, a company can negotiate lower charges on a "bulk buy" basis for pensions than are obtainable by an individual.

An IFA on fee basis, as has been highlighted here, can easily beat some money purchase schemes and many GPPP/GSHPs.

I would like to be able to comment in future, like anyone else here, without unnecessary inuendo.

So would the IFAs. However, more often than not you and ed post with an agenda and inudendo.

I wonder why an IFA would suggest you shouldn't look into this aspect?You may draw your own conclusions as to what might be the motivation.

If the sun didn't rise tomorrow, Ed would blame IFAs. Remember that when you read her comments. That is the only motivation to be concerned with here. Oh and that reportinvestor is her poodle and agrees with everything she says.

The reason it is unimportant is that the details we would need is far greater than can be posted. Plus it is not a concern of ours. We are not going to do a transfer analysis, we are not going to see the policy breakdowns and projections that the IFA has obtained. So any comments we make are going to be based on very limited information. You cannot just transfer a pension for transferring sake. You need to have good reasons and prove behind the recommendation as laid out in the FSA guide. A guide which encourages IFAs to do transfers when appropriate.

All the regulars here know that Ed is purely looking for an excuse to stop you using the IFA and is fishing for things to put you off. Please remember that when you read her comments.

whiteflag_3

ReportInvestor wrote:

That's more unnecessary, off topic, unproductive, personal innuendo since this was a comment about my post, not Ed's.

Well dont reply on behalf of other posters then

Edinburghlass_2

I am reading this thread with interest due to a similar situation as robowen's, now I can't understand what anyone is suggesting he do because of all the in-fighting going on

whiteflag_3

Edinburghlass wrote:

I am reading this thread with interest due to a similar situation as robowen's, now I can't understand what anyone is suggesting he do because of all the in-fighting going on

If you post your situation I will try to help.

robowen

Appologies for the delay in supplying more info.
The company pension scheme is a group personal plan(stakeholder) . Theres only around 20 employees, so not sure how much discount they could of achieved
I'm told its only growing at 3% (scottish equitable).

I've got an old prudential personal pension.
I've got ananother works plan with scottish amicable( group stakeholder pension plan.

IFA says, all are not doing as well as a scandia life plan which is averaging 9% growth .
He suggests that the fees are more than out weighed by the increase in growth the plan will achieve.

I suppose the transfer value must be around £36000, the fees will be 5% = £1800. He did say he'll split the fees with me and put the rest back in the pot .

Concensus seems to be that alls in order What about this scandia life plan ? is this as good as he says ?? (not sure of the spelling of scandia).

Thanks for the replys so far ! :T

rob

whiteflag_3

robowen wrote:

Appologies for the delay in supplying more info.
The company pension scheme is a group personal plan(stakeholder) . Theres only around 20 employees, so not sure how much discount they could of achieved
I'm told its only growing at 3% (scottish equitable).

I've got an old prudential personal pension.
I've got ananother works plan with scottish amicable( group stakeholder pension plan.

IFA says, all are not doing as well as a scandia life plan which is averaging 9% growth .
He suggests that the fees are more than out weighed by the increase in growth the plan will achieve.

I suppose the transfer value must be around £36000, the fees will be 5% = £1800. He did say he'll split the fees with me and put the rest back in the pot .

Concensus seems to be that alls in order What about this scandia life plan ? is this as good as he says ?? (not sure of the spelling of scandia).

Thanks for the replys so far ! :T

rob

Thanks for the info. No doubt your IFA will have explained the effect of the additional charges on the Skandia Plan. You have to decide if you feel the extra charges are worth paying for the extra fund choice.

I find most of my clients dont want a huge fund choice, therefore dont see the point of paying additional costs for something they wont use.

You also need to look at your existing Scot Eq stakeholder as they have funds that are not bad as the one you appear to be in.

dunstonh

The Scot Eq plan is not an occupational scheme but just a group stakeholder. So totally disregard Ed's comments in this thread. Scot Eq have an above average fund spread but some key areas are missing.

I've got an old prudential personal pension.

Very easy to justify transferring out of the Pru scheme. I did one this morning and two last week and I have one on the go with a forum member who asked me to look into theirs. Unless it is an old retirement annuity contract with certain guarantees, they have little to offer.

I've got ananother works plan with scottish amicable( group stakeholder pension plan.

Again, easy to justify.

IFA says, all are not doing as well as a scandia life plan which is averaging 9% growth .
He suggests that the fees are more than out weighed by the increase in growth the plan will achieve.

For single premium business and where there is more than 19 years to go, the Skandia personal pension (on full commission terms) is actually cheaper than a stakeholder pension when looking at default fund. Although there is a 5% initial charge, they pay 1% bonus every 5 years from the end of year 4, so you get that back again. Plus in your case, the IFA is not taking the lot.

Skandia have the larget personal pension fund range out there and if you look at any top 10 pension fund league table, it is dominated by Skandia funds. However, that should be largely ignored as that is more down to availability of funds across the sectors and they have funds in all the sectors, unlike most other providers.

what about this scandia life plan ? is this as good as he says ??

Assuming you will not be in the default fund (cautious managed), then it will be a little more expensive over the term than a stakeholder. However, year in, year out, the Skandia personal pensions on my books generally out perform the other stakeholder pensions and personal pensions.

We can't do a full review of another IFAs recommendations as we dont know the full facts. However based on my experience (which accounts for about 300-500 pension transfers a year), what you have said would not give me any concern and there is a very strong chance the Skandia pension will beat the stakeholders you have.

robowen

He explained the 5 levels of risk involved and we agreed on the medium risk with 20% saved for higher risk does that make sense ?

The bottom risk being banks b/societies etc etc.

dunstonh

robowen wrote:

He explained the 5 levels of risk involved and we agreed on the medium risk with 20% saved for higher risk does that make sense ?

The bottom risk being banks b/societies etc etc.

Sounds very normal. The 5 levels are fairly industry standard.