Making sense of pensions please help

noodles42

Hi I am really after a bit of guidance on pensions as I really am quite clueless on this as it is usually left to my IFA who my company pays a monthly retainer to advise us.

However, I have just noticed that as well as this payment they are also getting payments from my pension company based on giving me the advice so I want to make sure they are giving me the best advice rather than just where their biggest commission is coming from - clueless and cynical me:rolleyes:

Basically I am 33 this year, I have 3 small pensions (1 paid up with Scottish Widows, 1 paid up with NU and 1 open with Scottish Equitable) the 2 paid up ones have £2500 and £3500 respectively. I have no statements on the current pension but imagine it to be around £5000 ish

The current pension is invested in moderate risk

I want to retire at the age of 55-60

with the markets the way they are should I be looking at investing more as I still have a number of years to run?

any intelligent questions I should be asking of my IFA?

Any help would be very much appreciated

dunstonh

I want to retire at the age of 55-60

Unless you are paying a lot in at this point or have other income providing assets, those ages are not likely. A rough guide is to have £35k in your retirement planning by age 35. You have around a third of that.

with the markets the way they are should I be looking at investing more as I still have a number of years to run?

Now much are you paying now?

any intelligent questions I should be asking of my IFA?

Basically what you have asked here. That would include why are you paying fee basis and commission and why you have 3 pensions and not 1 (could be good reasons but worth checking).

Also, with a retainer, you expect the IFA to have the sort of software that is geared to long term planning and reporting. So, questions about things like how much should I pay, how much will get etc should be easily answered.

noodles42

Thanks for this

I have been paying all my spare cash against my mortgage (I actually understand this and so it was easy)

Currently paying in about 120 a month but realistically could up this to 250-300

I do also have an old endownment that should finish in 12 years that should come back with £15800

I also have some small savings

noodles42

Opps - drastically underestimated my current pension - as I mentioned I haven't got a statement but working out how long i have been paying in the total contributions (not taking account of fees) are actually closer to £14000 - did I mention I was clueless at pensions???

whu

noodles42 wrote: »

Thanks for this

I have been paying all my spare cash against my mortgage (I actually understand this and so it was easy)

Currently paying in about 120 a month but realistically could up this to 250-300

I do also have an old endownment that should finish in 12 years that should come back with £15800

I also have some small savings

As Dunstonh suggets ask for a breakdown of how much you are likely to get if you put in £200/250 etc and that will give you an idea of how much to put in each month - also remember the tax relief benefits of putting more into a pension

noodles42

Thanks guys - got all my pension information and armed with what I need to get some answers - including why they are getting paid twice - this shouldn't happen should it?

chesky369

.........my IFA who my company pays .............

then s/he isn't really YOUR IFA - if push came to shove and there was a conflict of interest, the company is the actual client. If I were you I'd invest in my own IFA.

gred

Noodles 42 - do you know the source of your motto on every little bit helps? I'd like to know the origin - you see my grandmother used to say something similar, but it was the old lady who peed in the sea. ' thanks

Debt_Free_Chick

noodles42 wrote: »

Thanks guys - got all my pension information and armed with what I need to get some answers - including why they are getting paid twice - this shouldn't happen should it?

It depends. The retainer may be topping up the commission to the level of the full fee.

Might also be helpful if you look at this another way ......

Your employer is providing the services of an IFA (which many companies do not). The IFA's costs are being met out of the contribution the company pays, plus a separate fee paid by the company too.

If you retain your own IFA you would have to pay a fee for any advice they offer.

Commission should not really be an issue, as the charges in the pension contract would not be less, if you bought the same pension contract direct from the provider.

dunstonh

If its a COMP/CIMP then the IFA acting as administrator is less likely to want to give individual advice. If its a GPPP or GSHP then its likely that the IFA will give advice to individual members (smaller scheme, more likely to be local and likely to be a smaller IFA who relies on goodwill).