Standard Life PPOne Changing Funds

Bonzowaite

Hi,

I am 34 and have a standard life personal pension "one". I have suffered similar losses over the past year, but pot has increased about 15-20% in last 2 weeks. Fund is only worth about £13,000 and is invested as follows:

50% in Pension Managed One Fund
25% in Pension Cautious Managed One Fund
25% in Pension with Profits One Fund

My question is - I am convinced that the FTSE will be testing the bottoms by the end of the Summer and want to change funds to protect these recent gains. Can anyone suggest any reasonably safe S/L funds to transfer to and what the charges are for changing as I can't find them on the Standard Life website.

Thanks in advance.

PS. Does anyone know how I can get more control over my pot in the sense that I can choose the investments (ie. is there a pension equivalent to a trading ISA?)

dunstonh

PS. Does anyone know how I can get more control over my pot in the sense that I can choose the investments (ie. is there a pension equivalent to a trading ISA?)

Pensions have virtually the same investment options as an ISA. You can hold shares, direct investments (such as ITs), unit trusts etc as well as pension funds. A SIPP would give you more investment choice than a personal pension.

Bonzowaite

dunstonh wrote: »

Pensions have virtually the same investment options as an ISA. You can hold shares, direct investments (such as ITs), unit trusts etc as well as pension funds. A SIPP would give you more investment choice than a personal pension.

Thanks for the reply. I have spent the last half hour researching sipps online whilst waiting for replies. Are Sippdeal considered a good option for a sipp? Also, I can't find any transfer charge details on the Standard Life website - funny how they don't advertise these clearly! Any idea what the likely exit/transfer charge would be?

EdInvestor

Bonzowaite wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. I have spent the last half hour researching sipps online whilst waiting for replies. Are Sippdeal considered a good option for a sipp?

Yes.Good admin and lowest cost for shares/ETFs,gilts ITs etc
https://www.h-l.co.uk will be cheaper for unit trusts.

Also, I can't find any transfer charge details on the Standard Life website - funny how they don't advertise these clearly! Any idea what the likely exit/transfer charge would be?

Should be free but there might be an MVA exit penalty on the WP bit of the fund.

dunstonh

Also, I can't find any transfer charge details on the Standard Life website - funny how they don't advertise these clearly!

No need to advertise something that doesnt exist. There are no transfer charges on their PPP. However, one of the funds you have is potentially subject to a market value reduction. They give you this information on request. I believe the show it to you online as well if you have a login.

Bonzowaite

dunstonh wrote: »

No need to advertise something that doesnt exist. There are no transfer charges on their PPP. However, one of the funds you have is potentially subject to a market value reduction. They give you this information on request. I believe the show it to you online as well if you have a login.

Thanks for that. I have seen the MVR online and its about £150. Forgive my paranoia but I found it hard to believe that a financial institution wouldn't have a more savage penalty for leaving.

Bonzowaite

I am thinking about investing 60% in managed funds and managing the remainder portfolio myself. I also think its a good time to increase my monthly payments. In those circumstances, would sippdeal or HL be cheaper?

dunstonh

Forgive my paranoia but I found it hard to believe that a financial institution wouldn't have a more savage penalty for leaving.

They used to a long time ago.

In those circumstances, would sippdeal or HL be cheaper?

I would guess Sippdeal as HL isnt that cheap and is geared for funds and not direct holdings.

EdInvestor

Bonzowaite wrote: »

I am thinking about investing 60% in managed funds and managing the remainder portfolio myself. I also think its a good time to increase my monthly payments. In those circumstances, would sippdeal or HL be cheaper?

Hard to say.The charges are set out on the two websites so you can work it out for yourself.If you expect to trade quite a bit, you might like to look at Sippdealextra, where you pay an annual fee but can choose a possibly cheaper broker than the one used for the plain vanilla Sippdeal product ,which has no annual fee,and is good for LTBH investors. HL will charge you a fee plus dealing costs for the non-funds part of the portfolio.

Bonzowaite

I have been comparing HL and Sippdeal for costs. They seem to be almost identical so far as share dealing costs are concerned, but HL doesn't charge for fund. I appreciate that for volume sippdealextra would be cheaper. On reflection, I think I will probably not spend much time buying individual company shares and stick with index/commodity tracker funds for the part of the portfolio managed by myself.

That being so i can't find any reason to go with sippdeal given the £20 fund dealing charge. Am I missing some hidden charge at HL?

Also, once a sipp is set up, what is the timescale for executing fund trades? With my SL pension it takes 2-3 days and so having given them notice to transfer my funds in original post to very safe funds, I am at the whim of the markets for that period before I know the sale price? Is this still the case with HL and sippdeal? This delay can obviously make a significant difference in price.

thanks

EdInvestor

Bonzowaite wrote: »

I have been comparing HL and Sippdeal for costs. They seem to be almost identical so far as share dealing costs are concerned, but HL doesn't charge for fund.

I appreciate that for volume sippdealextra would be cheaper.

It's not volume so much as high frequency of trading which would potentially make Sippdealextra cheaper.

On reflection, I think I will probably not spend much time buying individual company shares and stick with index/commodity tracker funds for the part of the portfolio managed by myself.

Best to check HL's policy on tracker funds, IIRC they charge you for these investments as the trackers don't pay commission.

Also, once a sipp is set up, what is the timescale for executing fund trades? With my SL pension it takes 2-3 days ....Is this still the case with HL and sippdeal?

In my experience the delay is the same.

Have you looked at the SIPPdealextra SIPP using Selftrade, I seem to remember they had a deal similar to HL on regular contributions, but also covering ETFs.

http://www.selftrade.co.uk/services/personal-dealing/sipp.php