Stakeholder pension help please

engltayl

I currently hold a norwich union stakeholder pension through work. I am currently investing in their balanced managed S2 fund(80%) and S2 property fund(20%). I am not very knowledgable about shares and their dealings. What i want to know is, if the value (share price) of my fund im investing in falls, does this mean that all the money that ive invested into that fund over the years will fall, or only the money ive put into the fund recently.

If anybody has advice on this and any other tips on stakeholder pensions i would be very greatful!

cheers....

Tahiti

The value of the fund overall will fluctuate. The only way to secure any gains that you've made to date is to swap them to a low risk/return fund.

dunstonh

What i want to know is, if the value (share price) of my fund im investing in falls, does this mean that all the money that ive invested into that fund over the years will fall, or only the money ive put into the fund recently.

Each month you buy units. The price of those units fluctuates based on underlying assets contained within the investment funds chosen.

Example,
£100pm contribution buying units.
month 1 - unit price 1.00 = 100 units
month 2 - unit price 1.02 = 98.03 units
month 3 - unit price 1.04 = 96.15 units

At the end of three months you have 294.18 units. The value of your pension will be the number of units multiplied by the unit price. So, if the unit price was 1.08 you would have 294.18 x 1.08 = £317.71 as your value. If the unit price was 1.02, you would have 294.18 x 1.02 = £300.06.

So, the value of your total investment can go down as well as up. The degree of that volatility depends on the funds you have chosen. There are 23 funds available on the NU stakeholder currently. The NU property fund is a low/medium risk fund and very highly regarded. The balanced managed fund is medium risk and not very well regarded. They certainly have better alternatives which could be used in a portfolio to suit your risk profile.

You will probably find a moderator moves this thread to pensions. So keep an eye in there for future responses.