Railway Brass avc help please

chelsea5_2

Hi all,
I started Brass 2 fund about 12 years ago and now put in £120 pm. It is worth nearly £16K. I keep hearing that AVC are pointless now due to some changes in pension rules. I understand Brass is now run by Aviva and is just a standard avc. I am not even sure if the railway contributes to this scheme for me too!

Would it be worth me binning this and taking the money out to put elsewhere? My full final salary pension is paid when I am 55 (12yrs) but I want to go at 50 and take min pension (that is why i started Brass!).

Can I take the money and run? Where should I put the money for best return?

I am completely rubbish with these sort of things!:rotfl:

dunstonh

I keep hearing that AVC are pointless now due to some changes in pension rules.

Not pointless. Anything you put aside for retirement provision is not pointless. AVCs are largely obsolete because of modern alternatives that have become better value. That said, some AVCs are still worth having (e.g. if they can be used in the calculation for tax free cash in conjunction with the main scheme or the employer matches contributions).

Can I take the money and run?

no.

Where should I put the money for best return?

About 50,000 investment options available and no-one can tell you what will be best as no-one has a crystal ball.

I am completely rubbish with these sort of things!

I would suggest an IFA in that case because if you want to get it right it will be a case of costing up the options and looking at your personal circumstances. In the last couple of years I have told one person to stay in BRASS and another to come out. There is no one size fits all rule here (the one that came out did so because he was heading towards exceeding his age allowance figure and spouse had no provision for retirement in her name).

chelsea5_2

Thanks. I may see an IFA.

chelsea5_2

Anything I could put my £120 per month in that would help me better in 7-8 yrs for my erly retirement? Would I be able to put it into my pension. I would dread it to open up a further private pension because of the charges!

dunstonh

I would dread it to open up a further private pension because of the charges!

What charges do you think would be different to any other product?

Whether you use an ISA, pension or unwrapped investment or even cash in a savings account, there are charges. You dont suddenly have to pay loads of new ones because you change the wrapper/product.

hard2handle

Hi, best gather all the facts before making any decisions....

You are getting tax relief on your contributions and as you have been contributing for 12 years your employer will be matching some (or all) of your contributions - this is 'money for nothing'!!

Contact the Railway pension outfit ( sorry can't post the link, but just type 'Railway Pensions' or 'rpmi' into your search engine)

to find out what your employer is paying in and also where your contributions are being invested.

There are some new investment funds available. Railway pensions can't give advice, but they can give you all the facts that you will need to weigh up whether to stay put or go elsewhere....

hard2handle

dunstonh wrote: »

That said, some AVCs are still worth having (e.g. if they can be used in the calculation for tax free cash in conjunction with the main scheme or the employer matches contributions).

Good advice from dunstonh: As well as they employer matching of contributions, Brass can be used in the calculation for tax free cash :j

Jupiler

To find out on-line whether your BRASS contributions are being matched, and plenty of other info, including progress with your pension fund, go to the 'pensionfriend' web site. You'll need to register, but once you have done so it is quite a useful facility and includes your BRASS info as well as your Railway Pension Scheme info: https://www.pensionfriend.co.uk/

I've found it only works using the 'Internet Explorer' web browser.

Monthly data on the performance of the different BRASS fund choices can be accessed through the 'railwaypensions' web site at: http://www.railwaypensions.co.uk/content.aspx?Id=269

Hope this helps.