Confused & Disappointed - Pension Transfer

JohnG

Hi all,

Look, I deeply regret how this thread has unravelled, I truly had not expected such heated discussions though I see now on other threads that it's not that unusual so perhaps I shouldn't be so shocked. :eek:

I will be perfectly honest, I have generally found Edinvestors information frank, very helpful and generally appropriate to my financial issues. Indeed I was happy to take Edinvestors advice on my recent endowment problem and have surrendered those now.

I havn't felt I was being misled or steered towards a particular direction but obviously the reaction from Whiteflag does raise questions and further concerns which is a bit frustrating as I am anxious to do the right thing - I hope that is understandable?

As things stand I have yet to make a decision, I havnt called my IFA as yet however I have just requested a SIPPS info booklet from H&L (Saw they were promoting this in the natl paper recently) so that I can read up on SIPPS and compare it with a STAKEHOLDER.

My main concern at the start of this was whether the IFAs fee/commission, (whatever ever you want to call it), was normal as I had nothing to compare it with. From what I can gather it can vary but £250 per hour is acceptable if it gets the right results? Well I'm afraid I'm not convinced I will be getting value for money or the right results so I will be looking for something else and with a different provider.

Meanwhile I greatly appreciate the help that has been given and very much hope that this matter doesn't put people off either for those looking for help or those willing to provide it?

Cheers :beer:
John

JohnG

whiteflag wrote:

Originally posted by Edinvestor to JohnG



Now it all makes perfect sense.

JohnG im kicking myself that I didnt do as i usually do and read other posts before I replied.Otherwise I would have known you already had your own "advisor" on this site and I wouldnt have wasted my time in trying to help !

WHITEFLAG,

I'm not happy about this accusation by the way, you make it sound like I was deliberately trying to trick people like yourself into somesort of confrontation!

This is totally incorrect, I didn't ask for Edinvestor directly I was happy for any advice available from whom ever was happy to respond if that included Edinvestor then great but I wanted to be open to others who might of been in a similar situation to me too!

I get the feeling your somewhat paranoid - you might need to be careful as it could cloud your judgement as well as others!

John

EdInvestor

John

If you want to avoid the risk of the 8% MVA going up at Equitable,one thing you could do while you're pondering where to move the money is to temporarily switch it out of the With profits fund and into the Cash fund. You can do this on the phone. It will have the effect of also moving you out of Equitable Life and into the fund management operation of the Halifax.

There is some concern that the MVA could rise because a lot of people are said to be waiting for A-day ( which was yesterday) so they can move out AVCs and protected rights pensions and take the 25% cash, which wasn't allowed before. If this amounted to a "run" on the fund, the MVA could go up. I have no way of knowing whether this will happen or not of course, but there are a lot of AVC and PR pension policyholders still in Equitable.

Doing this won't entirely get you out of Equitable (you could still be hit if it went into administration ) so I don't suggest you stay at the Halifax. But if you park your money there for the moment, it would remove the risk that the exit penalty might be raised - and you might even get a slightly higher return in the Cash fund these days than at EL WP.

JohnG

Many thanks Edinvestor, I hear what your saying regarding getting the funds out of EL and do recall this is issue of the transfer fee being raised before.

Your suggestion sounds sensible - only trouble is I have a massive aversion to the Halifax after a number of bad experiences with them. :mad:

Is this the only cash fund I can switch to in which case I would have to swallow my pride?

Cheers
John

whiteflag_3

JohnG wrote:

WHITEFLAG,

I'm not happy about this accusation by the way, you make it sound like I was deliberately trying to trick people like yourself into somesort of confrontation!

This is totally incorrect, I didn't ask for Edinvestor directly I was happy for any advice available from whom ever was happy to respond if that included Edinvestor then great but I wanted to be open to others who might of been in a similar situation to me too!

I get the feeling your somewhat paranoid - you might need to be careful as it could cloud your judgement as well as others!

John

What accusation, I accused you of nothing, I was annoyed with my self in not spotting you had a relationship with Ed. In fact you have posted you have already acted on her advice :eek: . Being an IFA I cant give you advice on this site, Ed being an amateur can ( although there are board rules she breaks on a daily basis- See pals thread -reorganising this board).

With the greatest respect, I spent large part of a busy day for me tryng to provide you with factual ( Free ) information to balance what is always a sided attack on IFAs from Ed.

My judgement is certainly not clouded as if you have taken the time to read my posts you would see, I have simply been providing you with the facts.

The fact that you have chosen to completely ignore free help from two professionals help makes me very frustrated but not paranoid!

EdInvestor

JohnG wrote:

Your suggestion sounds sensible - only trouble is I have a massive aversion to the Halifax after a number of bad experiences with them. :mad: Is this the only cash fund I can switch to in which case I would have to swallow my pride?

The reason it would end up (briefly) with the Halifax is that Halifax bought the Equitable unit-linked fund management operation at the time of the closure.Equitable now consits only of the WP fund. BUT it's unlikely you would notice the Halifax connection - to all intents and purposes you would still deal with the Equitable admin people you deal with now.

I do know what you mean about the Halifax, having been a Bank of Scotland customer before it was comprehensively ruined :mad:

JohnG

whiteflag wrote:

What accusation, I accused you of nothing, I was annoyed with my self in not spotting you had a relationship with Ed. In fact you have posted you have already acted on her advice :eek: . Being an IFA I cant give you advice on this site, Ed being an amateur can ( although there are board rules she breaks on a daily basis- See pals thread -reorganising this board).

With the greatest respect, I spent large part of a busy day for me tryng to provide you with factual ( Free ) information to balance what is always a sided attack on IFAs from Ed.

My judgement is certainly not clouded as if you have taken the time to read my posts you would see, I have simply been providing you with the facts.

The fact that you have chosen to completely ignore free help from two professionals help makes me very frustrated but not paranoid!

"Otherwise I would have known you already had your own "advisor" on this site and I wouldnt have wasted my time in trying to help !

Beggin your pardon Whiteflag but I read into this comment that you are making an accusation and that together with an icon signifying that I have done something I shouldn't of surely confirms it!?

Also, I regret to have to say that I havn't been able to view your posts as actual "Help" as they appear mainly to be heavily and angrilly criticising Edinvestor, it's as though you have some personal grudge going on there and my natural reaction is one of dismay.

I will go through the thread again to try to read between the lines as if there is genuine help being given from yourself then I will acknowledge it - I wouldn't want to appear ungrateful I can assure you.

Regards
John

JohnG

EdInvestor wrote:

The reason it would end up (briefly) with the Halifax is that Halifax bought the Equitable unit-linked fund management operation at the time of the closure.Equitable now consits only of the WP fund. BUT it's unlikely you would notice the Halifax connection - to all intents and purposes you would still deal with the Equitable admin people you deal with now.

I do know what you mean about the Halifax, having been a Bank of Scotland customer before it was comprehensively ruined :mad:

Hi Ed,

Have just called EL and they said they don't have a "Cash Fund"? They have a "Money Fund" which is unit linked based so I guess that's the same thing but wanted to double check before I do anything I might regret?

I got the feeling they were just being a bit awkward in not confirming it was the same thing but it left me feeling slightly dubious and uncertain.

Appreciate yr confirmation

Cheers
John

EdInvestor

..it's as though you have some personal grudge going on there...

I think it boils down to personal attitudes - these days quite a lot of people like to do their own investing and some advisors have a problem accepting this.Others don't.Personally, my view is that advisors can come in very handy with admin matters relating particularly to pensions, where it's quite easy for an ill-informed person to make a costly error. ( See the NPI thread for the kind of thing I mean.) I am not very convinced about most advisors' abilities in the investment field however and this thread is an example of that.

The fact is that advisors' abilities and qualifications vary widely, making it all a bit hit and miss.The business is changing rapidly, with "new model" and "old model" advisors both in action in the field. In addition the constraints the advisors now suffer under from the need to protect their backs against misselling cases is clearly causing a "box ticking" mentality in some quarters.Add to that the commission bias problem and the pension churning problem ( now causing great concern at the life companies themselves) and the whole area starts to get potentially quite compromised as far as the ordinary investor is concerned.

Which is why more and more people are turning upon websites like these - along with advisors and people like me who have knowledge and experience in some of the areas where people need help.

There are bound to be arguments, aren't there? .

This has been one of them.

Paul_Herring

JohnG wrote:

Also, I regret to have to say that I havn't been able to view your posts as actual "Help" as they appear mainly to be heavily and angrilly criticising Edinvestor, it's as though you have some personal grudge going on there and my natural reaction is one of dismay.

I beleive you may be misreading this situation slightly.

Edinvestor is not an IFA, and is able to give biased advice (subject to the board's T&C's.)

Whiteflag is an IFA, and as such is unable to give 'advice' due to further restrictions imposed by the industry they work for, but are able to give facts (and usually do - the ones that are wrong/omitted by others' postings.)

Since Ed (and some other posters) sometimes posts only one way of doing things; sometimes giving biased opinions/omitting facts. Whiteflag (and indeed other IFA's on this board) feel compelled to give other options available and argue against previous suggestions made. Occasionally, this is interpreted by third parties as animosity. It's not usually intended to be - merely trying to 'balance things out' as it were.