Shall I put redundancy into pension fund

dunstonh

I have contacted Scottish Equitable and have been unpleasantly surprised by the info on charges.

Charges are (if I've understood it properly) :

1% Annual Management Charge on total value of fund
0.75% Admin Charge (it's version 4) (I think on the value of the fund)
£38.88 Annual Policy Charge
5% "bid over spread" would apply if I made contributions but I don't currently.

That is expensive. Although if its a pre 2001 pension, that was the sort of charges that used to exist in those days. Things have moved on a lot which is why I always say that its best to review all pre 2001 pensions.

I have apparently selected 100% Mixed.

Again, a sign of the times. Investment strategies have moved on and whilst a novice adviser would still pick a single fund solution (ignoring fund of funds which may appear as a single fund but actually invest into a range of others) you would expect better nowadays.

If I try to find an IFA do you think it's important that an he/she is physically local or do you think these days IFA's can work successfully over the phone and email ?

I dont think its important to have a face to face contact but it is important to have an adviser that is easily contactable. Much of my new business is postal or email nowadays. It seems to work fine because its the same information provided but it allows you to read it in your own time without having someone sit there in front of you waiting for you to sign an application. You can read the pre-issued recommendation report and research and query things to your satisfcation before signing anything without any time pressure.

It also removes any possible sales patter from the review. Its purely a facts based transaction.