Pension Funds

Crusader232

Dear All,
I wanted to ask if anyone had any ideas on,with a lump sum and wanting to put it in the best possible pension fund with the best possible interest rate, all low risk? Please advise,look forward to hearing asap,
kind regards,
CRUSADER

Loughton_Monkey

Not sure you can get any sensible answers to this! "Lump Sum" needs definition - at least ball park. You cannot put in more than you earn in any tax year and get tax relief.

Pension funds do not strictly have an "interest rate". You normally invest in fund(s) which can grow or fall. No such thing as best growth AND low risk. Charges/Fees also need consideration.

I suggest you do a bit of background research generally on pensions. Just as a benchmark, perhaps look at Scottish Widows. I deal with them, finding them fair, efficient, with good products - but there are others. At one stage, you will need to decide on funds. Try googling a site like Trustnet. They issue performance figures on just about every UK pension fund, which you can filter and rank by Geography (e.g. UK, USA, Asia... ), by Fund Focus (e.g. Equities, Property, Fixed Interest....), or by Sector (e.g. Commodities, Specialist, Cautious...). You can also filter by fund manager. Here, you will learn the huge range of historic growths (and losses) achieved for each type of fund.

I'd also suggest you take a step back and think more of Retirement Planning rather than simply trying to salt away a 'lump sum' into a pension. A pension fund may not be the optimum place for this money, but no-one can say without more specific background information.

yelf

what do you mean by "best possible fund"? define "low risk".

Cautious_Investor_3

Hi

I think the previous posts are spot on.

You really do need to look at the bigger picture, start by asking yourself when you want to retire and then look at the provision that you already have in place. For example have you any old pensions from previous employers that you have forgotten about? Get a State Pension forecast by completing a BR19 for (Google BR19 and a PDF of it will come up).

Once you have seen what you already have in place you will be able to then work out what additional provision you need to make.

Assuming you still want to invest a lump sum to help with your retirement, you will then need to consider whether the benefits of placing it in a pension and compare these to an alternative investment vehicle such as an ISA.

I'd suggest that you take some advice from a reputable IFA who is experienced in cashflow and retirement planning, yes you will have to pay for the advice, but if you are a novice investor I believe it would be worth it.

The Cautious Investor

gerry12

Having reached retirement age and seen the benefits given to those who haven't saved, in hindsight saving in a pension is probably good for a 40% tax payer but i would not have bothered as an ordinary tax payer. ISA first definitely. Of course hindsught is wonderful, who knows if the state will still have pension credit and council tax relief in 20/30 years time.