Help Choosing Best SIPP Pension

aspiration_2

purch wrote: »

HL are not the best of online brokers, so if buying individual securities is what you plan to do there are numerous better SIPP options.

Purch thanks. Who is the best SIPP provider in terms of cost?

dunstonh

aspiration wrote: »

Purch thanks. Who is the best SIPP provider in terms of cost?

Depends on what type of investments you intend to hold on the SIPP. Some, like HL, are glorified fund supermarkets rather than full SIPPs (based on their target market and how they are priced).

aspiration_2

I will be holding shares and ETFs. No funds.

purch

Sippdeal has a very 'basic' trading platform, but are probably the cheapest currently. If you want to trade anything out of the ordinary (even Fixed Interest) their dealing charges get expensive.

I personally like the TD Waterhouse dealing platform, and the quality of their fills. Cost wise they are probably on a par or close to most of the other low cost SIPP's.

aspiration_2

Thanks.

Anyone else care to say whether SIPPDEAL is a good economical provider?

cing0

Well for those who care, here is whats not written in the blurb for sippdeal and HL:

HL

Have to order funds (UT/OEICs) before 8am to trade funds valued at noon.
No stop loss / limit orders on shares.
They send a lot of crap in the post even if they have your email address.

Sippdeal

Fund Dealing cut off time is 10:00 (for noon valued funds).
I have had problems placing online (limit) orders for gilts and some ETFs.
They won't accept orders by secure messaging (ie I when your logged in and even when the trading system
won't accept it) but it does state that in the blurb.
Some equity trades (limit buys) near close of market don't get executed.
Last downtime for the trading website during market hours was lunch time Tuesday 8th March for 2 hours.
You don't get notifications by email of order expiration.
When you cancel an order before being executed, it takes a short while for it to cancel so you can re-enter it.

Sippdeal are an economical provider for keeping exclusively shares and cash in your account.

Hope that helps and its not to boring.

dunstonh

What exactly do "comparable stakeholder fund" and "personal pension equivalent" mean here?

Stakeholder pensions have a price cap and modern personal pensions can offer very low cost charges. The equivalent investment funds to the ones mentioned are available on stakeholder and personal pensions at much lower cost.

For example, the HL balanced managed fund costs 1.83% in their SIPP. Yet you can get most insurance company balanced managed funds for around 0.6% or lower.

We had someone post here a couple of years back saying they transferred their Aegon Sctot Eq pension to HL to get lower charges and picked the HL balanced managed trust. They were in the Scot Eq mixed fund. The scot eq fund was cheaper and had outperformed the HL fund.

Basically they had fallen for the marketing.

dunstonh

1. In 2005 I belonged to a professional body throughout which I opted into an Aviva (then NU) stakeholder pension, taking the default option of Series 2 Balanced Managed. I only just checked it out recently and found I've about £1,500 there. I'm paying 1%, which I gather was the capped maximum in 2005.

That Aviva fund has outperformed the HL balanced managed trust (just for reference). The 1% is the cap for stakeholder pensions only and is seen as a benchmark on advised pensions. i.e. if you seek advice, the adviser has to show that any more expensive alternative is better for x reasons. For direct to consumer offerings, they dont have to worry about that 1% benchmark.

From what you say, it seems that my HL Bal Man investment is seriously over-priced, and my Aviva Bal Man is somewhat over-priced (though as I now understand it the cap went up to 1.5% in 2006). Seems to me now that I should switch the HL ISA money into something lower-TER, and transfer the Aviva stakeholder to some other stakeholder or SIPP with a charge more like the 0.6% you mentioned. Does that make sense?

If all you are doing is using the HL own brand funds then the SIPP is a waste of money as stakeholder or personal pensions can offer cheaper and better. I wouldnt personally use it for an ISA either.

Take a look at Cavendish and compare the stakeholder and personal pensions they offer as they are a good DIY option. Its not full whole of market and the best pensions going are not there but you are not utilising the features and options of the best providers. You are using the simple option. In which case, cost is the key driver.