Phoenix endowment performance

yewtree

Dear all,
my first post and about something that obviously crops up alot.
We have two unit linked endowments originally from Royal and Sun Alliance, now owned by Phoenix. They are going to underperform and we've tried to compensate for this by gradually converting bits of our mortgage to repayment.
We're trying to decide whether to surrender them, but wondered if anyone knew how to find out (if it's possible) whether Phoenix are actually doing a good job with the fund?
Another thing is, is there any way I can find out ....well I'm not sure how to word this. I'm concerned that if our endowments are some of the last to finish, how do we know there's going to be any money left for us? (is that a silly question?)
Also, I noticed that some people are able to calculate whether cashing in an endowment is worthwhile - can someone tell me how to do this, or point me to a link that does......?
Thanks in advance
y:)

EdInvestor

Your endowments are unit linked and not in the With profits fund, so there is no question of there being no money left.

Post some figures for a view.

Surrender value
Monthly premium
Maturity date
maturity projections

yewtree

Thanks Edinvestor, I'll ask about the values today.

In the meantime, and with apologies for my ignorance, what do you mean by "there is no question of there being no money left"?
The value of a unit depends on what they are invested in. How do
phoenix make an income on our units? By buying/selling and taking a
transaction charge? They could just buy and sell a lot without
worrying too much about investment performance. How do I know if they're doing that?
Units do sounds more secure, but I'm still wary of being stitched up by fund managers who don't give two hoots because it's a closed fund and they don't have to worry about attracting new clients.
thanks again
y:)

EdInvestor

The value of a unit depends on what they are invested in. How do
phoenix make an income on our units? By buying/selling and taking a
transaction charge?

That's one way, they also charge an annual managment fee.

They could just buy and sell a lot without
worrying too much about investment performance. How do I know if they're doing that?

You don't.Quite a lot of funds do that, sad to say. It eats into returns quite badly and these charges don't have to be revealed.

What funds is your money invested in?

yewtree

Ahh, I see.
My money's in the 'Managed' fund.....

The other thing I wonder is, Do I own these units or does the company? Because I wonder what happens if the company folds.

Oh and I've got some figures for you:
Surrender value 9950
Monthly premium 40
Maturity date 2016
maturity projections 18800 (4%), 26000 (8%)

to meet a 26000 interest only portion of the mortgage by 2016.

ta
y:)

EdInvestor

Hi again Yewtree

If you cashed in this policy and used the surrender value and the premiums to overpay a mortgage with a 5% interest rate, your return would be 22,407 at maturity.

If you put it on deposit @ a net 4% also paying in the premiums to maturity your return would be 20615.

If you invested the money in a modern risk-based product such as a selection of unit trusts also paying in the premiums and achieved growth of 8% over the preiod, you would end up with 28,733.

The lower forewcasts from phoenix for your policy at the same growth rates reflect the cost of the life cover when you took the policy out (which is now a lot cheaper) and high charges.

I'd have thought you could do better than this policy.

yewtree

Thanks again. You've given me much to think on.
y:)