Allied Dunbar or now Zurich Pension

Belm1221

Hello.
I just wanted to post to see if anyone has any advise for me.
I have had and Allied Dunbar altho now its Zurich pension for ages back to about 1996. Now back then i sort of had no idea what i was doing and just knew i needed something to get me saving. But recently i have been looking to see if this is the right pension for me. I remmember it being sold to me as and Adaptable Pension plan and that i can sort of control it however needed payments up / down or stop if i need to. Well a few years ago i decided to fill in the form that come to me every year and increase it by a chunk from about £100pm to £200pm. I then got call from them saying that it would be something like 3 years untill these increases made it into my fund to cover fees and admin costs ????? so i sacked it off. To me this is not very adaptable or helpfull. Also now i look into the numbers and today the value of my pot or whatever if i transfer it is less than what i have paid in. Surly this can be right after 15years it must have made something in that time ?? Could i be doing something wrong and should i be changing the was it runs or moving it ??
Any helpfull pointers would be great.

Also the IFA i got it of has retired and i was given a new company from Zurich. Now its not i don't trust them but how could i go about getting a fully impartial review of where i'm at, where i need to go and what i need to be doing without getting sold something that suits the adviser ??
Cheers B.

jem16

Belm1221 wrote: »

Also the IFA i got it of has retired and i was given a new company from Zurich.

Sounds like you saw a tied FA from Allied Dunbar (now Zurich) rather than an IFA.

Now its not i don't trust them but how could i go about getting a fully impartial review of where i'm at, where i need to go and what i need to be doing without getting sold something that suits the adviser ??
Cheers B.

See an IFA - see https://www.unbiased.co.uk if you have no recoemmendations from family or friends who have used an IFA.

dunstonh

Also the IFA i got it of has retired

Allied Dunbar sold their products via a tied salesforce. They never made them available via IFAs. Partly because no IFA would use them as they were so damned expensive.

where i need to go and what i need to be doing without getting sold something that suits the adviser ??

See an IFA. Jem posted a link which has about 99% coverage.

Belm1221

dunstonh wrote: »

Allied Dunbar sold their products via a tied salesforce. They never made them available via IFAs. Partly because no IFA would use them as they were so damned expensive.


Hey Guys
Thanks for the info. I'll get onto this.
But does this also mean that i have a very bad crappy pension ??
I hope not, but then i supose its better to find out now and do something about it than in 25 years time.

Cheers B.

Loughton_Monkey

I worked for many years in the Financial Services industry. My perception of Allied Dunbar was of an outfit that sailed extremely close to the wind, using 'high pressure' sales tactics from a tied salesforce selling very poor value (high charging) products.

Hence I am not surprise that your investments have not 'performed'. You need to ensure that any future pension investment goes to a more low cost and 'dynamic' pension plan, and that you review the optimum strategy with the old plan [which could be either to transfer it, or maybe leaving it alone]. Either way, you need a good IFA unless you have the knowledge to do this yourself.

dunstonh

I worked for many years in the Financial Services industry. My perception of Allied Dunbar was of an outfit that sailed extremely close to the wind, using 'high pressure' sales tactics from a tied salesforce selling very poor value (high charging) products.

They didn't get the nickname Allied Crowbar for nothing.

Loughton_Monkey

dunstonh wrote: »

They didn't get the nickname Allied Crowbar for nothing.

.... certainly not for nothing. It cost them huge amounts in fines, I recall.

ahandpatsy

actually the unbiased website does not have 99% coverage

you have to pay a fee to be on it

there are 3 advisers who live within 1 mile of me and none of them are on this website

use google, yellow pages or best of all personal reccomendations

dunstonh

actually the unbiased website does not have 99% coverage

you have to pay a fee to be on it

You dont have to pay to be on it. Non-paying IFAs get a smaller entry in a shade of grey. Paying IFAs get a larger, blue entry.

Google is a poor source as you dont know if its an IFA or tied FA. Yellow pages will only show those that have paid to have an entry.