Personal Pension Fund

JamesUK928

Hello

I wondering if I can ask for your advice.

I have just started a personal pension plan with Scottish Widows my total monthly contribution is currently £270, which includes a contribution from my employer. I am also planning to put about £1,000 per annum of my bonus into the scheme.

Currently, I am investing the following funds:

Scottish Widows Property (10% of total monthly contribution)
Scottish Widows European Fund (10%)
SW Fidelity European (10%)
Scottish Widows Invesco Perpetual High Income (20%)
Scottish Widows Newton Oriental (15%)
SW Merill Lynch Emerging Markets (10%)
Scottish Widows Merrill Lynch UK Dynamic Growth (10%)
SW Fidelity 50:50 Special Situations Fund (15%)

I would like ask - does this seem a reasonable spread of funds to invest in? Are there other funds I should be considering?

I am quite happy to accept a ‘higher level’ of risk as I have just started my pension (aged 31).

Many thanks for your help.

Kind regards,
James

dunstonh

You are limited by whats available but the Scot Widows personal pension is not too bad on that front. They do have the very good SW Euro Real Estate fund which has to be a must include on any SW plan. American and Japanese coverage is almost non existant and a SW do have some other specialist funds available which should be considered. Fid Spec Sits is probably not worth including at this time either.

We arent allowed to give financial advice on the forums or make fund recommendations. So, the above are just comments for discussion purposes and should not be considered advice.

JamesUK928

Hello,

Thank you very much for your comments. I did have a couple of questions, I hope you don't mind.

Is there a particular reason why it is probably not worth investing the Fid Spec Sits Fund at the moment?

I have had a look at the past performance (over the last 12 months) of the external and internal Japanese funds which SW offers. The SW Schroder Tokyo Fund, SW Fidelity Fund and SW Japanese Pension all appear to have shown a negative growth over the last 12 months. May be now is the time to invest when the funds aren't doing so well?

I also looked at the SW Fidelity South East Asian Pension which looks as though it has performed well. But it does not appear to invest in Japan.

Your comments or general thoughts would be most appreciated.

Many thanks,

J

dunstonh

Is there a particular reason why it is probably not worth investing the Fid Spec Sits Fund at the moment?

Anthony Bolton is about to retire from managing that fund. Future is unknown. Fidelity have lost a few managers from across their funds recently and there are better options to satisfy your UK All Companies sector allocation.

I have had a look at the past performance (over the last 12 months) of the external and internal Japanese funds which SW offers. The SW Schroder Tokyo Fund, SW Fidelity Fund and SW Japanese Pension all appear to have shown a negative growth over the last 12 months. May be now is the time to invest when the funds aren't doing so well?

Various sectors will have negative years and its been that way for Japan. It doesnt mean you avoid the sector though. Japan is a sector where you do tend to get all or nothing from year to year. You arent investing for the short term but the long term and whilst Japan and North America have performed below other areas, you wouldnt want to leave them out for long term. And as you say, its not a bad time to look at them (what goes up comes down, what goes down comes up).

I also looked at the SW Fidelity South East Asian Pension which looks as though it has performed well. But it does not appear to invest in Japan.

That falls in the Far East exc Japan Sector. You would include that sector in addition to Japan not in place of (like Newton Oriental).

SW Euro Real estate wall fall under the Global Specialist sector.