Standard Life Pension

[Deleted User]

thriftybabe you don`t have to present any case to your advisor. He is giving you BAD advice. Dunstonh is giving you excellent advice

I sacked our ifa. Just phone him and get some letters off to whatever he invested you in

He sounds like a thoroughly bad rogue to me. Portfolio building is all about balance and risk management

thriftybabe

I know what you mean. Dunston is great and my husband has mentioned speaking to him about our finances. We want to clear this mess first. I just want him to come to our house and cringe when i present him with the evidence. We have known him for years. My husband has done work in his house and he even asked us to invest in one of his property ventures (thank goodness we didn't)

[Deleted User]

thriftybabe I have sent you a pm

dunstonh

If anyone has any idea how much commission an FA would get for this please let me know. I am still building my case around the FA.

It is on the illustration that should have been given to you prior to signing the application. If it hasnt, that would be another FSA breach.

Clerical Medical are a good provider. However, they do allow you to build an additional charging level into the contract. If done on standard terms, the contract would be fine from a charging point of view. However, you do have to suspect in this case that as he isnt being upfront about the charges/commission that he isnt taking the standard.

thriftybabe

Oh My god! I got a phone call from my FA after I phoned Clerical Medical. He phoned my house, then my husband who contacted me. He finally got me whilst I was out tonight asking why I had phoned Clerical Medical for an Illustration. I explained that I received a confirmation note from Clerical Medical but no Illustration. I said that previously when we changed pension provider we always got an illustration from the provider a few weeks after we had signed the direct debit but I have to say we have never ever received one from the FA upon our signature to the Direct Debit when he has been at our house. My husband suspected that is why Clerical Medical phoned him. He said he thought he had left one at the house when he came over but definitely did not. I was suspicious immediately of this as we had invited him over regarding my Mother in Law's finances and not ours and he just happened to have a photocopied sheet for us to sign our name to change the pension over. I knew there was a cool off period therefore signed. There have been one or two issues previously which I have doubted his advice. We are awaiting further ammo when we receive the commission amount! If he has an inclining I am on to him, is there any way he can change it to standard commission meantime.

dunstonh

Illustrations must be obtained and dated prior to application. So make sure the date is before you signed. Any attempt to change figures is fraud.

Don't just look at the commission figure when it arrives. Look at the reduction in yield figure as well. That is in the section that covers the values in the "early years".

I just checked one that I did with CM and it says:
This would have the effect of bringing investment growth of 7% a year down to 5.6% a year (for the transfer value) and This would have the effect of bringing investment growth of 7% a year down to 6.4% a year (for the regular).

I dont expect it to be anywhere near the 6.4% as that is an annual management charge of 0.5% p.a. and a full charge adviser wouldnt get near that but you would expect around 5.3 to 5.9% depending on funds chosen.

thriftybabe

Thanks Dunston. I will look at my previous illustrations for this as well. Really appreciate your help.

thriftybabe

Have received clerical Medical Illustration through today! Here is what it says

Fund Name - Property
Investment Charge - 1% p.a Investment Percentage 100%

For the first 180 months we will take the monthly equivalent of 0.5% a year from your plan value. For arranging this policy Clerical Medical will pay £3650.40 immediately and £6.00 a month from month 28 to end of the term. Bearing in mind this is x 2 as this is only my policy and not my husbands.

We only started Standard Life's policy in September of last year which has detailed below

SIPP which was only started in 1 September last year however he is not transferring this he is keeping it with SL. It is only the new monthly payments that are being transferred to Clerical Medical.

A charge of £300.00 each month for the first 12 months will be made in respect of commission paid to FA which obviously was £3600 he was paid immediately. Again this is x 2 because my husband also has a policy.

So he has been paid this in September and now he wants us to make all our regular payments now to CM.

I am absolutely fuming. Can anyone really see an upside to this. I really want to speak to him right now as I am so angry. If there is any upside please let me know.

In summary:

May/June 2005 policy with Clerical Medical commission of £4362.40 x 2
Sept 06 policy with SL commission £3600 x 2
Feb 07 policy with CM commission £3650.40 x 2
TOTAL: a staggering commission £23225.60 IN JUST UNDER 2 YEARS!!!!!!

Although he will not be getting the commission for CM as I have cancelled this immediately!!

thriftybabe

My husban and I have paid in £600 month since May 2005 to May 2007 which equals £26400 out of that we have, in fact paid commission to this so called FA of £14500.80. How can that be a good investment????

dunstonh

He's stitching you up (which you already know). If you want to complain, you have enough info and evidence to do so.

To compare, a medium cost contract at £600pm would pay commission of £2400 up front. Typical NMA terms would have been £264 (1% of each contribution). So somewhere between those two would have been what you should be looking for.