ethical stakeholder pension

dave_boy_green

I am 50 years old and want to start a stakeholder pension[contributing about £50-£100 a month]. I am tempted to go for an ethical stakeholder but am concerned that the returns could make me significantly worse off.
Are these concerns reasonable? Can anyone recommend one?

dunstonh

Are the concerns reasonable? Possibly. There isnt the range of ethical funds to build proper asset/sector allocation so you will be limiting your investment options. Wherever you limit the options, you may be reducing the potential returns.

You may find a personal pension offers you a better range or a SIPP. Stakeholders have a very limited fund range at best and to then limit it further with an ethical requirement really hampers your choice.

There are enough options available but I dont think a stakeholder would be the best place to look.

margaretclare

Hi, I can recommend Friends' Provident's stakeholder, it did pretty well for me invested in their Stewardship funds. However, I can't compare it with anyone else's.

If you go for a SIPP instead of a stakeholder you still get the 22% added from the taxman but you make your own choice of ethical funds. Jupiter Ecology, F&C, there's quite a wide range to choose from.

HTH

Margaret

dave_boy_green

dunstonh wrote: »

Are the concerns reasonable? Possibly. There isnt the range of ethical funds to build proper asset/sector allocation so you will be limiting your investment options. Wherever you limit the options, you may be reducing the potential returns.

You may find a personal pension offers you a better range or a SIPP. Stakeholders have a very limited fund range at best and to then limit it further with an ethical requirement really hampers your choice.

There are enough options available but I dont think a stakeholder would be the best place to look.

I was under the impression that you needed to be investing sustantially more
than £50-100 to make a personal pension worthwhile. I haven't heard of SIPPs but will check them out. Thanks again.

EdInvestor

There is now quite a decent set of ethical unit trusts avaliable, see list.

But you would need to use a low cost SIPP to get access to these - an ordinary pension will usually offer just one.

https://www.h-l.co.uk offers the cheapest SIPP for a regular investor in funds and should offer quite a few of the ones mentioned above.