Pension Rip-Off

EdGasket

Well I don't think it's fair to be charging 1%pa fees for making 0.5%pa gain on a simple cash investment. I think that only people in the finance industry could possibly delude themselves that this is justified. To Joe Public, it is a rip-off.

Linton

EdGasket wrote: »

One cannot arrange certain things (best annuities, drawdowns) to do with a pension without unfortunately having to pay either an IFA or the pension company themselves. Therefore there is not the choice of 'not wanting to use one'.

I cant get hold of baked beans without paying someone more than the raw cost of the haricots, tomatoes and the tin.

You can do a pension without paying charges to a pension company or IFA. You invest directly in shares, bonds, or even cash yourself to create a pot of money from which you draw down the money you need to survive in your retirement. Of course you will need to pay charges to buy and sell shares, I cant see anyway round that as no-one will buy your share certificates if you try and sell them at a car boot sale.

If you dont want to do it all yourself or want the guarantees that only a collective scheme like an annuity can bring then you need to buy the appropriate product. Just like with baked beans that means paying the costs of running the process that creates, sells, and distributes the product.

Linton

EdGasket wrote: »

Well I don't think it's fair to be charging 1%pa fees for making 0.5%pa gain on a simple cash investment. I think that only people in the finance industry could possibly delude themselves that this is justified. To Joe Public, it is a rip-off.

Why should the gain available from this very limited market have anything to do with the cost of running the investment?? The investment managers cant do much about it.

If you dont want to pay the cost of the product dont buy it, no-one is making you.

dunstonh

Well I don't think it's fair to be charging 1%pa fees for making 0.5%pa gain on a simple cash investment. I think that only people in the finance industry could possibly delude themselves that this is justified. To Joe Public, it is a rip-off.

They are charging 1% to provide an investment with a variable return. Its not a rip off unless you dont understand investing.

If you want an actual cash deposit then use a cash deposit. You seem to be making the mistake that this fund is a simple cash deposit when it is not.

atush

Ed, what is your pension doing in Cash???????

It should be in other investment classes.

Ed, you really have no understanding of what you are talking about.

EdGasket

'Ed, you really have no understanding of what you are talking about.'

Maybe, maybe not but I would say my understanding is above average for the general public which is why the general public get ripped off by the pension industry.

I would suggest that most members of the general public, who can easily get a return of 2 to 3% on cash, would find it outrageous that so-called 'managers' are charging so much in fees on a 'Cash' fund that the return to the investor is negative.
Anyway I am obviously outgunned here by posters from the finance industry so will leave it up to the readers of this thread to make up their own minds. I have to get on with some real work !

dunstonh

Maybe, maybe not but I would say my understanding is above average for the general public which is why the general public get ripped off by the pension industry.

I cant see your knowledge being above average when you make the following errors:
1 - think that an investment fund is a pension
2 - dont understand the difference between simple retail cash deposits and money market instruments. (or rather that you think they are the same even when it has been pointed out to you that they are not)
3 - think that an IFA is responsible for investment funds
4 - have no understanding that investments can and will go down as well as up at times.
5 - seem to think that retailers in other retail areas do not take a charge/profit margin.

Where is this rip off you are on about? You started a thread about an investment fund (which is available in multiple tax wrappers and unwrapped). Yet insist it is a pension rip off. So far you have failed to indicate any rip off or what pensions have to do with it.

We are indulging you and waiting for you to show us where the pension rip off is but nothing to be seen yet on this thread.

bob_a_builder

"what pensions have to do with it"

Well HIS pension

He may well have it as one of the funds which his pension is invested in if with SL

http://www.standardlife.co.uk/content/policy/sl_funds/redesign/PS4/prices.html

http://webfund5.financialexpress.net/stanlife/sl_fund_popup.wsp?unit=CWR0

Not to say that there aren't plenty of other pension funds via SL

dunstonh

If you have a diesel car which you put petrol in, is if the fault of the car, the fuel or the person filling up?
Do you blame the car?

Edgasket is blaming the car.

jem16

EdGasket wrote: »

Anyway I am obviously outgunned here by posters from the finance industry

Who are those posters? Only one as far as I'm aware is from the finance industry. The others are just ordinary investors.

Did you choose the fund and if so why?