Mutual Societies

anotherdollar

I'm thinking about setting up a small stakeholder pension. I really fancy getting a Standard Life pension, because they offer lots of funds and easy transfers. Looking at past performance then most the funds have performed quite well.

Basically, are there any mutual societies left that offer pensions along the same lines as Standard Life?

EdInvestor

If you want a windfall your pension has to be in the With profit fund, if you transfer out you won't get a windfall.

You could try Royal London, now the biggest mutual after the DM of SL, but IIRC their pensions are sold through Scottish Life and don't give membershipo.

NFU Mutual and the Police Mutual might be worth looking at, also the Wesleyan (Medical Sickness Society).

However in most cases any money you might make from a windfall is likely to be cancelled out by the poor performance of the WP fund, so it's not worth bothering.

dunstonh

Most people who retained benefits in with profits funds to get a demutualisation benefits actually lost more money than they gained if they had been in equivalent risk unit linked funds. You shouldn't invest for your retirement by handicapping the growth potential on the basis of small demutualisation payment which may never arrive.

anotherdollar

EdInvestor wrote: »

If you want a windfall your pension has to be in the With profit fund, if you transfer out you won't get a windfall.

You could try Royal London, now the biggest mutual after the DM of SL, but IIRC their pensions are sold through Scottish Life and don't give membershipo.

NFU Mutual and the Police Mutual might be worth looking at, also the Wesleyan (Medical Sickness Society).

However in most cases any money you might make from a windfall is likely to be cancelled out by the poor performance of the WP fund, so it's not worth bothering.

THanks for the information. I wasn't looking at joining because of a potential windfall, rather than I like the idea of mutual societies. I used to bank with Lloyds TSB and I have now moved across to the Nationwide and I have never looked back. In my opinion the Nationwide is hard to beat and I believe this is partly due to being a mutual society.

Anyway, food for thought!

dunstonh

In my opinion the Nationwide is hard to beat and I believe this is partly due to being a mutual society.

The products on offer by most of the mutual insurers tend to be sub standard. Mainly as there are not many mutuals left and those that are left dont have the financial clout to compete.

Mutuality has nothing to do with service. Good service comes from individuals and you get good and bad with both. I use Nationwide and Lloyds and find the branch service at our local Nationwide to be woeful compared to Lloyds. In another town, it could be the other way round.