Fund Name Confusion

pjbltd

Hi forum,

Hope you can help me figure something out!
I'm looking at my Pension Statement from Friends Life and all my fund names begin "FL".

I want to do some research on the funds but I'm unsure exactly what to look up. e.g. I have a holding in "FL BlackRock Gold and General" and on Morningstar there is "Friends Life Corporate BlackRock Gold & General AP Pension Fund" and "BlackRock Gold and General A Acc"; are these the same thing? Which should I be reading?


Friends Life Corporate BlackRock Gold & General AP Pension Fund
http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/snapshot/snapshot.aspx?id=VAUSA06IYZ&investmentType=SA


BlackRock Gold and General A Acc
http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/funds/snapshot/snapshot.aspx?id=F0GBR04RTS

Why is FL in the title of my funds?

Any clarification is much appreciated!

Thank you,

PJBLTD

Lokolo

You want to first one.

The latter one is the retail version which you can buy outside of a pension.

dunstonh

there is "Friends Life Corporate BlackRock Gold & General AP Pension Fund" and "BlackRock Gold and General A Acc"; are these the same thing?

No, they are not the same thing. They are versions of the same fund. However, the last one is the main unit trust fund. The FL corporate version is for occupational pensions and will typically have different charges to the retail version.

You need the FL Blackrock Gold & General or depending on your data source it may still be under AXA BlackRock Gold & General P 2

Why is FL in the title of my funds?

Because you dont have the real fund. You have Friends version of it. These are known as mirror funds.

Aegis

pjbltd wrote: »

Why is FL in the title of my funds?

FL stands for Friends Life and shows that this is a mirror version of the retail fund provided by Friends Life for use within their pension policies.

bigadaj

Shouldn't they be the same, apart from charges?

dunstonh

bigadaj wrote: »

Shouldn't they be the same, apart from charges?

Ideally yes but they are not all sub funds run exactly the same way. You can get tracking errors. The mirroring may not be daily and a lot can happen in the time between mirroring checks.

External funds are past their peak and in decline as modern pension contracts increasingly offer the UT/OEIC fund instead. They served their purpose by giving people access to those funds within insured pension contracts. However, things have moved on. They will still be around for a long time as many will not update to something more modern or will be unable to because their employer controls the contract.

pjbltd

Thanks all for the speedy responses!
Dunstonh very helpful & knowledgeable as usual.
What do you mean by the part below, which fund is the external fund? Is that the "FL" one? Should I speak to my pension company about any of this?

dunstonh wrote: »

External funds are past their peak and in decline as modern pension contracts increasingly offer the UT/OEIC fund instead. They served their purpose by giving people access to those funds within insured pension contracts. However, things have moved on. They will still be around for a long time as many will not update to something more modern or will be unable to because their employer controls the contract.

dunstonh

What do you mean by the part below, which fund is the external fund? Is that the "FL" one

Blackrock Gold and general is the external fund. It is run by Blackrock. It is not a Friends fund. Internal funds are those run by the provider. So, for example, Friends Life Property is an internal fund as it is their own property fund.

Should I speak to my pension company about any of this?

They wont change anything as it is contract specific. If you want a pension with access to the "real" fund then you need a platform, SIPP or personal pension that offers the real fund and not a mirror version.