FSAVC - Please help!

superhoop

Hi everyone:

I need some help. My wife (of 18 months) has had an FSAVC with Allied Dunbar for 8 years, now taken over by Zurich.

My wife has recently been made redundant, and we'd like to stop paying into it for obvious reasons (£200/month). Clearly its also an ideal time to review it.

My questions:

1) Should we be able to stop paying into this 'on demand'. Are there likely to be any implications of this (other than the contributions pot not growing)?

2) Can you leave a plan such as this 'dormant' in the long-term. ie not pay in?

3) My wife does not have all the documentation - one letter she has says that contributions are 100% invested in the "Allied Dunbar Managed" fund. Where can I find out more about the performance of the fund?

4) What are our medium/long term options for this investment? My wife took the plan out in 1997 and has not reviewed it since. Are there any options to transfer the pot, or if the costs are too high could we maybe move it to another Zurich fund?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Steve

dunstonh

1) Should we be able to stop paying into this 'on demand'. Are there likely to be any implications of this (other than the contributions pot not growing)?

Modern plans no. Legacy plans maybe. Dunbar were known to have expensive plans so only way to check is contact them.

As your wife is no longer employed, she cannot pay into an FSAVC anyway so the charges point is not really an issue.

2) Can you leave a plan such as this 'dormant' in the long-term. ie not pay in?

Yes.

3) My wife does not have all the documentation - one letter she has says that contributions are 100% invested in the "Allied Dunbar Managed" fund. Where can I find out more about the performance of the fund?

Yes but public independent fund research on pension funds is not readily available as unit trust/OEIC funds. FYI, the fund virtually mirrors the balanced managed fund sector although has been a fraction above it over the last 5 years. Being tied reps, allied dunbar usually stuck people in that average fund.

4) What are our medium/long term options for this investment? My wife took the plan out in 1997 and has not reviewed it since. Are there any options to transfer the pot, or if the costs are too high could we maybe move it to another Zurich fund?

You could alter the funds to something more suitable. You could transfer to a stakeholder pension. It really depends on the charges for doing either of these. Again, that would need to be investigated before an absolute answer could be given.

EdInvestor

http://www.trustnet.com/pen/funds/perf.asp?sec=all&status=all&def=1&txtS=&txtSS=&sort=4&page=4&ss=0&columns=

The Allied Dunbar Managed pension fund is No 422, scroll down.

If this is the correct fund,I've certainly seen worse.