Are Standard Life Funds any good or is it worth me switching?

jabbahut40

Hi,

I have a Personal Pension and Group Personal Pension both with Standard Life. At present I have approx £22K and £8K approx invested across the following funds.

Standard Life Managed Pension Fund
Standard Life International Equity Pension Fund
Pension With Profits Fund
Pension Millennium With Profits Fund
Standard Life Property Pension Fund

I am wondering whether I do better and was interested in the views of others whether:

Q1. Are these funds any good?

Q2. Would it be worth me switching these to either another platform (E.g. Hargreaves etc) or keeping on the Standard Life platform switching to better funds such as those offered by Vanguard?

Comments Welcomed.

Jabba

jabbahut40

Some additional info. I notice that the Standard Life Platform offers 200+ funds from SL and other providers. See below for list.

Pension Millennium With Profits Fund
Pension With Profits One Fund
SL Aberdeen Life Sterling Credit Pension Fund
SL Aberdeen Multi Asset Ex Property Pension Fund
SL Aberdeen Multi Asset Pension Fund
SL Aberdeen Property Share Pension Fund
SL Aberdeen World Equity Pension Fund
SL Aberdeen World Growth & Income Pension Fund
SL Aviva Investors Asia Pacific Property Pension
SL Aviva Investors Property Pension Fund
SL Baillie Gifford 50:50 Worldwide Equity Pension
SL Baillie Gifford Managed Pension Fund
SL Baillie Gifford UK Equity Core Pension Fund
SL BlackRock Aquila HP (50:50) Global Equity Pn Fd
SL BlackRock Aquila HP Consensus Pension Fund
SL BlackRock Aquila HP European Equity Pension
SL BlackRock Aquila HP Japanese Equity Pension
SL BlackRock Aquila HP Over 15 Year Gilt Pension
SL BlackRock Aquila HP Over 5 Year Idx Lkd Gilt Pn
SL BlackRock Aquila HP Pacific Rim Equity Pension
SL BlackRock Aquila HP UK Equity Pension Fund
SL BlackRock Aquila HP US Equity Pension Fund
SL BlackRock Aquila HP World (Ex-UK) Equity Pn Fd
SL BlackRock Ascent Life European Equity Pension
SL BlackRock Ascent Life US Equity Pension Fund
SL BlackRock Continental European Eq Tracker Pn Fd
SL BlackRock Corporate Bond 1 to 10 Year Pension
SL BlackRock Corporate Bond Tracker Pension Fund
SL BlackRock Emerging Markets Equity Tracker Pn Fd
SL BlackRock Global Prop Securities Eq Tracker Pn
SL BlackRock Gold & General Pension Fund
SL BlackRock Japan Equity Tracker Pension Fund
SL BlackRock North American Equity Tracker Pension
SL BlackRock Overseas Corporate Bond Tracker Pn Fd
SL BlackRock Overseas Government Bond Tracker Pn
SL BlackRock Pacific ex Japan Equity Tracker Pn Fd
SL BlackRock UK Absolute Alpha Pension Fund
SL BlackRock UK Dynamic Pension Fund
SL BlackRock UK Equity Tracker Pension Fund
SL BlackRock UK Gilts All Stocks Tracker Pension
SL BlackRock UK Income Pension Fund
SL BlackRock UK Special Situations Pension Fund
SL CF 7IM Adventurous Pension Fund
SL CF 7IM Balanced Pension Fund
SL CF 7IM Moderately Adventurous Pension Fund
SL CF 7IM Moderately Cautious Pension Fund
SL CF Macquarie Gbl Infrastructure Securities Pn
SL CF Miton Distribution Pension Fund
SL CF Miton Diversified Growth Pension Fund
SL F&C Lifestyle Balanced Pension Fund
SL F&C Lifestyle Cautious Pension Fund
SL F&C Lifestyle Defensive Pension Fund
SL F&C Lifestyle Growth Pension Fund
SL Fidelity European Pension Fund
SL Fidelity Global Special Situations Pension Fund
SL Fidelity MultiManager Balanced Pension Fund
SL Fidelity Multimanager Growth Portfolio Pension
SL Fidelity South East Asia Pension Fund
SL Fidelity Special Situations Pension Fund
SL Fidelity Wealthbuilder Pension Fund
SL First State Gbl Emerging Markets Leaders Pn Fd
SL HSBC Amanah Pension Fund
SL HSBC Open Global Distribution Pension Fund
SL HSBC Open Global Return Pension Fund
SL Henderson Cautious Managed Pension Fund
SL Henderson Emerging Mrkts Opportunities Pens Fnd
SL Henderson European Growth Pension Fund
SL Henderson European Slctd Opportunities Pens Fnd
SL Henderson Sterling Bond Pension Fund
SL Henderson Strategic Bond Pension Fund
SL Henderson UK Property Pension Fund
SL IM Argonaut European Alpha Pension Fund
SL Ignis Corporate Bond Pension Fund
SL Ignis UK Property Pension Fund
SL Insight Diversified Target Return Pension Fund
SL Invesco Perpetual Corporate Bond Pension Fund
SL Invesco Perpetual Global Equity Income Pension
SL Invesco Perpetual Global Smaller Companies Pn
SL Invesco Perpetual High Income Pension Fund
SL Invesco Perpetual Japan Pension Fund
SL Investec Cautious Managed Pension Fund
SL Investec Emerging Mkts Local Currency Debt Pn
SL Investec Enhanced Natural Resources Pension Fd
SL Investec Global Free Enterprise Pension Fund
SL Investec Strategic Bond Pension Fund
SL Investec UK Blue Chip Pension Fund
SL Investec UK Smaller Companies Pension Fund
SL Investec UK Special Situations Pension Fund
SL JP MORGAN Natural Resources Pension Fund
SL JP Morgan Cautious Total Return Pension Fund
SL JP Morgan Emerging Markets Pension Fund
SL JP Morgan Global Property Securities Pension
SL JP Morgan Life Global Equity Pension Fund
SL JP Morgan Life Growth Pension Fund
SL JP Morgan Life Moderate Pension Fund
SL Jupiter Corporate Bond Pension Fund
SL Jupiter Distribution Pension Fund
SL Jupiter Income Trust Pension Fund
SL Jupiter Merlin Balanced Portfolio Pension Fund
SL Jupiter Merlin Growth Portfolio Pension Fund
SL Jupiter Merlin Income Portfolio Pension Fund
SL Jupiter Merlin Worldwide Portfolio Pension Fund
SL Jupiter Undervalued Assets Pension Fund
SL Liontrust Income Pension Fund
SL Liontrust UK Growth Pension Fund
SL M&G Corporate Bond Pension Fund
SL M&G Episode Balanced Pension Fd
SL M&G Global Basics Pension Fund
SL M&G Global Dividend Pension Fund
SL M&G Global Growth Pension Fund
SL M&G Optimal Income Pension Fund
SL M&G Property Portfolio Pension Fund
SL M&G Recovery Pension Fund
SL M&G Strategic Corporate Bond Pension Fund
SL M&G UK Inflation Linked Corporate Bond Pension
SL Newton 50/50 Global Equity Pension Fund
SL Newton Global Balanced Pension Fund
SL Newton Global Equity Pension Fund
SL Newton Managed Pension Fund
SL Newton Phoenix Multi-Asset Pension Fund
SL Newton Real Return Pension Fund
SL Newton UK Equity Pension Fund
SL Old Mutual Corporate Bond Pension Fund
SL Old Mutual Global Strategic Bond Pension Fund
SL Old Mutual UK Select Mid Cap Pension Fund
SL Rathbone Income Pension Fund
SL Rathbone Recovery Pension Fund
SL SLI AAA Income Pension Fund
SL SLI China Equities Pension Fund
SL SLI Dynamic Distribution Pension Fund
SL SLI Emerging Market Debt Pension Fund
SL SLI European Corporate Bond Pension Fund
SL SLI European Equities Unconstrained Pension Fd
SL Schroder UK Alpha Plus Pension Fund
SL SLI European Smaller Companies Pension Fund
SL Schroder US Mid Cap Pension Fund
SL SLI Global Bond Pension Fund
SL SLI Global Corporate Bond Pension Fund
SL SLI Global Emerging Markets Pension Fund
SL SLI Global Equity Income Pension Fund
SL SLI Global Equity Unconstrained Pension Fund
SL SLI Global High Yield Bond Pension Fund
SL SLI Global Index Linked Bond Pension Fund
SL SLI Global REIT Pension Fund
SL SLI Global Smaller Companies Pension Fund
SL SLI Higher Income Pension Fund
SL SLI Indian Equities Pension Fund
SL SLI Select Income Pension Fund
SL SLI Select Property Pension Fund
SL SLI Strategic Bond Pension Fund
SL SLI UK Equity Growth Pension Fund
SL SLI UK Equity High Income Pension Fund
SL SLI UK Equity Income Unconstrained Pension Fund
SL SLI UK Equity Recovery Pension Fund
SL SLI UK Equity Unconstrained Pension Fund
SL SLI UK Opportunities Pension Fund
SL SLI UK Smaller Companies Pension Fund
SL Schroder Asian Income Maximiser Pension Fund
SL Schroder Dynamic Multi Asset Pension Fund
SL Schroder Global Emerging Markets Pension Fund
SL Schroder Global Equity Income Pension Fund
SL Schroder Income Maximiser Pension Fund
SL Schroder Intermediated Diversified Growth Pn Fd
SL Schroder Managed Balanced Pension Fund
SL Schroder Multi-Manager Cautious Managed Pension
SL Schroder Tokyo Pension Fund
SL SLI European Equity Income Pension Fund
SL Schroder UK Mid 250 Pension Fund
SL Schroder UK Smaller Companies Pension Fund
SL SLI Global Absolute Return Strategies Pension
SL Thames River Distribution Pension Fund
SL Threadneedle American Pension Fund
SL Threadneedle American Select Pension Fund
SL Threadneedle European Pension Fund
SL Threadneedle High Yield Bond Pension Fund
SL Threadneedle UK Equity Income Pension Fund
SL Threadneedle UK Pension Fund
SL Towry A0715 Pension Fund
SL Towry A2535 Pension Fund
SL Towry A3743 Pension Fund
SL UBS Global Optimal Pension Fund
SL UBS Life Global Equity Pension Fund
SL UBS Life Managed Pension Fund
SL Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Pension
SL Vanguard FTSE* Developed Europe ex UK Eq Idx Pn
SL Vanguard FTSE* Developed World ex UK Eq Idx Pn
SL Vanguard FTSE* UK All Share Index Pension Fund
SL Vanguard FTSE* UK Equity Income Index Pension Fd
SL Vanguard Japan Stock Index Pension Fund
SL Vanguard Pacific ex Japan Stock Index Pension
SL Vanguard UK Government Bond Index Pension Fund
SL Vanguard UK Inflation Linked Gilt Index Pension
SL Vanguard UK Investment Grade Bond Index Pension
SL Vanguard UK Long Duration Gilt Index Pension Fd
SL Vanguard US Equity Pension Fund
Standard Life 30:70 Gbl Equity (BlackRock) Pn
Standard Life 30:70 Gbl Equity Trk (Vanguard) Pn
Standard Life 50:50 Gbl Equity (BlackRock) Pn
Standard Life 50:50 Gbl Equity Trk (Vanguard) Pn
Standard Life 60:40 Gbl Equity (BlackRock) Pn
Standard Life 60:40 Gbl Equity Trk (Vanguard) Pn
Standard Life 70:30 Gbl Equity (BlackRock) Pn
Standard Life 70:30 Gbl Equity Trk (Vanguard) Pn
Standard Life Active Higher Interest Pension Fund
Standard Life Active Plus I Pension Fund
Standard Life Active Plus II Pension Fund
Standard Life Active Plus III Pension Fund
Standard Life Active Plus IV Pension Fund
Standard Life Active Plus V Pension Fund
Standard Life Annuity Purchase Fund
Standard Life Corporate Bond Pension Fund
Standard Life Deposit and Treasury Pension Fund
Standard Life Dynamic Drawdown Pension I Fund
Standard Life Dynamic Drawdown Pension II Fund
Standard Life Dynamic Drawdown Pension III Fund
Standard Life Ethical Pension Fund
Standard Life European Equity Pension Fund
Standard Life Far East Equity Pension Fund
Standard Life Global Equity 50:50 Pension Fund
Standard Life Global Equity 50:50 Tracker Pension
Standard Life Global Equity Manager of Managers Pn
Standard Life Global Equity Select 60:40 Pension
Standard Life Index Linked Bond Pension Fund
Standard Life Individual Property Pension Fund
Standard Life International Equity Pension Fund
Standard Life Japanese Equity Pension Fund
Standard Life Long Corporate Bond Pension Fund
Standard Life Managed Pension Fund
Standard Life Mixed Bond Pension Fund
Standard Life Money Market Pension Fund
Standard Life Multi Asset (20-60% Shares) MoM Pn
Standard Life Multi Asset (40-85% Shares) MoM Pn
Standard Life Multi Asset Mgd (20-60% Shares) Pn
Standard Life MyFolio Managed Income I Pension Fd
Standard Life MyFolio Managed Income II Pension
Standard Life MyFolio Managed Income III Pension
Standard Life MyFolio Managed Income IV Pension
Standard Life MyFolio Managed Income V Pension Fd
Standard Life MyFolio Managed I Pension Fund
Standard Life MyFolio Managed II Pension Fund
Standard Life MyFolio Managed III Pension Fund
Standard Life MyFolio Managed IV Pension Fund
Standard Life MyFolio Managed V Pension Fund
Standard Life MyFolio Market I Pension Fund
Standard Life MyFolio Market II Pension Fund
Standard Life MyFolio Market III Pension Fund
Standard Life MyFolio Market IV Pension Fund
Standard Life MyFolio Market V Pension Fund
Standard Life MyFolio Multi-Manager Income I Pn
Standard Life MyFolio Multi-Manager Income II Pn
Standard Life MyFolio Multi-Manager Income III Pn
Standard Life MyFolio Multi-Manager Income IV Pn
Standard Life MyFolio Multi-Manager Income V Pn
Standard Life MyFolio Multi-Manager I Pension Fund
Standard Life MyFolio Multi-Manager II Pension
Standard Life MyFolio Multi-Manager III Pension
Standard Life MyFolio Multi-Manager IV Pension
Standard Life MyFolio Multi-Manager V Pension Fund
Standard Life North American Equity Pension Fund
Standard Life Overseas Equity Pension Fund
Standard Life Overseas Manager of Managers Pension
Standard Life Overseas Tracker Pension Fund
Standard Life Pacific Basin Equity Pension Fund
Standard Life Passive Plus I Pension Fund
Standard Life Passive Plus II Pension Fund
Standard Life Passive Plus III Pension Fund
Standard Life Passive Plus IV Pension Fund
Standard Life Passive Plus V Pension Fund
Standard Life Stock Exchange Pension Fund
Standard Life Strategic At Retirement Pension Fund
Standard Life Strategic Pre Retirement (A) Pension
Standard Life Strategic Pre Retirement (B) Pension
Standard Life UK Equity Manager of Managers Pn Fd
Standard Life UK Equity Pension Fund
Standard Life UK Equity Select Pension Fund
Standard Life UK Gilt Pension Fund
Standard Life World Ex UK Eq (BlackRock) Pn Fd


Funds highlighted above are ones I am considering switching too if my existing funds are poor.

Comments Welcomed.

Jabba

Linton

Suggest that reconsidering your mix of funds could have a much greater effect than choosing one platform or another. Standard Life do have a wide range of funds, whether your Pensions have access to them all is something you would need to check.

The trouble I see with your current fund choice is that you are likely to have significant duplication as, except for property, they are all very broad in their remit. An optimal choice would depend very much on your age. Assuming you were many years from retirement you could reasonably in my view consider some higher risk/higher return funds.

jabbahut40

Linton wrote: »

Suggest that reconsidering your mix of funds could have a much greater effect than choosing one platform or another. Standard Life do have a wide range of funds, whether your Pensions have access to them all is something you would need to check.

The trouble I see with your current fund choice is that you are likely to have significant duplication as, except for property, they are all very broad in their remit. An optimal choice would depend very much on your age. Assuming you were many years from retirement you could reasonably in my view consider some higher risk/higher return funds.

Thanks Linton. I am my early 40s so still at least 20 years away from retiring and would be happy to consider some higher risks in return for better returns. I was keen on a passive investment portfolio and like Vanguard as a supplier due to their low charges (however not sure whether SL offer the same under their platform). As a starter for ten I was thinking of moving to a portfolio like the following:

SL Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Pension 10%
SL Vanguard FTSE* Developed Europe ex UK Eq Idx Pn 15%
SL Vanguard FTSE* UK Equity Income Index Pension Fd 40%
SL Vanguard UK Government Bond Index Pension Fund 20%
SL Vanguard US Equity Pension Fund 15%

Would appreciate any thoughts/comments on the above.

Thanks,

Jabba

bigadaj

What you get out at the end is down to three things, contributions, performance and fees.

The amounts you have currently are pretty low for your age, general advice would be to put in more if you can possibly afford to.

The funds offered are likely to have a range of fess, you need to look at these. Generally low fees are a primary deciding factor but ther is an argument to accept higher fees on some active funds to potentially get better performance.

In relation to performance then trustnet is a useful and free e reference to view performance of runs over time. They don't necessarily show all the funds you're offered under sl pension options but you can review these under the unit trust/ epic option as they are aimed to match the underlying fund.

Good luck, it's always better to take an interest and be educated about deicsiosn for your future.

jabbahut40

bigadaj wrote: »

What you get out at the end is down to three things, contributions, performance and fees.

The amounts you have currently are pretty low for your age, general advice would be to put in more if you can possibly afford to.

The funds offered are likely to have a range of fess, you need to look at these. Generally low fees are a primary deciding factor but ther is an argument to accept higher fees on some active funds to potentially get better performance.

In relation to performance then trustnet is a useful and free e reference to view performance of runs over time. They don't necessarily show all the funds you're offered under sl pension options but you can review these under the unit trust/ epic option as they are aimed to match the underlying fund.

Good luck, it's always better to take an interest and be educated about deicsiosn for your future.

Thanks for your help bigadaj. Just to advise these are not my only pension holdings. I have a £18K SIPP with Hargreaves (switched from a collection of previous personal pensions into one provider namely HL) and have been contributing to a final salary pension with my current employer for the last 10 years.

The key question I whether the SL funds are any good and/or do you think I could do better with the Vanguard ones taking a passive rather than active approach?

Thoughts welcomed.

Jabba

BLB53

The key question I whether the SL funds are any good and/or do you think I could do better with the Vanguard ones taking a passive rather than active approach?

It will depend on the fees. Do you know the charges for the Vanguard funds and how they compare to the others on the SL platform?

jabbahut40

BLB53 wrote: »

It will depend on the fees. Do you know the charges for the Vanguard funds and how they compare to the others on the SL platform?

According to the press release from SL the Vanguard funds have AMCs of around 0.8 to 1.2%.
http://ukgroup.standardlife.com/content/news/new_articles/2012/240812VanguardPassiveFundsAvailable.xml

Unfortunately I could not find the AMC charges for the SL pension funds above. Will keep looking....

BLB53

My guess would be the charges on your current funds will be around 1.6 or 1.7% - possibly more on the property. I imagine with the Vanguard range you will come in around the 1% mark with SL.

Why not transfer out to a sipp with Sippdeal or HL and whack the lot into the Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% equity - charges around 0.3%. The saving of 1% - 1.2% on your current charges will save you a huge sum over the next 20 or 30 yrs.

mania112

Using the latest 'series' of the funds, which yours may or may not be (a new series brings new charges, but usually only makes a minor difference):

Stan Life Managed Pn S8 = 13.45% / 29.79% / 137.37% (1yr/5yr/10yr)

Stan Life International Equity Pn S7 = 14.31% / 33.11% / 135.04%

Stan Life Property Pn S8 = -0.32% / -4.02% / 41.03%

Compared to sector averages, only the property is performing poorly, but even that has done OK over the long term.

With Profits performances aren't included because a) they're designed differently b) the 'bonus' is harder to find and c) you're not usually invested in them these days for their performance.

Hope this helps.

webnibbler

Last year I had a very similar decision to make. I decided to move everything from SL to my HL SIPP so I could invest in the Vanguard LS 80%. Although SL had started offering the Vanguard LS funds I think they work out more expensive for larger amounts even when taking into account HL's platform fee of £2 per month. When following a passive strategy even fractions of % fees can make a difference over the long term.

Over 15 years of paying into insurance company funds I've discovered what poor returns can be, particularly with the generic 'balanced managed' funds. The insurance companies don't want to open themselves to claims they take risks with your money so these funds are super conservative and as a consequence rarely achieve much growth.

With everything in a SIPP, you manage your funds. Also with all the funds in one place it is easier to understand your asset allocation and risk profile.

Only 5% of my contributions now go to SL just to make the most of my employers contribution.

Hope this helps.