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

jabbahut40

Thanks for the responses to date. The idea of transferring my SL pensions into my existing SIPP with HL sounds attractive from a lower fees, higher funds availability and the ability to centralise my pensions onto a single platform (HL).

I suspect that I will be subject to a MVR if I transfer out the with profits funds. Does anyone know if its possible to transfer the other SL funds and leave the with profits ones to avoid the MVR or is it worth just taking the hit as their returns are likely to be poor anyway?

Thanks,

Jabba

jabbahut40

webnibbler wrote: »

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.

Thanks for your ideas webnibbler. I will take a look at Vanguard LS 80%. Out of interest for someone who is early 40s do you think I could also consider Vanguard LS 100%? Appreciate your circumstances may be different from mine however, what made you pick 80%?

Thanks,

Jabba

jabbahut40

FYI. Here is my current allocation for the HL SIPP.

First State Asia Pacific Leaders Class A Accumulation Units 23.6% portfolio
Schroder US Mid Cap Fund Retail A Accumulation Units 16.5% portfolio
JPMorgan Natural Resources Accumulation Units 13.8% portfolio
Threadneedle European Select Retail Accumulation 11.9% portfolio
First State Global Emerging Mkt Leaders Class A Accumulation 9.2% portfolio
Cazenove UK Opportunities Class B Accumulation 7.3% portfolio
Invesco Perpetual High Income Accumulation Units 6.0% portfolio
Unicorn UK Income Fund Income Units 5.9% portfolio
Cazenove UK Smaller Companies Class B Accumulation 5.7% portfolio

My SIPP is currently valued at approx £18K and the SL pensions approx £30K.

Assuming I did transfer my two SL pensions into this SIPP any thoughts on whether the Vanguard SL 80% or 100% would be a good fit with my current portfolio?

Thanks,

Jabba

BLB53

Assuming I did transfer my two SL pensions into this SIPP any thoughts on whether the Vanguard SL 80% or 100% would be a good fit with my current portfolio?

My best guess would be there will not be much difference between the two and therefore either would be suitable for a 20 yr timeframe - by far the most significant difference will be the lower charges.

On this score, you might want to check the charges on your existing HL portfolio to see whether the returns they provide are likely to be more than the savings in charges with the likes of the Vanguard low cost trackers?

Just a thought!

tony4147

jabbahut40 wrote: »

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

I'm in the Pension with Profits and have a guarantee growth rate of 4%
I'm also in the Pension Millennium With Profits Fund, this fund I'm unhappy with as it only seems to be growing by 1% / year, I've been wondering what to do with the money in this fund.

webnibbler

jabbahut40 wrote: »

Out of interest for someone who is early 40s do you think I could also consider Vanguard LS 100%? Appreciate your circumstances may be different from mine however, what made you pick 80%?

I think which you pick is really up to your attitude to risk. If you need to get a measure of this, this (free) website is quite good for getting a flavour of how much risk you can take on: finametrica.com

I'm also early 40's and opted for the 80% because, for me, the 100% is likely to offer just a bit too much of a rollercoster ride. Also I think you lose some of the diversification benefits with a holding of just equities. To my thinking the automatic rebalancing in the LS funds will benefit from having the 20% allocation to fixed interest - just my opinion though.

Some say the optimum mix for the long term is actually 60/40.

Hope this helps.

jabbahut40

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback to date - very helpful.

To help me make a decision I have dropped Standard Life a secure message this evening asking for (a) the annual charges by fund on my portfolio (b) any bonus's due (c) any penalties associated with transfering. Is there anything else you think I need to ask?

I notice that the pension plans held with Standard Life are a group personal pension and personal pension. Are there any restrictions on moving both/either of these to a SIPP with Hargreaves Landsdown (which I already hold from previous transfers from other pensions).

As always, comments welcomed.

Jabba

lentrix92

Hi there

I have a very similar pension setup:-

Standard Life Managed Pension Fund
Standard Life International Equity Pension Fund
Pension With Profits Fund
Pension Millennium With Profits Fund
Standard Life Euro Equity Pension Fund
Standard Life FTSE tracker

In total worth c.33k - The fee's on the above are 0.7 after discounts.

I also have a 'frozen' work pension at Friends life for c.50k - being charged 0.72%.

Was looking to merg the 2 into 1 and looking for a deal.
Stan Life said they would do the new merged amount for 0.65%.

I could do a sipp BUT unfort i have limited funds to invest atm (£40 p/m) so it is probably too little for a sipp.

Also the sl 'with pfts' has just paid its bonus but is prob still subject to a release fee

I could merge both into a provider via cavendish for slightly cheaper.....

Any thoughts/ ideas.....?

ozzage

I moved my IFA-advised Standard Life personal pension into a HL SIPP recently.

The performance of my pension hadn't been too bad, but I moved it for the following reasons:

1. I found comparing the performance, both overall and per-fund with my other investments very difficult.

2. I found the fee structure more opaque, and despite sending them specific questions about fees and commissions I was never very satisfied with the answers.

3. I found finding my exact SL funds on eg Morningstar, Trustnet quite tricky, which gave me little confidence in knowing that they were good or not as I was never sure if I was looking at the right thing.

4. I often wanted historical fund prices and this was a nightmare to get. They have a section for it on their website but my funds weren't there.

5. I couldn't look at my payment history and simply see how many units I'd bought for each fund at what price.

6. I couldn't do any of the nice analysis that HL provides (x-ray tool, compare performance charts with other funds, indices etc) so I never felt I really understood what my funds were, or how they were doing.

7. I couldn't easily include my pension in a "cross-account" analysis as I can do now (since my ISAs and SIPP are both with HL)

So I took the opportunity to pick my own funds and transferred into Hargreaves Lansdown and am glad I did. Although I wasn't unhappy with the performance before, I now feel much more in control of the situation.

Rich1976

ozzage wrote: »

I moved my IFA-advised Standard Life personal pension into a HL SIPP recently.

The performance of my pension hadn't been too bad, but I moved it for the following reasons:

1. I found comparing the performance, both overall and per-fund with my other investments very difficult.

2. I found the fee structure more opaque, and despite sending them specific questions about fees and commissions I was never very satisfied with the answers.

3. I found finding my exact SL funds on eg Morningstar, Trustnet quite tricky, which gave me little confidence in knowing that they were good or not as I was never sure if I was looking at the right thing.

4. I often wanted historical fund prices and this was a nightmare to get. They have a section for it on their website but my funds weren't there.

5. I couldn't look at my payment history and simply see how many units I'd bought for each fund at what price.

6. I couldn't do any of the nice analysis that HL provides (x-ray tool, compare performance charts with other funds, indices etc) so I never felt I really understood what my funds were, or how they were doing.

7. I couldn't easily include my pension in a "cross-account" analysis as I can do now (since my ISAs and SIPP are both with HL)

So I took the opportunity to pick my own funds and transferred into Hargreaves Lansdown and am glad I did. Although I wasn't unhappy with the performance before, I now feel much more in control of the situation.

Agree with all of this as it is something I did myself a while back. For years I had accumulated personal pensions, company stakeholder pensions etc and as you've mentioned it was extrmely difficult to analyse whee my monthly contribution was going. I would receive a statement from the insurance company showing how much I had paid in over the last 12 months and how much the total 'pot' had gone up or gone down by. But it meant nothing. There was no analysis of the individual funds, the websites were a bit clunky and took a while to get around.

Then I opened a SIPP with Hargreaves Lansdown in 2006 and it was like a breath of fresh air. I gradually moved everything to them and it is one of the best decisions financially I have made.

I like their website which is informative, provides lots of information and charts. I can see at a glance how much each of my funds has grown by and the percentage and at the click of a button I can compare the funds to other funds'performance and can see where in the world my money is invested. And their service is a million times better then any of the insurance companies I previously entruedted my money to.