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

lentrix92

Just spoke to HL re their Vangard Sipp:

To clarify - that although the annual charge is lower - the min amount p/month is £50 and this is per fund - you cannot split this between various funds.

At the moment i can split across various funds so it might be better to stay where i am as i only have a small amount to contribute atm.....

ozzage

mania112 wrote: »

Over the course of your lifetime a financial adviser will make more correct decisions than you will.

Your statement here is a good example. If your 'fund starts to slip' how do you know you should switch? How do you know selling a fund at a lower cost is better than holding out for it to grow again. How do you know the new investment is a better choice?

For example, those caught in the 2008 crisis started to switch into cash AFTER the crisis had already hit. Did you? If you switch into cash at this time you've already lost and moved the funds into something that will not grow and repair the damage.

I think you see where I'm coming from? I also see where you're coming from. I'm just of the mind that 'mechanics fix cars', 'painters paint walls' and 'Finance Professionals grow wealth'.

Your faith in FAs is touching, but I'm not convinced that most financial advisers will make better decisions than I will over my lifetime, and they certainly won't care about the outcome as much as I will. They are not gods and they can't predict the market either.

But then, I'm not convinced that it's worth paying a mechanic for routine car maintenance or a painter to paint my walls either

Chickereeeee

I have/am moving funds from SL for similar website reasons - particularly the lack of ability to see performance (I found relatively recently that FT.com provide prices/charts for all SL funds as well as their codes, so I can plug them into MSMoney and get updates automatically, but still not great).

Actually, the difficulty in 'tinkering' with SL was maybe a benefit early on in my career, but not so much now.

As to the fund performance,
funds dot ft dot com/UK/Tearsheet/Summary?s=GB0031729063:GBX

shows the series 4 managed pension fund. In practise, MSMoney currently shows 7% annual return over 10 years or so.

Rich1976

mania112 wrote: »

Over the course of your lifetime a financial adviser will make more correct decisions than you will.

Your statement here is a good example. If your 'fund starts to slip' how do you know you should switch? How do you know selling a fund at a lower cost is better than holding out for it to grow again. How do you know the new investment is a better choice?

For example, those caught in the 2008 crisis started to switch into cash AFTER the crisis had already hit. Did you? If you switch into cash at this time you've already lost and moved the funds into something that will not grow and repair the damage.

I think you see where I'm coming from? I also see where you're coming from. I'm just of the mind that 'mechanics fix cars', 'painters paint walls' and 'Finance Professionals grow wealth'.

who says a Financial advser will make better decisions? They may have access to more tools but they can't predict what will do well and what won't.

No I didn't transfer out to cash in 2008, I kept everything invested and carried on with my monthly contribution.

There is no evidence from what I can see that Finance professionals have the ability to grow wealth any more then us DIY investors.

By the way - are you a financial adviser as you seem to be supporting their case very well

mania112

Rich1976 wrote: »

who says a Financial advser will make better decisions? They may have access to more tools but they can't predict what will do well and what won't.

But can you not see how they may have a better idea than you (the royal you, this isn't personal obviously).

Rich1976 wrote: »

No I didn't transfer out to cash in 2008, I kept everything invested and carried on with my monthly contribution.

I'm not sure all DIYers did this.

Rich1976 wrote: »

There is no evidence from what I can see that Finance professionals have the ability to grow wealth any more then us DIY investors.

Have you tried to look for evidence?

Rich1976 wrote: »

By the way - are you a financial adviser as you seem to be supporting their case very well

No, not yet.

jem16

lentrix92 wrote: »

Just spoke to HL re their Vangard Sipp:

To clarify - that although the annual charge is lower - the min amount p/month is £50 and this is per fund - you cannot split this between various funds.

What were you looking at with HL's SIPP that is less than 0.7% amc?

bigadaj

Must admit I thought mania was an IFA, my mistake.

If the finance professionals are so good at elements such as market timing why isn't there an option to pay fees on the basis of improved performance, potentially tied into a benchmark of some sort. This idea of risk sharing would be attractive to many.

Most IFAs will come up with a generic solution slightly tailored for an individual, their ability to provide any real individual value is very much constrained by regulation and the requirements of their PI cover.

mania112

bigadaj wrote: »

Must admit I thought mania was an IFA, my mistake.

If the finance professionals are so good at elements such as market timing why isn't there an option to pay fees on the basis of improved performance, potentially tied into a benchmark of some sort. This idea of risk sharing would be attractive to many.

Most IFAs will come up with a generic solution slightly tailored for an individual, their ability to provide any real individual value is very much constrained by regulation and the requirements of their PI cover.

I hope to be by the end of the year, new to the industry and training/qualifying.

These forums are a good resource to help me learn, believe it or not!

I suppose, when deciding to use an IFA or not, is to know that Investment selection is one of many things they will/can do for you.

Andydiff

mania112 wrote: »

Over the course of your lifetime a financial adviser will make more correct decisions than you will.

Your statement here is a good example. If your 'fund starts to slip' how do you know you should switch? How do you know selling a fund at a lower cost is better than holding out for it to grow again. How do you know the new investment is a better choice?

For example, those caught in the 2008 crisis started to switch into cash AFTER the crisis had already hit. Did you? If you switch into cash at this time you've already lost and moved the funds into something that will not grow and repair the damage.

I think you see where I'm coming from? I also see where you're coming from. I'm just of the mind that 'mechanics fix cars', 'painters paint walls' and 'Finance Professionals grow wealth'.

It's interesting to hear both points of view here but my financial adviser simply set my pension up in 4 different funds spread across various sectors and then left them there for a decade. He didn't move funds around regularly 'whenever needed' and so I'm wondering if any FA does this. I didn't think that FA's constantly look at all of their customers pensions changing them around when they see fit. Do they have to tell you each time they do this?
Mine even forgot who I was!

Andydiff

Hence I have now taken it into my own hands to invest my money in various funds in SL which may or may not be a good idea.
I'll let you know in 14 years!