Bank of Scotland Pensions

Liz_the_Whizz

Hi,

My husband still has money in the zombie Equitable Life fund, so he invited a tied advisor to chat to us about moving the money into a Bank of Scotland pension (sounded like a stakeholder product but I was not in on the whole conversation as it was our son's bedtime!).

The guy will of course be writing a report for us with his recommendations but is anyone familiar with their products and how they are regarded? Can't see much on their website (BoSIS).

But with Equitable Life having reduced their exit charge, seems like a good time to move.

Any thoughts?

dunstonh

NEVER NEVER NEVER get advice from a tied rep. They cannot portfolio plan and you end up with a substandard product.

Out of the frying pan into the fire.

Liz_the_Whizz

Point taken. So do we need an IFA on this or is it easy enough to sort out a "best buy" ourselves?

EdInvestor

Bosis is a division of HBOS (which manages what remains of the Equitable WP fund) so it will be a Halifax Life or Clerical Medical pension probably.

There are better choices.

Is there any protected rights money in the pension?

dunstonh

Clerical Medical's personal pension is quite good but their stakeholder is very weak. I dont believe bank of scotland sell clerical medical products though (which is surprising although there may be contractual issues that stop them).

So do we need an IFA on this or is it easy enough to sort out a "best buy" ourselves?

You can sort it out yourself if you wish. Although the fact that your husband let a tied agent see you perhaps suggests an IFA would be better.

Can you pick the investment spread and product provider that will offer you the best terms and funds to suit your needs? If yes, go DIY. If no, go IFA.

EdInvestor

If you have no PR money in there, there is a third alternative: a SIPP. Have a look around this site for some ideas:

https://www.h-l.co.uk

Liz_the_Whizz

We're awaiting a response from Equitable Life re: any protected rights before deciding the next move.

My husband is already in the HBOS Money Purchase Scheme as an employee (hence the visitation from Mr BoSIS), so I think an offering from elsewhere would be a good idea.

He also has a Standard Life personal pension plan - one option would be to put the money from the Equitable in there instead.

Standard Life seems a very popular provider at present - a better option than BoSIS?

dunstonh

[the full retail version of the] Standard Life personal pension has a good range of funds and you can build a decent portfolio with that.

Standard Life seems a very popular provider at present - a better option than BoSIS?

Yes. However do not confuse popular with best. SL have been pushing their SIPP heavily and in my opinion it is over sold when personal pensions and stakeholder is some cases would have been better.

EdInvestor

Liz_the_Whizz wrote: »

He also has a Standard Life personal pension plan - one option would be to put the money from the Equitable in there instead.

I'd have thought this is the best move.The SL PP has low charges, a good choice of external funds, and unusually for a life insurer, it also has some top performing funds of its own.

Add on the SIPP - where they are way ahead of the competition, particularly in offering drawdown - and you can see why they are doing well in the market.

Liz_the_Whizz

OK, so we now have a bit more info on this and would welcome input.

Just to recap:

My husband has an Equitable Life pension pot of £80k. EL have been contacted and there are no guarantees on annuity, but it does have a guaranteed growth of 3.5%. Transfer out would cost us 5%. Annual growth pretty dismal now and into the future as primarily investing in fixed interest rather than equities due to its dire straits.

OK, so Mr BoSIS inevitably touted us a Stakeholder based on Insight Investments, medium risk portfolio.

Our inclination is to transfer the Equitable Life money into Standard Life where we have a small (£10k) pot invested in SL funds (property, UK Equity and With Profits).

Following up on earlier posts, I have been looking at the range of funds from the SL personal pension and it looks good.

How does this sound for a first stab at a balanced portfolio:

SL UK Equity Select One 20%
Schroder UK Mid 250 20%
Invesco Perpetual High Income 20%
SL Higher Income (Fixed Int) 15%
SL European One 15%
SL Overseas One 10%

The SL One range of funds only attract 1% charges and look pretty reasonable in relation to the other investment funds offered alongside, hence I have gone for those to keep cost erosion down.

Any views on how balanced thsi is for a pension?

My only concern with SL is that there is a restriction on the number of fund switches, ie no more than that 12 funds can be held at any time and no more than 20 different funds in total over the lifetime of the product.

This seems unnecessarily restrictive, is it typical?

Maybe it doesn't matter, must admit never even thought of switching funds in the past, but it puts me off a bit as who knows what will happen? Will certainly want to switch things around nearer retirement if not before.

Final issue is that SL website expects the involvement of an IFA for a pension transfer. Can we DIY or should we finally take the plunge and get one?

Thoughts anyone?

dunstonh

Final issue is that SL website expects the involvement of an IFA for a pension transfer. Can we DIY or should we finally take the plunge and get one?

You may as well get an IFA to do it. The charges you mention cover the costs to an IFA. So, there is little point going DIY if it is going to cost the same as an adviser.

As an adviser, I would be steering you away from standard life due to the limited fund options for a contract that is likely to be there for years. Not being able to do more than 20 funds in the lifetime of the contract is far too restrictive. Especially when a pot of £80k would be better better off having about 12-20 funds anyway.