Standard Life Pension

stphnstevey

I have a Standard Life Stakeholder Pension left over from my previous employer. Within it the money is invested in Stakeholder Managed Fund.

My new employer also contributes to my pension into a Standard Life pension fund (but not the same one or a Stakeholder). This is invested as follows:

o Pension Managed One Fund 25%
o Pension North American One Fund
25%
o Pension Property One Fund 25%
o Pension Japanese One Fund 25%

Is it worth transferring one into the other and if so, which into which?

Can I change which fund they invest in?

If I simply leave the money there, will it gradually grow (I presume as long as the gains beat the costs)?

Browntrout_2

Using the Standard Life website you can apply online for a Userid and Password, then login and monitor performance and instruct switches.

There is a star rating listed for the funds, I don't know how applicable these are though but I was in that Japanese fund and it has not moved for years.

• Pension Managed One Fund - three stars
• Pension North American One Fund - two stars
• Pension Property One Fund - three stars
• Pension Japanese One Fund - one star

http://uk.standardlife.com/content/policy/sl_funds/PS4/prices.html

I can't help you with merging these, but certainly the Stakeholder Managed fund is targetted to grow as per this;

The Managed Fund is primarily equity based, and is our most popular investment linked fund. It is actively managed to take advantage of the opportunities identified by our investment teams. A substantial part of the portfolio will normally be invested in UK equities, with the remainder held in overseas equities, fixed interest stocks and property. The objective is to maximise returns whilst spreading the risk

EdInvestor

Is the employer's fund a Personal Pension or a stakeholder?If it's a PP does it give access to external funds?

stphnstevey

Yes my new pension is a (group) personal pension - can you explain the difference?

The list of funds I can choose from is about 30-40. 50% of them are Standard life funds but the rest are external funds.

I can see I am going to have to do some research here - is it worthwhile doing an annual review of the funds I am investing in? I know most people have no clue what funds their pension is investing in

Also, are there initial and annual charges like Unit Trusts? Can i swap over the fund I invest in without penalty?

EdInvestor

It will definitely be good to move the old stakeholder into the new GPP, as you will get a bigger choice of better funds and probably also lower charges ( but ask about this.

Suggest you do a full analysis of all the fund offered and once the pensions are merged, reinvest the whole lot.

Pay particular attrention to the external funds. Check their ratings here:

https://www.citywire.co.uk/Funds/Home.aspx

[External funds under "IMA", the better StLife funds will also be under this category.]

stphnstevey

Don't Stakeholder Funds have specifically low charges?

dunstonh

stakeholders tend to only issue internal funds which are 1% with SL. Those same funds are available on their personal pensions and SIPP at 1% as well.

Companies can negotiate terms with SL on annual management charges. So, the group scheme could have lower charges. The range of funds is not likely to be as good as an individual personal pension but it would be better than a stakeholder.

stphnstevey

Where can I find out the charges on these funds - I can't find a link to them?

https://online.standardlife.com/csol/fundprice.do?action=enter

EdInvestor

Probably easiest to ask whoever deals with pension issues at your company.

dunstonh

The fund charges will depend on the contract terms. You could have 10 different SL contracts with the same funds all at different annual management charges.