Stakeholder Pension transfer?

cashflow

I have resigned from my current job, and will probably be taking up a job overseas. My employer and I have been paying into my stakeholder pension fund, but it has not been a particularly good investment, even though I have switched funds within the stakeholder company a few times. ( The website
http://www.trustnet.com/pen/funds
gives a performance table for most stakeholder funds.)

Could any reader give me any information about how I go about transferring the fund to a new stakeholder company of my choice, please?

DavidLaGuardia

This is a straight forward excercise. Any companycansend you the forms for this, although you may as well see a commission based IFA to do the donkey work as Stakeholders are low charging contracts anyway. Be careful about fund performanceasyou might be comparing apples with oranges. Some areas such as property have recently outperformed others such as equities (thus demonstrating that a diversified asset mix is a good idea)

cashflow

Thank you for the advise and the fast response 'DavidLaGuardia'; appreciated.

EdInvestor

I assume this is a GPP? Which insurance company is it with? What funds has it been invested in?

cashflow

Yes, it's a GPP, through Scottish Life. Funds switched from Global Managed, to European.

dunstonh

I use Scottish Life quite a lot and they have some very good funds. When you invest in just one area, you are putting all your eggs in one basket. If it does well for you, then fine, if not you suffer.

Europe did well for a bit last year but not so much this year. Global Managed funds, like most bog standard managed funds, are best avoided.

The Scot Life SHP has reduced charges on fund values which makes it better than most stakeholders. Plus, being a pre April 2005 policy means it is guaranteed to have a minimum charge of 1.0% whereas a new plan could charge upto 1.5% for the first 10 years.

I suggest you review the scot life funds available to you and create a portfolio of funds that average out to your risk profile rather than find yourself in an inferior product.

cashflow

'dunstonh'.
' Plus, being a pre April 2005 policy means it is guaranteed to have a minimum charge of 1.0% whereas a new plan could charge upto 1.5% for the first 10 years'.

Thanks for the information. Also, I hadn't realised that some charges went up
in April.