friends provident international mirror funds

jem16

coxwell wrote: »

I am fully aware what the product is. TAX IS NOT AN ISSUE. The product is over 10 years old and bought and paid for but it needs to grow in value.

Which it may or may not do better if held elsewhere. Have you considered this or not?

I am looking for inspiration with regard to choice of mirror funds to hold in a balanced portfolio from those available within the Friends Provident International funds on the IOM. I would just like to have some opinion on the funds available from members of this forum rather than trust an uknown IFA as my 3 experiences with them so far have been attrocious.

I gave you a suggestion yesterday but you have made no comment so I'll assume it wasn't what you were looking for.

I doubt you will get any opinions as no-one is likely to have used this product and, as yet, you still haven't given any information on your mother's circumstances.

dunstonh

I'm beginning to think that these supposed two IFAs saw a train wreck coming and didnt want to get involved and that is why they are being slagged off. If a conversation had gone similar to this thread I would refuse to offer services.

Annisele

OP - am I right in thinking that you're hoping somebody is going to say "fundA is good, fundB is bad, fundC is OK"? If so, we can't - for most funds, things are much more complicated than that.

Admittedly if you'd come here five years ago and asked about the Glanmore or Brandeaux funds, people would probably have told you not to touch them with a bargepole. But that's because some funds are only suitable for sophisticated investors, and if you have to ask about them (i.e. if you can't assess the risk for yourself) you probably shouldn't go near them. Most funds aren't like that.

You've told us you want the money to grow - but you haven't even said whether you're talking about real or nominal growth. We don't know if you want it to grow in sterling or euro terms, or if there's currency risk involved, or if you need/want to hedge that risk.

You keep saying there are no tax issues, but IMO that's impossible. Your mother either pays tax or she doesn't, and in either case there are tax issues. Depending on the exact contract she has, and where she lives now, there may also be tax issues associated with surrendering the bond.

You also say the existing bond is bought and paid for. I suspect you mean that the establishment charges have been paid, but that doesn't mean there are no future charges - Friends Provident will continue to charge something, because it has to pay its staff somehow.

If you want an opinion about asset allocation, you're going to have to tell us more about your mother's circumstances. For some people, an asset allocation of 80% or more equities is fine. Other people ought to be entirely in cash (at least for the short term). Age, attitude to risk, investment goals (which are more than just "make money") all matter to that.

If you want an opinion about whether an individual fund is a good addition to your portfolio, then again you need to give us more information about what else is in it. For example, if you tell us you already have fundA, fundB and fundC, and you're considering adding fundD, then I might say "but the underlying assets of fundD are near-identical to those of fundA, so you're not adding diversification at all". Or I might say something about charges. Or some other thing. But you're just not giving enough information for us to help you.