Standard Life Group Personal Pension One charges

puk999

Hi,

I have a plan at work which I'm starting to review. http://www.yourslpension.com/gpp-coe/common-questions has a link to the Key Features PDF. In section 4.5 about charges, it seems the fund management charge includes commission and Standard Life's costs (i.e. bundled pricing). I expected to see clean pricing as I do in my Fidelity ISA and SIPP. Am I looking at old documentation, or does clean pricing not apply here?

dunstonh

All Standard Life new business plans are explicitly charged.

Although pension funds are different to unit trust/OEICs. So, its not exactly the same. Commissions are all out but the plan can be mono charged. i.e. a single charge reported. such as 0.40% AMC with no additional product charge. (AMC in pension funds relates to TER on UT/OEICs).

puk999

Thanks.

My other pension is a Fidelity SIPP where I can pay 0.35% service fee and 0.18% for a fund that claims to track the MSCI World Index. I was wondering if I could do similar for my SL plan but it seems everything (including trackers) is at least 1% all-in. I feel like I'm overpaying here. Anyone care to comment/explain the difference?

dunstonh

My other pension is a Fidelity SIPP where I can pay 0.35% service fee and 0.18% for a fund that claims to track the MSCI World Index. I was wondering if I could do similar for my SL plan but it seems everything (including trackers) is at least 1% all-in

are you sure its 1%? 1% is the typical maximum for commission based plans (pre RDR) for using internal funds. For those set up post RDR or in the lead up, then they would often be discounted from that 1%. Each scheme getting different discount levels.

An older group scheme could well be at 1%. Although that will drop to 0.75% soon (even for existing). Modern versions would be around 0.3%-0.5%.

puk999

The 1% I gleaned from plan information they sent me in Dec 2013 via an online document which said

The product charges for this plan are:
Fund Management Charge
The basic level of fund management charge on this plan is 1% pa.
deducted daily.
Please refer to policy documentation for the level of fund management
charge on any investments in external funds.

and I was selecting funds on their portal under "change my investments" and viewing the factsheets for the funds then looking at the charges. For instance, the SL BlackRock North American Equity Tracker Pension says the total fund charge is 1.03%.

I didn't think of the possibility of discounts. I shall investigate this.

dunstonh

and I was selecting funds on their portal under "change my investments" and viewing the factsheets for the funds then looking at the charges. For instance, the SL BlackRock North American Equity Tracker Pension says the total fund charge is 1.03%.

Be aware that any non-personalised info will likely show the base charge before discounts.