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Second-hand endowments

How do people feel about second hand endowments as part of an investment portfolio?

How much (typically) has a terminal bonus been in recent years?

Thoughts?
Money won't buy you happiness....but I have never been in a situation where more money made things worse!

Comments

  • Annisele
    Annisele Posts: 4,835 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I think that they're a pain to value, and they have opaque charging structures - so I'm not keen.
  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 121,282 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    How do people feel about second hand endowments as part of an investment portfolio?

    I dont feel anything about them. it is all very 1990s. Most endowments are coming to an end. So, the life of such investments are limited. Plus, third party endowments have had issues over liquidity and mis-selling (understating risk) and are considered high risk from an advice point of view.

    If you are going to leave the mainstream then you need to be confident of the investment you are buying. I would not allocate my non-mainstream money to such things.
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • Aegis
    Aegis Posts: 5,695 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    How do people feel about second hand endowments as part of an investment portfolio?

    How much (typically) has a terminal bonus been in recent years?

    Thoughts?
    I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole either for my own portfolio or for clients. They're an utter pain to deal with first hand, second hand can only be worse!
    I am a Chartered Financial Planner
    Anything I say on the forum is for discussion purposes only and should not be construed as personal financial advice. It is vitally important to do your own research before acting on information gathered from any users on this forum.
  • bigadaj
    bigadaj Posts: 11,531 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    It's a pity endowment problems couldn't have been foreseen when originally sold they anve always been opaque and if you don't know what you're buying then should never have been bought.
  • Totton
    Totton Posts: 981 Forumite
    We used to purchase these via Investment Trusts run by Kleinwort Benson and later someone else. I'm not sure if there is a similar vehicle nowadays but at the time they worked out well as an investment by that means.
  • dzug1
    dzug1 Posts: 13,535 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 19 July 2014 at 11:59AM
    bigadaj wrote: »
    It's a pity endowment problems couldn't have been foreseen when originally sold they anve always been opaque and if you don't know what you're buying then should never have been bought.


    They were entirely foreseeable when they were originally sold. I certainly foresaw them and refused to take out a low cost one


    Problem was few people were prepared to accept that foresight, relying on the principle that 'present trends will continue forever' encouraged by financial advisors who were better at arithmetic than understanding what lay behind their sums.


    Whilst all advisors now trot out 'past performance is not a guide to the future' many still proceed to make recommendations as if it were.


    And regulation now means that it's impossible for endowments to be a high performing investment
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