Scottish Widows stakeholder pension

suebfg

Hi, not sure if I am posting in the right place ...

I have a stakeholder pension with Scottish Widows. I set it up about 8 years ago as it was reputed to be one of the best at the time.

I just wondered if anyone had any thoughts about it and whether it is still a good pension to have.

Mistermeaner

Depends on the underlying investments i think, as well as host of other details such as your age, income, aspirations, value of pension, debts, mortgage, kids, health, husband, life expectancy, etc etc

Will need a few more details i think

suebfg

well, I have far too little in it that is for sure! But I have a good level of other savings and investments, no debts, no mortgage, good health, late thirties, a husband, two children and have no idea re my life expectancy! Husband has a better pension with company contributions - we are both higher rate taxpayers and aspire to have a good standard of living in retirement.

That's one of the reasons for asking really - I am rather suspicious of pensions and prefer to invest in funds but am conscious of the tax savings I am losing by not investing in my pension. I think the Scottish Widows pension has about 30 funds or so but most are their own funds, whereas with investment funds, there is much more choice and some would say better quality funds.

Maybe I should have a SIPP, not sure

Mistermeaner

Do you get employer contributions as well as your own? If so that is free money so worth having over a SIPP. Either way pension is good as high rate tax payer as tax avoiding.

im no expert but would need to see details of charges and funds to judge if they are `good' or not....

My work pension is through zurich and there is only 50 funds, charges ranging from 0.01% to 1% , not as much choice as my s+s isa which has thousands but fundamentally you can achieve the same spread of equity/bonds/guilts/cash etc in any geographical mix you want in either by chopping and changing ratios between funds.

Without any specific info i would suggest you should stick with the work provided pensionas often charges are low and you get free money, but look at your fund mix.

In addition you could open an s+s isa to invest in independently to get tax free access to a huge variety of funds with no age restrictions on accessing your money.

Someone will be along shortly to talk about high interest current accounts too.

Also make sure you have decent life cover for the kids.

Assume with you and hubby being debt free and bothhigh rate tax payers you should be rolling in it. Your young so invest well, retire early, travel the world . Thats my plan anyway.

Or end up on grand designs

dunstonh

Stakeholder pensions were the best option of their era. However, times have moved on and today they are only usually best for small contribution amounts/small values.

I am rather suspicious of pensions and prefer to invest in funds

That doesnt make sense. A pension is a tax wrapper. You can invest in exactly the same funds as you can unwrapped or in ISA. So, how can you trust one but not the other.

suebfg

Hi, I don't get employer contributions.

I already invest in S&S via the ISA. I can't invest in the same funds via my stakeholder pension as I can via my S&S - my stakeholder pension is limited to 35 funds. I can invest in over 2,000 funds or more via my ISA.

My suspicions of pensions are less now that i have the stakeholder as I can see performance at any time. But previous pensions have been company pensions with contributions and performance is much less visible.

However the restricted amount of fund available in the stakeholder is an issue for me. Most are Scottish Widow funds and I don't think they are the best performing funds.

PS fully intend to travel the world too!

edinburgher

Automatic enrollment means you'll be entitled to a contribution at some point?

A SIPP would probably be a better choice these days, although maximising your ISA contributions is also a healthy step. I agree that employer pensions can be a bit disheartening at times, I'm with L&G and get a similar mix of L&G funds, with a few 'bonus' funds from other managers with extra charges to consider. Look forward to the day when I'm senior enough to return as a contractor and just use a SIPP