Standard Life stakeholder pension - thoughts on funds

civil12345

Hi, I'm in the Standard Life stakeholder pension and have been for around 7-8 months. I'm quite new to investing, but doing a lot of reading. The fund choice in this pension is very limited. I'm currently invested in...

46% SL Baillie Gifford Life Managed Pension Fund


46% SL BlackRock Aquila Connect Consensus Pension Fund


8% Standard Life Property Pension Fund



I'm just hoping to get people's thoughts on these funds/ this allocation.

I understand the normal questions regarding goals, risks etc. and I'm currently thinking about them. It's thoughts on the quality of these funds, or the other, limited choices available with this stakeholder pension that I'm interested in. For a small bit of info, I'm 31and have no other pension provision or investments at the moment.

Thanks

232607

Both the 1st two have bond/cash holdings which I wouldn't want at your young age but may be others have different not views. Nothing wrong with the property as a diversifier.

What are the other fund options available?

Also 41+41+8=90 so your missing 10%.

Regards.

civil12345

Hi, thanks for the reply.

It should be 46+46+8. Oops! I'll amend the original post.

The full list of options is below (apologies for the big block of text):

SL Aberdeen Life Multi Asset Ex Property Pension
SL Baillie Gifford 50:50 Worldwide Equity Pension
SL Baillie Gifford Life Managed Pension Fund
SL Baillie Gifford UK Equity Core Pension Fund
SL BlackRock Aquila Co Over 5Yr Idx Lkd Glt Pn Fd
SL BlackRock Aquila Connect Consensus Pension Fund
SL BlackRock Aquila Connect European Equity Pn Fd
SL BlackRock Aquila Connect Japanese Equity Pn Fd
SL BlackRock Aquila Connect Over 15 Year Glt Pn Fd
SL BlackRock Aquila Connect Pacific Rim Eq Pn Fd
SL BlackRock Aquila Connect US Equity Pension Fund
SL BlackRock Aquila Connect World (Ex-UK) Eq Pn Fd
SL BlackRock Continental European Eq Tracker Pn Fd
SL BlackRock Japan Equity Tracker Pension Fund
SL BlackRock Managed (50:50) Global Equity Pension
SL BlackRock North American Equity Tracker Pension
SL BlackRock Pacific ex Japan Equity Tracker Pn Fd
SL BlackRock UK Equity Tracker Pension Fund
SL BlackRock UK Gilts All Stocks Tracker Pension
SL HSBC Amanah Global Equity Index Pension Fund
SL JP Morgan Life Moderate Pension Fund
SL SLI UK Opportunities Pension Fund
SL UBS Global Optimal Pension Fund
SL Vanguard FTSE* Developed Europe ex UK Eq Idx Pn
SL Vanguard FTSE* Developed World ex UK Eq Idx Pn
SL Vanguard FTSE* UK All Share Index Pension Fund
SL Vanguard UK Long Duration Gilt Index Pension Fd
SL Vanguard US Equity Pension Fund
Stakeholder With Profits 2006 Fund
Standard Life Annuity Purchase Fund
Standard Life At Ret (Stakeholder Lump Sum)
Standard Life At Ret (Stakeholder Universal)
Standard Life Corporate Bond Pension Fund
Standard Life Deposit and Treasury Pension Fund
Standard Life Ethical Pension Fund
Standard Life European Equity Pension Fund
Standard Life Global Equity 50:50 Pension Fund
Standard Life Global Equity 50:50 Tracker Pension
Standard Life Index Linked Bond Pension Fund
Standard Life International Equity Pension Fund
Standard Life Japanese Equity Pension Fund
Standard Life Long Corporate Bond Pension Fund
Standard Life Managed Pension Fund
Standard Life Mixed Bond Pension Fund
Standard Life Money Market Pension Fund
Standard Life Multi Asset Mgd (20-60% Shares) Pn
Standard Life North American Equity Pension Fund
Standard Life Overseas Equity Pension Fund
Standard Life Overseas Tracker Pension Fund
Standard Life Pre Ret (Stakeholder Lump Sum)
Standard Life Pre Ret (Stakeholder Universal)
Standard Life Property Pension Fund
Standard Life Stock Exchange Pension Fund
Standard Life UK Equity Pension Fund

I chose the funds I did as I thought it was the best way to get exposure to a wide range of assets, from the options available. I have chopped and changed a bit since I started due to not knowing what I'm doing, but now the value is getting a bit higher I'm starting to think about it more.

civil12345

My other idea was to use 3 or 4 of the trackers, ignoring the bond funds and possibly the property fund.

232607

As some general advise I'd say yes trackers. Try & stick Global so you don't get too heavy in 1 georgraphical reagion. Try & spread it so you get coverage in different sectors, large blue chips (biggest % allocation) down to small Co's + some emerging market thrown in. Avoid bonds/cash & avoid changing your portfolio when your happy with it, other than periodic re-balancing. Leave your SL prop around the 10% mark. If your going to have multiple trackers they need to track different things or at different ratio's. Trackers with the same sectors at the similar % allocation will give the same results.

If you want some good education material I recommend Tim Hale - Smarter investor.

Good luck.

civil12345

Thanks, I started out with something like the below...

40% SL BlackRock Aquila Connect World (Ex-UK) Eq Pn Fd
30% SL Vanguard FTSE* UK All Share Index Pension Fund
10% SL BlackRock Continental European Eq Tracker Pn Fd
10% SL BlackRock Aquila Connect Pacific Rim Eq Pn Fd
10% Standard Life Corporate Bond Pension Fund

Then decided to change for what I've got now.

Does anyone have any thoughts about the quality of the 3 funds I've mentioned, or the 5 above? I'm just trying to assess, with the limited choice I have, if these are 'good' or 'poor' funds. Obviously I'm looking at geographical/asset allocation, but I want to know if I'm choosing between a set of race horses or ponies!

Also, does anything stand out in the long list as a quality fund?

Thanks again.

masonic

I think I'd be leaning towards the trackers listed in your latter post. Bear in mind that the World ex-UK fund includes an allocation of European and Asian equities, so you are effectively going overweight in those regions by adding a separate fund (which you may or may not want to do). Perhaps add a little property if you want the diversification.

Interestingly, the first fund seems to have outperformed the index it is supposed to be tracking by quite some margin in the past 5 and 10 years. I'm not sure why as it is composed of individual country/regional trackers that do track their index closely. Perhaps the allocations are allowed to drift...

BLB53

You do not give info on charges which, for me would be an important aspect.

Personally I would go for the low cost index which would be Vanguard FTSE Dev World ex Uk 70%; Vanguard FTSE UK All Share 10% and Vanguard UK Gilt Index 20%.

civil12345

Thanks both. I'll have a look at the charges, I know I get some sort of discount but will have to look at the documentation.

Would splitting the strategy, and going for something like...

23% SL Baillie Gifford Life Managed Pension Fund
23% SL BlackRock Aquila Connect Consensus Pension Fund

28% SL BlackRock Aquila Connect World (Ex-UK) Eq Pn Fd
18% SL Vanguard FTSE* UK All Share Index Pension Fund

8% Standard Life Property Pension Fund

Make any sense? I think I may be confusing active and passive, maybe shouldn't have read that big thread that's been going on the past few days!

masonic

BLB53 wrote: »

Vanguard FTSE Dev World ex Uk

Agreed, based on the above, this looks superior to the Blackrock equivalent offered by SL. I missed that one when I looked through the list.

civil12345

Thanks masonic, why is it superior?