Starting a pension later in life

dunstonh

I'm wondering if I can pay this fee separately rather than it come out of my pension pot?

It is more tax efficient to have the adviser charges come out of the pension as you effectively get tax relief on the charge that way.

e.g. £1000 direct to adviser costs you £1000. Whereas £1000 paid via the pension has cost you £780 as £220 obtains tax relief.

sharronej

ok thank you - I'll do it that way then.

atush

Are you SE by choice? Or because it was easiest as you were a carer?

If you have the choice, being employed instead of SE can mean more for your pension as the employer has to pay in for you as well.

If your turnover is high enough,consider being an LLC instead of SE. It can mean our pension could cost you less as it can be a business expense.

armchaireconomist

They charge £87.50 per MONTH? Shop around.


Personally i'd go for a SIPP with HL, Aviva etc. - circa 0.4% annual charge, plus the fund charges which can be circa 0.1-1% depending on your choice.

sharronej

Hi all,

Just a quick update - I think I've got sorted with Profile Pensions, they've suggested a Scottish widows pension and all the combined fees work out at 0.7% which seems ok?

Just wanted to say thank you for all your advice x

atush

I've just spoken to an IFA who said I would pay a one off consultation fee (undisclosed although I did ask)

They should tell you upfront- it is part of the new regulations.

sharronej

ah ok, I presume even when he comes back with his suggestions I am under no obligation to buy if his fees are too high? I was talking to my brother last night and he said that he thought that some ifa's/brokers might offer you for example the 2.5% example but if the fund was making more than that they took the extra plus their fees - does anyone know if this is true? I didn't think it sounded like something they would be allowed to do but maybe he's a cynic or maybe I'm naïve lol!!

Are there any other questions I should ask?
Thank you.

bigadaj

sharronej wrote: »

ah ok, I presume even when he comes back with his suggestions I am under no obligation to buy if his fees are too high? I was talking to my brother last night and he said that he thought that some ifa's/brokers might offer you for example the 2.5% example but if the fund was making more than that they took the extra plus their fees - does anyone know if this is true? I didn't think it sounded like something they would be allowed to do but maybe he's a cynic or maybe I'm naïve lol!!

Are there any other questions I should ask?
Thank you.

No obligation, after a free initial consultation he should then detail all his charges and costs or fees, then you make a decision to proceed to not shouldn't be any obligation though he'll be keen to,progress no doubt if he's spent time on it already.

Certain funds will have peformance fees but they are a bit niche, an ifa certainly shouldn't have any and I don't think any intermediaries or brokers do currently but there may be exceptions, if you don't know or understand just ask, that's what they are there for. If you don't feel comfortable asking then they are probably not the right person.

You should get a proposal stating an initial fee, to do the fact find, research, documentation and recommend teh products. The product will then have charges, normally one for the fund and one for the platform, and the ifa will probably have an ongoing charge for annual review and recommendations for fund changes, rebalancing etc

Do some reading around, these boards are useful and the monevator website is quite useful. Probably best to get an ifa to set this up now, but if you learn the general principles it's soemthing you might takeover in a couple of years and save some money in fees.

xylophone

And have you obtained a new state pension statement?

https://www.gov.uk/yourstatepension?utm_source=Mail-Online&utm_medium=Partnership&utm_campaign=GTKY

sharronej

thank you, I have got sorted now - much appreciate all your help,