Standard Life pension question

Robert60

Interesting. Thank you. Does the 0.22% include the platform fee as well for iWeb? Or is that charged on top?

Robert60

Thank you dunstonh. Is a personal pension plan 'safer' than a SIPP? I'm not sure what safer means, but I recall that you've said before that the protection is better with a personal pension plan?

dunstonh

Is a personal pension plan 'safer' than a SIPP?

That could be answered in very many ways. It is not a straight yes or no.

Both options allow you to build portfolios to match all risk profiles. So, on the point of investment risk/volatility, there is really no difference if you stick to mainstream investments.

A SIPP does not have to carry out the due diligence levels that a personal pension provider does. So, the potential for you to go wrong with a personal pension is lower than it is with a SIPP.

Personal pensions have 100% FSCS protection when they use insured funds. There is no upper limit. SIPPs have £50k FSCS protection per fund house and only if you pick regulated investments which are covered by the FSCS. SIPPs allow you to buy weird and unusual stuff.

If you look at most of the pensions issues nowadays (i.e. what is going wrong), it is heavily weighted to SIPPs and unregulated investments. Mostly by cold calling scammers. Avoid the unregulated side though and you can eliminate that as an issue.

zagfles

dunstonh wrote: »

Standard Life are quick. HL are a bit slow. (I have only done it from HL - Not to HL). SL tend to transfer out within 48 hours.

I've done a couple of transfers to HL, they were very quick.

zagfles

Robert60 wrote: »

Thank you dunstonh. Is a personal pension plan 'safer' than a SIPP? I'm not sure what safer means, but I recall that you've said before that the protection is better with a personal pension plan?

Have a read of this thread

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5577163

neilvw

dunstonh wrote: »

Standard Life are quick. HL are a bit slow. (I have only done it from HL - Not to HL). SL tend to transfer out within 48 hours.

I have handled a few pension transfers to HL lately, and they seem not particularly quick at that either. I get the impression they're swamped with new business at the moment.

They are extremely helpful on the phone though.

ArmyDilllo

Just to update;

Thanks for all the replies and info.
I have made my decision and transferred my Std Life pension to Aviva, who operate one of my other pension funds and amalgamated both.
I can manage my investments online, if I wish,but I am reasonably satisfied with Aviva's management of this fund so far (avg 8.68% although measurement period is only six years).
Aviva quoted me management charges of 0.35% annually (0.65% less than Std Life and 0.1% less than HL even) + the usual fund manager's charges.
I can live with that and if I can maintain an average growth of 5 - 6 % I may even add some growth to the fund while withdrawing my annual personal income tax allowance from it.
Not my original aim but it will all help my nominated beneficiaries later on I suppose.

If it does "too well" I may even opt to pay the tax and make transfers from it into other investments down the line, depending on the value of such a move then.

Thanks again for all your contributions and advice.
I know I haven't used all of it, but every bit of it has been useful.