old mutual collective retirement account

ianthy

Hi


I am in the process of transferring out my DB pension. I am in discussions with my IFA regarding a number of investment options and Old Mutual Collective Retirement account - Cirilium balanced fund has been suggested amongst a number of option.


I can read the info online but would be interested to hear from anyone that has actual experience of investing with Old Mutual.


Thanks for reading.

dunstonh

I am in discussions with my IFA regarding a number of investment options and Old Mutual Collective Retirement account - Cirilium balanced fund has been suggested amongst a number of option.

Sure its an IFA? Cirillium is in the in-house investment option typically used by Intrinsic network restricted advisers. It is available to IFAs but its not typically something you would expect an IFA to use.

I can read the info online but would be interested to hear from anyone that has actual experience of investing with Old Mutual.

It is where I have my pension. However, you need to separate the issues. You do not invest with Old Mutual as such. They are the investment platform. Their platform is like other platforms (a bit like comparing supermarket - they all sell Heinz beans for example - although some will have different ranges in the less mainstream areas just like an investment platform).

As an investment platform it is fine. Indeed, they were the first in the UK to do it and they have the widest range of superclean funds of all the platforms. They are not the cheapest and do not have the widest range and they are not the most technically advanced platform. They sit right in the mainstream market.

Cirilium is their in-house option as I mentioned. I am not a fan of any of these in-house options as they tend to be expensive and offer nothing that can be got elsewhere at better value. However, the nature of restricted FAs is that they are encouraged to use their employer's option. There is nothing wrong with it. It is expensive but it does a perfectly fine job and at first glance it appears to be a good performer. However,it has one of the highest equity contents in the sector. Indeed, it could actually be in the sector above it in terms of equity exposure. So, it would be expected to be better in growth periods. In the last negative period, it was one of the worst performers as its high equity content made it suffer more than the others in the sector.

You could do a lot worse. You could do better. Maybe check the adviser you are dealing with is an IFA and not an FA (restricted). Check their footer on letters or emails. If it mentions instrinsic then they are owned by old mutual. So, you would be seeing an Old mutual owned adviser recommending the old mutual platform using an old mutual fund.

ianthy

Thanks for the reply. My IFA is def independent. I am due to meet with him next week to review the options so will seek a full explanation for OM.

pt1188

Interesting coincidence - I met with my IFA last week and he's also adivised me to consoidate all my pension holdings within Old Mutual Wealth to Cirilium Balanced or Dynamic. I've always assumed that he was independent (he definitely was in the past) but looking at his latest letters it mentions that he is an appointed representative of Intrnsic Financial planning. Does that mean he's tied to OMW now and can only sell their products?

ianthy - I'd be interested in what you discovered after your meeting

Malthusian

pt1188 wrote: »

I've always assumed that he was independent (he definitely was in the past) but looking at his latest letters it mentions that he is an appointed representative of Intrnsic Financial planning. Does that mean he's tied to OMW now and can only sell their products?

Not necessasrily. Intrinsic's appointed represenatitives can be either independent or restricted. However, OMW/Intrinsic has been putting pressure on its appointed representatives to go restricted. Your FA may still be independent or may not. Have you asked him? What does his website say?

pt1188

I've checked his letterhead and whereas it used to say IFA it now says FA. It also says he's part of the Intrinsic network.
I'm disappointed that he didn't declare this significant change in his status and am considering terminating my relationship with him as I've always steered clear of tied advisers.
Thanks for pointing out that Intrinsic is part of Old Mutual Wealthy.

dunstonh

I'm disappointed that he didn't declare this significant change in his status and am considering terminating my relationship with him as I've always steered clear of tied advisers.

A lot of IFAs have gone restricted. In some cases, the restrictions were very small. Perhaps eliminating things like unregulated investments or the very high risk things that are not used in the mainstream market. Things that less than 1% of the population use but are high risk for employers or networks to keep under control. However, even in those scenarios, which may have started with the best intention, there has frequently been mission creep where they start restricting a few more things and then start using a panel and then limit it even further. That is what has likely happened to your adviser. He probably went from IFA to FA and had the first stage of restriction that made no difference to his clients. So, there was no need to mention it as he was still whole of market in all the areas that his clients used. Then the network put the pressure on to restrict further and further and he has ended up where he is now.

ianthy

I have to add my experience of OMW in the last month has been dreadful - CS teams giving conflicting information, errors in transactions and 3 failed attempts to make a transfer to AJ Bell. My level of confidence has reached rock bottom and I am in the process of moving all of my funds away from their platform. Is there an index or rating for Finacial platforms that includes Customer Service?

Malthusian

Odd - my experience of Old Mutual Wealth has been generally excellent in terms of customer service. I expect dunstonh will be along to say the same thing. But I haven't used them on a direct-to-consumer basis.

Which just goes to show that an index of customer service is of little use because it is going to be pretty random and influenced by the fact that people usually only leave ratings for companies when they are hacked off or when they are astroturfing for the company. When you are comparing costs you can rely on objective facts, but when you are comparing customer service you can only rely on anecdotes.

TrickyDicky101

I didn't think OMW were engaged in B2C and only went thru intermediaries? Or maybe that's just new business placed...

Malthusian

TrickyDicky101 wrote: »

I didn't think OMW were engaged in B2C and only went thru intermediaries? Or maybe that's just new business placed...

Ianthy has an IFA according to a previous post - or at least did then.