PensionBee Q&A

cloud_dog

bigadaj wrote: »

For clarification is there any commercial arrangement between yourselves and MSE/ moneysupermarket, it just strikes me as unusual to start a thread like this to effectively promote one company.

Oh, that brings a whole new twist to our lovely, comfy little forum. Do we now have to second guess the motive behind MSE in allowing representatives on these boards?

PensionBee

bigadaj wrote: »

For clarification is there any commercial arrangement between yourselves and MSE/ moneysupermarket, it just strikes me as unusual to start a thread like this to effectively promote one company.


There are no shortage of options when it comes to pensions and whilst I wish you well I can't really see your USP.

There is no commercial relationship, this account was created by me for two reasons: people asking questions about our product and service on this forum and 2) a official account for answers. It needs to be clear that an official representative is answering queries (especially in financial services!).
Also, I want to talk directly to people and this forum is a great way to do so.

To avoid any commercial intent, the discussion is taking place here and not anywhere else on the forum. I actively ask members to comment here and nowhere else. There are strict rules to be on the forum as a brand.
I hope that answers your question.

Jasper
On behalf of PensionBee

Zanderman

PensionBee wrote: »

At PensionBee we're currently reviewing our fees and I'm collecting as much feedback as possible on what those fees should be. We currently offer an all-in-fee of 0.5% on any amount and there are two options I'm looking into:
a. lower fees above 100k
b. a fixed fee, no percentage
What would be your preference or do you have another price model in mind? We would love to hear your feedback!

Jasper
On behalf of PensionBee

That's your all-in annual fee, but do you charge for transfers in? That would make a diffeence to many. I've been looking at transferring one of my very old (and in this instance very modest, currently diminishing slowly via fees) pension to NEST, who don't charge for transfers in and then only 0.3% ongoing (for the transfered funds). So (ignoring the actual investments) NEST seem cheaper on annual charge, but I don't know what your transfer costs might be.

PensionBee

Zanderman wrote: »

That's your all-in annual fee, but do you charge for transfers in?

Consolidating and transferring in is free of charge. We currently only charge a all-in-fee on the plan.

Jasper
On behalf of PensionBee

AnotherJoe

PensionBee wrote: »

Hi Cloud_dog,
Yes, the 0.45 vs 0.5 if often compared but the 0.5 includes the fund fee, with HL is doesn't. We're currently cheaper than HL on pension pots up to £200k
The whole "what's included" often is confusing and therefore I do a full review atm.
.

How can that possibly be the case? Are you saying if I had a fund with, say a 1% fee, you’d pay me 0.5% in order to make the overall charge including your fee 0.5%?!,

And if I had multiple funds at varying rates, you’d have multiple fees some positive, some negative, to balance them all down overall to 0.5%?

Makes no sense and you’re right it’s as confusing as heck.

PensionBee

AnotherJoe wrote: »

How can that possibly be the case? Are you saying if I had a fund with, say a 1% fee, you’d pay me 0.5% in order to make the overall charge including your fee 0.5%?!,

And if I had multiple funds at varying rates, you’d have multiple fees some positive, some negative, to balance them all down overall to 0.5%?

Makes no sense and you’re right it’s as confusing as heck.

We are currently offering 4 plans that have an all-in-fee (cost of the fund + platform fee). We don't offer a full SIPP functionality hence we're not separating platform costs and fund costs.

Jasper
On behalf of PensionBee

cloud_dog

AnotherJoe wrote: »

How can that possibly be the case? Are you saying if I had a fund with, say a 1% fee, you’d pay me 0.5% in order to make the overall charge including your fee 0.5%?!,

For the lowest cost....the plan is the fund. Obviously, a low cost tracker, probably global.

Lokolo

AnotherJoe wrote: »

How can that possibly be the case? Are you saying if I had a fund with, say a 1% fee, you’d pay me 0.5% in order to make the overall charge including your fee 0.5%?!,

And if I had multiple funds at varying rates, you’d have multiple fees some positive, some negative, to balance them all down overall to 0.5%?

Makes no sense and you’re right it’s as confusing as heck.

Its not that confusing actually, had to do a bit of research though.

The PensionBee fee does include the AMC of the fund. Reading the tracker (0.5% PensionBee offer) fund factsheet

https://www.ssga.com/doc/factsheets/FS2950_English.pdf

The charge is directly against the client (PensionBee) and therefore we do not see this cost. I assume this is down to client negotiations. To us consumer that means Fund Cost + Platform Cost = 0.5%.

e.g. if PB have negotiated a 0.2% cost for that fund, then the revenue PB get after fund costs is 0.3%. The more PB negotiate down with State Street the more revenue they get for their platform.

bigadaj

PensionBee wrote: »

There is no commercial relationship, this account was created by me for two reasons: people asking questions about our product and service on this forum and 2) a official account for answers. It needs to be clear that an official representative is answering queries (especially in financial services!).
Also, I want to talk directly to people and this forum is a great way to do so.

To avoid any commercial intent, the discussion is taking place here and not anywhere else on the forum. I actively ask members to comment here and nowhere else. There are strict rules to be on the forum as a brand.
I hope that answers your question.

Jasper
On behalf of PensionBee

Thanks for the response and confirmation.

As I stated it just seemed unusual for a specific thread to be started by the forum team to allow one specific company to post.

There are obviously numerous company representatives posting across these boards with permissions but they seem to monitor in the same manner as other social media. Their involvement seems largely limited to resolving customer issues and providing a company perspective for balance in many instances.

Still nice to see you engage with potential customers and will be interesting to see how things develop, it's a very crowded marketplace with a wide range of options but good luck.

Alexland

I am still confused on how PensionBee can have FSCS protection above £50k when they are only offering OEIC funds.

But for high balances of £100k+ it is possible to get insured funds within an Aviva stakeholder at a total cost of 0.45% which is cheaper and would definitely benefit from full FSCS protection.

https://www.cavendishonline.co.uk/pensions/stakeholder-and-personal-pensions/aviva/

Personally I take the FSCS risk with my large pots to get access to 0.3x% total fees. I am hopeful as my pots grow to get into the 0.2x% total fee zone.

Alex