Expat - old Standard Life Stakeholder pension

pin

I have a Standard Life With Profits Stakeholder pension from when I used to live in the UK. For the past 10 years I have not really given it much thought, however I'm now slowly starting to get my finances in order.

I was able to call up Standard Life and and now can log in to see the portfolio performance. Over the past 10 odd years its roughly doubled in value.

What I am however having trouble finding out is the fees I am getting charged, but for Standard Life to manage and also for the costs of the underlying portfolios. Is there any way to get a clearer picture on this?

Also, the next question is would I be better off putting this money into a SIPP and investing into a Vanguard fund, where hopefully the fees would be quite low?

Thanks in advance!

Malthusian

Charges on With Profits funds are generally opaque as instead of your pension's value being directly linked to the stockmarket (with the charges deducted from the value), Standard Life's actuary decides how much to add to it each year based on their long-term view of past and future performance. They work out the amount to add (the bonus rate) after deducting the cost of running the With Profits fund. How much this cost is has historically been treated as not the punter's concern, on the basis that all the punter is interested in is the bonus rate. The annual report of the With Profits funds probably tells you how much their costs were but it is not as simple as looking at the TER in the factsheet.

With Profits funds are not just opaque but generally far too bond-heavy for most investors looking for growth, although every With Profits fund is different. So there is a high likelihood that you would be better off transferring into something like Vanguard, providing you could cope with seeing the value of your pension change constantly and occasionally drop by 40-50% or more, now that these falls aren't hidden from you as they were in With Profits.

As an expat though your choice of new pensions would be quite restricted. AJ Bell are one provider that is happy to accept non-UK-residents but AJ Bell is quite expensive, so you should consider whether it would be easier or cheaper simply to switch out of With Profits and into some of Standard Life's own tracker funds.

dunstonh

What I am however having trouble finding out is the fees I am getting charged, but for Standard Life to manage and also for the costs of the underlying portfolios. Is there any way to get a clearer picture on this?

Standard Life print this on every statement.

Also, the next question is would I be better off putting this money into a SIPP and investing into a Vanguard fund, where hopefully the fees would be quite low?

Depends on what SIPP, what vanguard fund and what fund(s) you have at the moment and how much you are currently paying.

pin

Thanks both. Not sure if I get statements, I presume they just go to my parent's house.

I've got a trading account with Interactive Investor as a non-UK resident. Don't know if they will let me also take on a SIPP account as well being non-UK resident, will enquire. Amount isn't huge, but its still decent. If I move to somewhere like Interactive Investor I would then put the money in something like a Vanguard target retirement fund.