Is there a list of non-scam Pension Companies

aquitaine

I have been looking for a list of Pension Companies that have never been involved in miss-selling or other scams (I know this rules most of them out). I rang the FSA who do not produce such a list and no search seems to find anything useful.

Does anyone know where there is such a list that would include only companies that are absolutely trustworthy?

nrsql

What you are looking for is a list of companies that will trade honestly in the future.
You need to look at the board and managers (especially sales manager and cfo maybe) - and who knows if that will change in the future.

I would suggest that most big companies are looking for anything that benefits them (by which I mean walk a line between maximising profit and getting bad publicity and so reducing sales) - if that benefits the clients too then that's lucky.

EdInvestor

Try a Self Invested Pension Plan (SIPP).

That way you can avoid pension companies completely. I doubt there are any which haven't been involved in misselling of one sort or another.

Here are a few low cost providers:

Sippdeal
Hargreaves Lansdown
Alliance Trust
EPML

Many of the discount brokers also do SIPPs as well as ISAs.

dunstonh

aquitaine wrote:

I have been looking for a list of Pension Companies that have never been involved in miss-selling or other scams (I know this rules most of them out). I rang the FSA who do not produce such a list and no search seems to find anything useful.

Does anyone know where there is such a list that would include only companies that are absolutely trustworthy?

you cannot really compare the insurance companies of today with those of 20 years ago. The marketing men ran them then. Its a bit more level headed nowadays. Current pension providers are generally very good.

aquitaine

Editor wrote:

Try a Self Invested Pension Plan (SIPP).

That way you can avoid pension companies completely. I doubt there are any which haven't been involved in misselling of one sort or another.

Here are a few low cost providers:

Sippdeal
Hargreaves Lansdown
Alliance Trust
EPML

Many of the discount brokers also do SIPPs as well as ISAs.

Thanks for that but I did move my pension to a SIPP and was unbelieveably ripped off for dealing charges (1000% above normal dealing rates). The money is still there at present (I self-froze it due to the costs) and they sell some stock every now and then to cover their "admin" charges. They charge their rip off fees for these transactions. I'm just sick of the whole business and would like to put the money with a reputable company and forget about it. Trouble is that reputable companies with fund managers who have any investment skills seem to be non existent. I realise now how foolish I was to ever let my money out of my control and it seems to me that there is no way of getting it out of the hands of this disgraceful industry who plunder my funds at will.

By the way the term SIPP is a completey misleading description (how unusual!). You can only invest the money in certain areas and there are many restrictions. You can't "self invest" in areas of your own choosing.

EdInvestor

Hi acquitaine

Which provider are you with? If they are focussed on the property side they will tend to charge a lot because the advice is very specialist.

The new eSIPPS are much cheaper.Mind you, if you trade a lot, they (or rather their stockbroker) can be expensive, like any stockbroker which charges by transaction.

12.50 a trade plus stamp duty is I think generally regarded as a reasonable rate, though you can get cheaper. How does that compare?

What areas did you want to invest in that weren't allowed?

aquitaine

Hi,

I was being charged £70 per trade (can get it for <£7 with execution only), when I was foolish enough to place a market order they bought shares at prices above that at which they had traded that day. When I questioned this because I thought it was illegal they came up with a story about a "special commission" that had to be paid to a third party. As for the investment restrictions I was not allowed to short shares or buy options. I was only allowed to buy long positions in certain approved markets. I then thought I would buy some property instead. Not allowed. Hedge funds, not allowed. As for advice, anyone who would listen to, let alone pay for advice from some fly by night City Spiv is foolish in the extreme in my view. You have only to watch the business channels for an hour or so to see that none of them have any more idea of what is going to happen than those people who flog racing tips in Exchange and Mart. When I hear these "experts" saying that the reason everyones pension / isa / savings plan / endowment has plummeted in value is due to market conditions it makes me very angry as there are numerous tools available to them (but not us in the pension area) to capitalise on falling markets. The real problem is that they are just useless at what they do and are richly rewarded for their failure.

I remember reading at school that the purpose of the City of London was to generate wealth for the nation. Over the last 20 years or so that purpose seems to have changed to getting their hands on the wealth of the nation, punting that wealth into the markets and losing a good proportion of it then awarding themselves massive bonuses with what is left over. If you think of it two of the main stories to come out of The City in recent years are the size of the losses they have managed to accrue and the record size of the bonuses they pay themselves. I used to wonder where the money for these bonuses came from given the magnitude of the losses acheived by these "investment experts". The answer can only be that it came out of the original capital sum. I rang a few of the well known names and asked about this, they fudged around the issue saying that bonuses are awarded for different reasons apart from investment performance but the bottom line is that if no profit has been generated there is no surplus money to award a bonus from.

Here's a really frightening thought. Imagine the government compelling us all to invest in a pension with these useless companies. I imagine they're rubbing their hands in anticipation. The thought of the sort of scams they must be cooking up in preparation for this is scary. The only thing that is guaranteed is that if these compulsory pensions are introduced in 5-10 years the stories will start emerging of how we have been conned yet again by the financial services industry.

EdInvestor

70 quid a trade is definitely well out of order.I should move.There are Government restrictions about what pension funds can invest in, and it sounds like you're a pretty high risk investor who's fallen foul of those rules - not the SIPP's fault. Residential property will be allowed from next April - check with your provider if it will offer the service and if not, transfer to one that will.

A low cost SIPP will be most cost-effective for a fairl passive investor who buys shares or funds and then just leaves them there to grow.Frequent trading erodes the cost advantage of having no annual charge.

Imagine the government compelling us all to invest in a pension with these useless companies. I imagine they're rubbing their hands in anticipation. The thought of the sort of scams they must be cooking up in preparation for this is scary. The only thing that is guaranteed is that if these compulsory pensions are introduced in 5-10 years the stories will start emerging of how we have been conned yet again by the financial services industry.

Actually the industry is dead against compulsion. Why? Because it would mean the end of tax relief - there's no need for incentives if people are compelled to save, is there?

I leave you to figure out why the industry would be so concerned about the possible loss of tax relief.