Pension Company vs Independent Financial advice stitch up !

Linton

DJPench wrote: »

Annuity as in expecting £150.00 a month guaranteed for life for the rest of your life to top up your state pension. I thought that was the only option.

So you have a pot of money and want to get an income for life.


Annuities are not the only options and the term "annuity" includes a large number of options. The amount you get will be based on many factors - age, health, home postcode, married or not or anything else the pension company deem relevent. An IFA will be able to go through the options, collect the data and propose the best pension company for your particular circumstances. They will also be able to explore the other alternatives with you as annuities at the moment are unusually low.


I would guess you would not be able to find a pension company that would sell you an annuity without advice. Consumer protection rules ensure that if the annuity is found to be inappropriate for your circumstances you could sue them and get restitution. IFAs are trained, authorised and insured to advise on the most appropriate annuity from across the market. They can also talk over the alternative ways in which you could achieve a retirement income.


Perhaps if you gave us some idea of the size of your pot of money and whether it is held in a pension or in say savings perhaps peopl here could provide some constructive ideas.

OldMusicGuy

kidmugsy wrote: »

If you look at the Cutting Tax board you'll read about various people who object so strongly to paying a solicitor that they try to avoid IHT all on their own. Frequently they muck it up so badly that the result will be a higher tax bill.

FWIW I object to using solicitors unless I absolutely have to. But then I am not trying to avoid IHT.

DJPench

I have about £250.00 a month at the mo to put into a pension, I am about to reduce payments into a reportedly poor performing existing pension so wish to put that into something better. It is still overall less than I should but it is better than nothing, like a massive amount of people in the U.K.

I also don't trust pension companies as far as I can throw them, changing ownership, fees changing, different changes that leave you clueless about what is going on..making you feel you have no recourse and are like a reed in the wind, then getting paid out less because stocks and shares did not perform as well as they thought.. (Been there with an endownment policy, liars in essence, Got 45pct less than they forecast, bitten once etc.) so like the idea of having 2 with different companies, I will keep a low payment into the bad performing pension just to spread it a bit. So when one collapses at least it is not all lost.

I just want a basic guaranteed income at the end on a monthly basis without giving IFA leeches a penny. The pensions fees and vague/ambiguity about payouts are unpredictable enough without IFA stitch up fees on top.

Apologies for combative tone, there's no smoke without fire though.

thickasabrick

You can and it can be very easy or as complicated as you care to make it.

Sometimes it is worth paying an IFA for advice, especially, if like me, your head starts to hurt after reading article after article on investing.

Quick start : skip directly to section 6 of this article
https://theescapeartist.me/2017/02/24/what-if-i-know-nothing-about-investing/

I think you will enjoy the articles on The Escape Artist blog as he has quite a tongue in cheek attitude towards the finance industry which can almost be as harsh as your post...

I would also spend a bit of time getting familiar with how the system works as a private individual.
Monevator has a number of very good articles.
http://monevator.com/how-to-retirement-plan/

Loads of platforms that will allow you to invest money in the pension fund of your choice. Small selection listed in this article.
http://monevator.com/work-out-cheapest-platform/

Perhaps you can find the particular fund you had your heart set on listed on one the platforms ?

DJPench wrote: »

How can I directly get a pension as a private individual with a private company ? And if not why not ?

Mnd

OK, I am not a financial person of any description at all. I am retired but my wife still works.

She has built up a retirement fund of about 60k.

We have this with Hargreaves landown

You can put your 250 in every month, if you want you can keep it as cash, hl will charge nothing for this facility but will pay virtually no interest.

You can then, study the funds available and if you choose you can invest in the funds.there are charges for this but they are clearly marked. Then your investment may go up or down, like the stockmarket does.

Eventually you may wish to buy an annuity or explore the possibility of drawdown, you don't need to choose now, or you may want to do a combination of both, it is up to you, but you will have to wait until you are 55 and I think that's going up.

Some of the people here say that hl are expensive but as we are novices then we find that they suit us. As you learn you will get more confidence but the negative attitude you seem to take is preventing you taking the first step. Bear in mind that just keeping it in the bank you are wasting 25% increase thanks to the tax relief.

I hope this helps, please think about what the other contributors have posted, they know far more than me and will help if you ask sensible questions

Prism

DJPench wrote: »

I I just want a basic guaranteed income at the end on a monthly basis without giving IFA leeches a penny. The pensions fees and vague/ambiguity about payouts are unpredictable enough without IFA stitch up fees on top.

Can you give as an idea which fund it was that you found that you now can't use. Then maybe we can suggest something similar elsewhere that you can use direct.

There is no way of doing this with guarantee btw. You will need to be flexible and take some risk to get a half decent pension in the long run

DJPench

Is it not totally random as to what goes up and down.. and if so what is the point ? Economic growth is low and is likely to tumble in this decade, just look at the news! You kind of take a risk to lose money.

I think I would be happy if I just dumped it in the equivalent of a bank with virtually no growth and then buy an annuity. Literally want the simplest, least risk option that exists.

Interest these days is nothing, I won't even put my money in a bond as it just makes access more convoluted for a pointless amount of interest. 2pct for what locking it up so you cannot get it fast seems like a bad deal. If the proverbial hits the fan globally account compensation will not be worth the paper it is written on. No one will get any money back at all in the case of a global economic collapse.

Yes thanks for the tax info.

Prism

DJPench wrote: »

Is it not totally random as to what goes up and down.. and if so what is the point ? Economic growth is low and is likely to tumble in this decade, just look at the news! You kind of take a risk to lose money.

Its not random but it can appear so. What is very likely though is that it goes up more than it goes down. Economic growth is not at all low if you look at the world rather than the UK. Over the long term the stock market (via funds) is the only real way to grow your money to a level you can retire on. Its how every pension fund world wide works.

DJPench

Almost gone full circle now, I think I will just keep paying into the one I have as they are all clearly risky/unpredictable/reliant on global economics (which is heading for the **** chute) and in addition costly in IFA and pension fees/opaque/ if you are not deeply technical and know about stocks and shares/commodities etc.

And this is why people don't even bother putting more in, mass distrust in the entire private pension system. Deeply and intentionally complex so the shady IFA's can operate and live off you like a parasite. They know no more about they future than I.

This private pension system would not exist if you were not being creamed. We think we are doing something good for our future's cause we are told to.. but in the end you end up with peanuts. Amounts to little more than scam.

Any small benefits on such a small pension pot will be offset by the leeches fees and minimum passed on growth rates and then a mass of excuses as to why performance was not as expected. Pension company's exist to profit and pay shareholders and you are the cash cow for that.

If in doubt, do nowt.

Yours fully disillusioned.

Mnd

Right, if that what suits you then that's fine.

Just remember if you put 240 into the cash sippthen about 6 weeks later this will magically turn into 300..that's not being ripped off. No risk at all

Start with that then explore, you don't have to put all you money into a fund, or leave it all as cash..it's all up to you. Any mix you want. So you can invest 20% say, and leave the rest 100% safe

Just to say that not all pension funds are trying to rip you off, my wife didn't even know she had a fund and it grew to 52k by just ignoring it.

Don't write off the future by being too negative. It's really not that difficult