Best place to get pension advice

oysterman

Where the best place to get independent pension advice.

jem16

From an independent financial adviser.

Milarky

To what questions exactly? How about

- whether to start a pension

- how to choose a pension or pension provider

- levels of contribution

- allocation and attitude to risk

- transferring a pension or leaving it where it is

- what age to take benefits

- how to take benefits

- income draw-down or annuity

- providing for a spouse (or not)

- indexing (or not)


Generally IFAs will deal with all these questions - and also must look at the pension/situation/need/requirement that arises against other investment criteria such as your mortgage, use of tax free savings your dependents etc so that the most basic question "Do I need/should I have a pension?" is addressed appropriately.

These issues should have greater benefit to wealthier (and older) individuals with more assets at stake whereas a younger person will have less (possibly no) assets and simpler personal finances. For them the basic questions are more easily and straightforwardly addressed without the need to seek IFA assistance. When selling you a pension, which is a regulated process, all providers still have to satisfy the question of whether a pension is appropriate in all the circumstances.

For the "what is a pension" type enquiries there is OPAS from the government as well as general information provided by the likes of the FSA

oysterman

Sorry for being so vague, had to pop out pretty quickly.

1.How independent are these advisers ? had dealings with IFA's twice before & both were not as independent as they said.


Reason i asked company just been taken over & have to start another pension & want some advise on how to invest my contributions.

jem16

oysterman wrote: »

Sorry for being so vague, had to pop out pretty quickly.

1.How independent are these advisers ? had dealings with IFA's twice before & both were not as independent as they said.

An IFA has to be totally independent or they cannot use the term IFA. Perhaps you did not actually see an IFA but a tied FA?

Reason i asked company just been taken over & have to start another pension & want some advise on how to invest my contributions.

Do you mean you intend starting a personal or stakeholder pension and are looking for advice on this? If so an IFA would be suitable for this.

Is the company not now providing a pension?

oysterman

jem16 wrote: »

An IFA has to be totally independent or they cannot use the term IFA. Perhaps you did not actually see an IFA but a tied FA?




Do you mean you intend starting a personal or stakeholder pension and are looking for advice on this? If so an IFA would be suitable for this.

Is the company not now providing a pension?

Company is providing a pension, but this will be my third pension & want advice on what to do with other two. Also they are asking me how i want my money invested, they give you so many options & not sure which way to turn.

dunstonh

1.How independent are these advisers ? had dealings with IFA's twice before & both were not as independent as they said.

Jem is correct in her response. Repeated research from multiple sources has shown that around 2/3rds of people that have seen tied financial advisers believe them to be independent and not tied. Most common mistake is due to mortgages as tied agents can be whole of market on mortgages whilst being tied on everything else. They often use the mortgages to give the impression that they are whole of market on everything.

However, there are some salesforce IFAs who work more to a panel or a recommended product list where their employer does research centrally and comes up with a list for their advisers to use.

So, avoid the tied agents and avoid the salesforces and go with the local independent IFAs. IFAs have always been best as a cottage industry and most issues regarding financial services have come from tied agents and salesforces so if you avoid them, you should be fine.

EdInvestor

How much are the old pensions worth?

Trouble is, to do this properly involves quite a lot of work, and if the pensions are small, the IFA will want to charge a fee which might not be economic - or may not want to do the job at all.

If you post the following info about each pension we might be able to help here:

Pension provider
Amount invested
Fund(s) invested in
Additional fund choice
Annual charges
If With profits, are there any guarantees attached?

oysterman

EdInvestor wrote: »

How much are the old pensions worth?

Trouble is, to do this properly involves quite a lot of work, and if the pensions are small, the IFA will want to charge a fee which might not be economic - or may not want to do the job at all.

If you post the following info about each pension we might be able to help here:

Pension provider
Amount invested
Fund(s) invested in
Additional fund choice
Annual charges
If With profits, are there any guarantees attached?

Answer as best i can.

1. CIS pension- As of April £18,000 + annual bonus attaching after bonus declaration for 2006-£4,400 AVC-£3,800 + annual bonus £5,300. Annual charge 0.5% is the latest figure i could find.

With profit plan

2.CPl industries-£26,000-invested in legal & general Global Equity Fund
No charges for this one- multitude of different funds i could invest in on this one.

3.Going to be Run by Doherty pensions & investment consultancy ltd(belfast) invested in Scottish Equitable
universally balanced collection 60%
Property 20%
Fixed interest 20%

I would pay 5% the company 5%.

looking through the papers they will charge 1% but as i read it scottish equitable will pay £468.54 commission immediately to the financial adviser.

Hope this makes sense

EdInvestor

oysterman wrote: »

Answer as best i can.

1. CIS pension- As of April £18,000 + annual bonus attaching after bonus declaration for 2006-£4,400 AVC-£3,800 + annual bonus £5,300. Annual charge 0.5% is the latest figure i could find.

With profit plan

This one likely has guarantees attached.Check with CIS what they are. Usually best to leave these pensions alone as guarantees are quite valuable ( eg current annuity rate 6%, guaranteed pension may provide 10%), definitely worth having.

2.CPl industries-£26,000-invested in legal & general Global Equity Fund.No charges for this one- multitude of different funds i could invest in on this one.

You can't get much better than no charges I assume this is an occupational money purchase scheme? If there are really no charges, then it wouldn't be sensible to move it.But you could post the fund choice to see if a better selection can be made.

[quote3.Going to be Run by Doherty pensions & investment consultancy ltd(belfast) invested in Scottish Equitable
universally balanced collection 60%
Property 20%
Fixed interest 20%
I would pay 5% the company 5%.

[/quote]


Are there other fund choices available with this one? ( I assume the list mentioned is the "default"?)

oysterman

EdInvestor wrote: »

This one likely has guarantees attached.Check with CIS what they are. Usually best to leave these pensions alone as guarantees are quite valuable ( eg current annuity rate 6%, guaranteed pension may provide 10%), definitely worth having.



You can't get much better than no charges I assume this is an occupational money purchase scheme? If there are really no charges, then it wouldn't be sensible to move it.But you could post the fund choice to see if a better selection can be made.

[quote3.Going to be Run by Doherty pensions & investment consultancy ltd(belfast) invested in Scottish Equitable
universally balanced collection 60%
Property 20%
Fixed interest 20%
I would pay 5% the company 5%.

Are there other fund choices available with this one? ( I assume the list mentioned is the "default"?)[/quote]

I take what you mean by ''default'' is it the one they will invest in unless you tell them otherwise. They class this one as ''average risk''

Above average risk's- Global Equity Tracker, uk Index Tracker-Overseas Equity Tracker & ethical.

Higher risks funds not mentioned by name ie technology, japanese & emerging markets.