Stay with SJP or move to Prudential or somewhere else...

Malthusian

sunmax23 wrote: »

I've been quoted 1.425 overall charges for the PruFund Growth and I'll have to pay approx £15k to exit SJP now

You'll have to pay even more if you don't. Investors who don't pay the exit charge pay via SJP's inflated annual charges instead.

If you are going down the IFA route then avoid the first IFA, go with the second. Check they are actually independent.(If they use that exact word they are, unless they are lying, if they don't they are restricted and a sub-optimal choice.)

As I mentioned, I have no experience at all regarding pensions and I had hoped that I could rely upon advice provided by IFAs.

Rely on them to do what? You can rely on the vast majority of IFAs to give suitable advice and help you grow your investments for the long term without risking permanent loss. There is no reason to think that either IFA wouldn't achieve that. SJP would achieve it as well - but your growth would be more diminished by charges.

You can't rely on all IFAs to give the absolute 100% best advice because that is unrealistic. Like all professions there are good IFAs, mediocre IFAs and a handful of bad ones. This is why one IFA wants to dump you in Prudential With Profits and the other doesn't.

Note that I am using the word "IFA" because you did, but it is possible that one or both is not an IFA. Many people who see restricted advisers think they are seeing an IFA.

justme111

Well , why don't you think you can not rely on IFAs advice? You can ( even on SJP although they are not IFAs). You may not get the best performance in the world out of their advice but then you do not usually go to a hairdresser expecting the best haircut in the world- you accept as long as it fulfils certain minimal criteria it is ok. The same with IFAs. They will not tell you to do something stupid that will lose you the pot.
Or is your frustration that you can not tell better IFA from worse one ? Then the same applies to many trades - car mechanics, dentists, solicitors and even brain surgeons I am sure.

dunstonh

As I mentioned, I have no experience at all regarding pensions and I had hoped that I could rely upon advice provided by IFAs.

Investing it about opinion. If you asked 100 people where you should invest, you will get 100 different answers. Although you may find whatever is currently fashionable gets a few more mentions (although fashionable and being best are often two different things).

There is nothing wrong with Prufund. It is just oversold by some who jump to it as first choice. It has some easy words you can use to sooth a low knowledge investor. I prefer to test the knowledge of my investors and build it up to a place where I dont need to pay the increased charges of the Prufund but use conventional unit linked investments instead. If ultimately, I couldnt achieve that, then Prufund may be the answer.

I would want to avoid an adviser who jumps straight to prufund as a solution as it suggests they are lazy and probably low knowledge. It may be suitable but I would want optimal.

sunmax23

would an experienced IFA recommend SJP or Prufund as a long term investment? If neither, what other options are good at the moment?

Pension_Geek

sunmax23 wrote: »

would an experienced IFA recommend SJP or Prufund as a long term investment? If neither, what other options are good at the moment?

SJP are tied agents that can only recommend SJP products and funds. An experienced IFA might recommend prufund, but as they can recommend the whole of the market they might not.

Some things you need to consider;

Have you got any other pensions? If so, the Lifetime Allowance may be an issue.

What age are you and when do you hope to retire/use funds from the pension?

Do you have any other sources of income for retirement? Ie state pension?

What is your attitude to risk?

justme111

Did you read what dunstonh written - pru is a well known lazy/ish option? Do you think experienced IFAs can be lazy? If you think they can then the answer to your question is yes , if you think they can not than the answer is no.
Mind, my partner has seen an IFA recently and I remember not being particularly impressed with what they suggested either. But then I am aware of the back seat driver syndrome - I have a friend who is perfectionist herself and she forever is unhappy with like 90% with providers of any services.
What are the options- read through these forums and you will find gazillion of options. I bet you will not understand what the words describing those options would mean so ask questions. You asking " what are the options" is as if I asked " how can I repair my car" and expect the answer.
I have personally chosen 4 different geographical tracker HSBC funds , HSBC global multiasset fund and Aberdeen small companies one ( do not remember the name exactly) on Cavendish platform for my ISA and Baillie Clifford one ( again , do not remember the name) on HL as pension one. Once I have closer to 100 k I will get professional IFA advice.

dunstonh

would an experienced IFA recommend SJP or Prufund as a long term investment? If neither, what other options are good at the moment?

SJP do not make their products available via IFAs. No IFA would use them if they did.
1 - The SJP charging structure is not compliant with the retail distribution review. They get away with hiding charges because they sell their own product.
2 - SJP investments are either poor quality or mish mash versions of whole of market funds but at an increased cost. So, no independent justification for using them.

The last Prufund (or predecessor version) I did was in 2003. It was cheaper back then.

sunmax23

Pension Geek - I am still paying into a works pension and I know that I will exceed the life time allowance - if this makes sense.
I will be 56 shortly and hope to retire in a couple of years
No state pension yet & I would say that I have a cautious attitude to risk.
My current set up with SJP doesnt feel right to be honest and I've had conversations with my SJP Provider and 2 other IFAs - definitely IFAs, one of which offered me the PruFund.
i'm not greedy and just want to make sure that I get a decent return for my investment.

fjh

I have my SIPP at Prudential - which has a total 0f 8 holdings - two of which are Pru funds.
Only been 'live' since May 2018 so waiting for 1st review - First impressions - don't like the online support- I cannot gauge just from this site progress of each holding and have to rely on Morningstar to 'track'
Also have found it difficult to follow the 'value' of the Pru funds as other holdings e.g vanguard update daily Pru don't .
Will certainly be revising charges when I have annual review with IFA

dunstonh

I have my SIPP at Prudential - which has a total 0f 8 holdings - two of which are Pru funds.
Only been 'live' since May 2018 so waiting for 1st review - First impressions - don't like the online support- I cannot gauge just from this site progress of each holding and have to rely on Morningstar to 'track'

All of which was predictable. Indeed, I mentioned it in a reply to one of your posts back in 2017 that Pru is not a great option.