Scottish Widows or SIPP?

jonathon2412

I have around 50K in scottish widows pens portfolio four fund and it seems to be not doing an awful lot after initially looking quite promising. I want to put money into some other funds which I can do withing the SW wrapper but I find it hard to fathom exactly how much I'm being charged both AMC and dealing charges and ongoing charges for different funds.
How does SW charges compare with other pension providers? Would I be better off finding a cheap SIPP and putting my pension pot in that?

dunstonh

I have around 50K in scottish widows pens portfolio four fund and it seems to be not doing an awful lot after initially looking quite promising.

What do you mean it is not doing an awful lot?

My gut feeling on that is that you don't understand investing. Nothing to be ashamed of but if your response to that is to then look at the most advanced pension option which has lower consumer protection then you are going about it the wrong way.

How does SW charges compare with other pension providers?

SW have had hundreds of pension versions over the decades. Many of which had negotiated charges. So, we cant tell you what yours is.

Would I be better off finding a cheap SIPP and putting my pension pot in that?

And what would that achieve?
You havent said anything about the alternative and I suspect you dont know enough about what you have either.

Albermarle

Suggest as a first step you call SW and find out the current charging structure and for advice on how to find the charges for alternative funds directly on their website.
Most pension funds went down during 2018 as world stock markets had a downward correction.

Prism

Scottish Widows pensions often have a reduced charge negotiated with your company if its a workplace pension. Core funds typically are charged at between 1% and 0.4% (or possibly lower). You need to find out what that charge is. A SIPP might not be cheaper

Pension portfolio 4 is quite defensive (60% bonds) and has done quite well over the last 12 months compared to many other funds. It might seem low but its doing better than pension portfolio 1, 2 and 3 over the shorter term.

michaels

Presumably at some point you will have selected PP4, perhaps in response to a attitude to risk questionnaire. My pension is with SW in PP2 and I get a rebate on AMC which I think are total 1% before rebate with the SW PP funds.

kinger101

Personally, my view is that the SW offers a very limited range of funds. Unless you can gain some advantage of contributions through a workplace scheme, I'd look elsewhere.

EdSwippet

kinger101 wrote: »

Personally, my view is that the SW offers a very limited range of funds.

Limited does not necessarily mean inadequate.

Albermarle

Personally, my view is that the SW offers a very limited range of funds

Having a large range of funds is only useful for a very small % of investors . For most it is more likely to confuse or even panic them .
I am not sure of the exact figure but I think that 90/95% of DC pension money is just in the default fund and probably a majority of these have probably no idea what they are invested in or even what a default fund is.

ex-pat_scot

Albermarle wrote: »

Having a large range of funds is only useful for a very small % of investors . For most it is more likely to confuse or even panic them .
I am not sure of the exact figure but I think that 90/95% of DC pension money is just in the default fund and probably a majority of these have probably no idea what they are invested in or even what a default fund is.

In the last few DC schemes I reviewed recently, 85% of scheme members were invested in the default fund.

kinger101

EdSwippet wrote: »

Limited does not necessarily mean inadequate.

I did say, in my view. But the offering from SW is poor.

kinger101

Albermarle wrote: »

Having a large range of funds is only useful for a very small % of investors . For most it is more likely to confuse or even panic them .
I am not sure of the exact figure but I think that 90/95% of DC pension money is just in the default fund and probably a majority of these have probably no idea what they are invested in or even what a default fund is.

It's better to overcome any confusion rather than remain in a default fund.