Making sense of my pension

moneymagic

Hello,

I'm currently trying to make stock (pardon the pun) of my current pension options.

For reference, I am 29 and my workplace pension is with standard life. I have being paying in for around 18 months so the value of the pension is not huge currently.


I know standard life has many different options, and I am on the "Group Personal Pension" plan. The pension is invested in what I assume is the default pension fund called the Standard Life Managed
Pension Fund.

From the fact sheet, it appears to be around 70% equities, possibly quite heavily overweight in the UK?

https://uk.standardlifeinvestments.com/SL_P_Managed.pdf

I am tempted to look into other funds and compare them.

I have a few questions...

1. Is there any benefit from staying in this "default" fund? I guess there might be charges to consider given it is a inhouse fund?
2. I would say I am reasonably ambitious investor - given I am quite a way from retirement, would a multiasset fund with more equities seem reasonable? For reference, I have an ISA with vanguard invested in VLS80 and a LISA with HL invested in Blackrock consensus 100.
3. If i were to switch, I would not make it complicated given the current value, likely just a switch to a single fund (for now) - is there anything I should be looking out for when comparing similar funds, aside from fees, geographic spread and general sector diversity?

TIA

MM

FatherAbraham

moneymagic wrote: »

Hello,

I'm currently trying to make stock (pardon the pun) of my current pension options.

For reference, I am 29 and my workplace pension is with standard life. I have being paying in for around 18 months so the value of the pension is not huge currently.


I know standard life has many different options, and I am on the "Group Personal Pension" plan. The pension is invested in what I assume is the default pension fund called the Standard Life Managed
Pension Fund.

From the fact sheet, it appears to be around 70% equities, possibly quite heavily overweight in the UK?

https://uk.standardlifeinvestments.com/SL_P_Managed.pdf

I am tempted to look into other funds and compare them.

I have a few questions...

1. Is there any benefit from staying in this "default" fund? I guess there might be charges to consider given it is a inhouse fund?
2. I would say I am reasonably ambitious investor - given I am quite a way from retirement, would a multiasset fund with more equities seem reasonable? For reference, I have an ISA with vanguard invested in VLS80 and a LISA with HL invested in Blackrock consensus 100.
3. If i were to switch, I would not make it complicated given the current value, likely just a switch to a single fund (for now) - is there anything I should be looking out for when comparing similar funds, aside from fees, geographic spread and general sector diversity?

TIA

MM

The biggest impact on your retirement pot size will almost certainly come from what you put in - how much more than the minimum contribution you pay to the fund. Many people spend too much time studying about investment strategy, when what they need to do is contribute more. There's no free lunch.

If in a GPPP, then funds from other management groups are usually much more expensive.

The default fund might be the best for you. Does it have reasonable fees?

ColdIron

I was in the SL Managed fund for many years before drawing it 2 or 3 years ago. The thing about workplace pensions is that there is a cap on charges. As I recall it was 0.75% discounted down to 0.55% with length of service, group discount etc all in. About six years ago I looked into putting some of my contributions towards one of their mirror Woodford funds and from memory the charges were in excess of 1.50%. You can easily see their charges for different funds so make sure you check before doing anything

The default in-house managed fund is not your only option, they have cautious, adventurous etc versions with equivalent charges

However at this stage, when your holding is low, the allocation isn't as important as making meaningful contributions, picking up your employers contributions, getting the tax relief and keeping charges low. 30 years of fees will make a significant dent

Albermarle

With SL , there is only the fund cost and no platform charge on top. Normally then the employer will have negotiated a discount when setting up the workplace pension , this will vary from employer to employer . So whatever is stated as the fund cost in SL info , then you are normally paying a bit less. You need to read the paperwork originally sent from your employer to confirm this though.
By coincidence I have just been looking at the SL app and website as I have an ex employer pension with them . There is > 200 funds to choose from , although they are all SL funds or other funds rebranded as SL. It is a very nice and easy to use website so have a good look around it. Also I find their customer service quicker and better than many other providers.

JoeCrystal

FatherAbraham wrote: »

The biggest impact on your retirement pot size will almost certainly come from what you put in - how much more than the minimum contribution you pay to the fund. Many people spend too much time studying about investment strategy, when what they need to do is contribute more. There's no free lunch.

I can't agree with FatherAbraham any strong than that, how much you contribute is the most important factor in how good the pension fund turns out. Have a look at how much you want to retire on and work backwards from it. The earlier and more you contribute, the bigger the difference in a few decades down the line.