Views on Royal London Governed Portfolio

Mick70

JoeCrystal wrote: »

I used RL set up with an IFA as my personal pension with different RL Governed Portfolio fund. I am reasonably okay with it. It does do Profitshare Awards which add a little extra to the pot. They do have a management charge discount according to my paperwork at

£0 to £34k: 0.10%
£34k to £68k 0.50%
£68k to £202k 0.55%
£202k to £673k 0.60%
£673k+ 0.65%

Customer service-wise, they much prefer to work with and through advisers rather than direct. I see that you are thinking to make a single lump-sum contribution. Make sure you get a single contribution application form (or you can download it from RL adviser pages after googling it).

those charghes would tie in with what I have been told by an IFA for using royal london on a possible DB-DC transfer .
I have been told RL annual chgs would be 0.35% (high value fund so would equate to the 1% less 0.65%) And that the IFA would be 0.35% also.

bostonerimus

I look at the RLGP4 and it looks risky to me and it would not fit my criteria for "balanced" or "moderately cautious" and I do not like the heavy UK overweighting. The customer needs to make sure that the IFA actually understands what they are recommending rather than just using some default solution according to a risk criteria. The customer needs to ask "why?' at each stage and then understand and agree with the answers.

The discussion between Mordko and SonOf should show you that there are many facets to all this and you must educate yourself minimally so that you can make informed decisions and see if the IFA is making sense. I don't know what algorithms RL uses to develop and manage it's portfolios, but the complexity is sure to put a barrier of understanding between the customer and their money. This is why I encourage people to keep things simple and only invest in things they understand and why I think there are dangers in trusting to anyone else to manage their money.

bostonerimus

FYI here is a summary of the Royal London charges

https://adviser.royallondon.com/globalassets/docs/adviser/guides/65g2035-pension-portfolio-charges-guide.pdf

If you ditch the IFA it looks like you'll have to pay extra fees to go DIY so factor that in. If you stay with your IFA count on whatever you agree being taken out of your plan, so that might be 0.5% off each year's performance.

If you have the knowledge and guts to DIY I think you could save a lot on fees, but this is a very personal decision.

cfw1994

mcc100 wrote: »

No, I was just thinking of sending off the paperwork now as I wasn't sure how long the process took.

Good plan!

I rang Aviva today to do the same thing: to crystallise a chunk of my DC scheme.
Naturally it boils down to paperwork, which should be with me within a week, and they should then sort out the TFLS/drawdown pot within the next couple of weeks.

Nothing ever quick, eh!!

SonOf

If you ditch the IFA it looks like you'll have to pay extra fees to go DIY so factor that in.

No you dont. There is no cost increase.

mcc100

Mick70 wrote: »

those charghes would tie in with what I have been told by an IFA for using royal london on a possible DB-DC transfer .
I have been told RL annual chgs would be 0.35% (high value fund so would equate to the 1% less 0.65%) And that the IFA would be 0.35% also.

Similar to mine as I've just checked and the RL charges have been discounted to 0.25%, whilst the IFA charge is set at £750 per year, which equates to less than 0.2%.

Mick70

mcc100 wrote: »

Similar to mine as I've just checked and the RL charges have been discounted to 0.25%, whilst the IFA charge is set at £750 per year, which equates to less than 0.2%.

How did you get RL down to 0.25%, I thought the lowest they would was 0.35?

Mick70

SonOf wrote: »

No you dont. There is no cost increase.

Where does it state extra costs if not use an IFA ?

Mick70

bostonerimus wrote: »

FYI here is a summary of the Royal London charges

https://adviser.royallondon.com/globalassets/docs/adviser/guides/65g2035-pension-portfolio-charges-guide.pdf

If you ditch the IFA it looks like you'll have to pay extra fees to go DIY so factor that in. If you stay with your IFA count on whatever you agree being taken out of your plan, so that might be 0.5% off each year's performance.

If you have the knowledge and guts to DIY I think you could save a lot on fees, but this is a very personal decision.

Where does it say pay extra fees and what they would be if didn’t use an
IFA ?

bostonerimus

SonOf wrote: »

No you dont. There is no cost increase.

I assumed that if you had no IFA you would be "Self Investing" and so would have to pay the extra fees associated with that feature. If that's not the case then I apologise.

Are there any discounts that might be lost by not using the IFA? Also find out about any fees charged to move or access the pension.