ethical pension

helenharrison

I need to set up a pension following a pension sharing order.  I've seen a financial adviser who has recommended Parmenion Ethical Portfolio Selector.  Does anyone have any knowledge of this company or any other recommendations for ethical pensions.  Thank you

SonOf

Ethical investments are very much a personal thing.   You have your ethics and others have theirs.   So, ethical investing has investment funds that state whether they pro-actively include certain investments, have no opinion either way or not include certain investments.     Once the adviser knows your ethical stance on a whole range of areas (usually done via completion of an ethics questionnaire), they can filter in/out the investment options that match your objectives.

Or, if you are just a casual ethical investor (i.e. not actively ethical but want to feel is if you are) then they can select a general off the shelf option.

Parmenion are an in-between option which is not as detailed as a full self select based on your criteria but not as simple as a multi-asset ethical fund.  It is run on a discretionary fund management basis.  This does increase costs compared to an advisory run portfolio. i.e. your adviser will not be selecting investments or running changes by you first.    Parmenion run it and make changes as they see fit without you needing to be involved.  It reduces the workload for your adviser and charges you extra for it.   Some adviser firms lower their charges if a DFM is used.  Some do not.     Some use expensive DFMs.  Some use cheap DFMs.  Some offer both advisory and DFM options depending on the individual.  Some only offer one DFM for everything (and those you have to question if they are really independent or not)

Does anyone have any knowledge of this company or any other recommendations for ethical pensions.
no pension is ethical.   A pension is tax wrapper that is administered by software.   It is the investments within the pension where you decide how to invest and that is where the ethical decision making occurs.    As most modern investment platforms are whole of market, then they can all be ethical if you want them to be.  Even limited options, like a stakeholder pension and workplace pensions usually have an ethical option.   It may not suit your ethics but if you are just being casual with ethical rather than committed, then they may be fine as well.

There are many variations on ethical, socially responsible focus or sustainability focus.  So, you really need to nail down what you want your approach to be first.  An IFA should do this with you and do the filtering for you.   Based on the recommendation, I suspect that they feel that you are not an enthusiastic ethical investor.   Is that correct or do you have a specific ethical position?

OldMusicGuy

My son's work pension is with Parmenion (not in an ethical fund) and the performance has been awful, and the costs high. My low-cost DIY SIPP has dramatically outperformed it. He will move it away from Parmenion as soon as he can. IMO their fund choices were too limited and not diversified enough. 

Make sure you speak with an IFA (not an FA) and look at alternatives before you commit.