Standard Life Pension performance / share price & rating

Fast_Muchly

Hi 
        Im going to come across as somewhat of an idiot and I will take that on the chin because I probably am .
        I don't need that much to retire on living in a poor part of the midlands ( Mansfield ) a pot of around 150k will get me by in my late 50's as I plan to semi retire ( carry on working self employed ) but go into a income drawdown plan . As I desperately want to leave something to my daughter and not have it swallowed whole by the pension company .
     I admit to having my head under a blanket recently and I only YES ONLY RECENTLY ( even though I prob had mail thru post ) realised standard life has combined with Aberdeen and this has drastically affected the companies performance in the past few years . I have notice a very sharp drop in bonuses paid out to my plans just as im getting nearer to when im thinking about using it at 53 and I plan on accessingmy money at age of 58.
I have  a  1. Pension Millenium fund = £43'681.53      2. Pension with profits ( 4% guarantee bonus per annum ) £37'153.31    final bonus of £ 32'581.49 
       Totalling  £113'416.33

            I do not now pay anything into these just rely on bonuses to reach my target the reason why is in past 4 years I have fell on hard times and cannot add any more payments on a monthly basis at all , im relying on my earlier good years . 
              
         Having now gave you some history im rather very worried about this company , im reading people are leaving it in droves the share price also seems to be falling drastically although it has recovered a little bit recently . Am I invested in a company that is safe , basically wont go bust , is my money protected , or could my money be better invested elsewhere like many of standard life customers seem to be going . Am I missing out on a plan that would make better use and a SAFE investment of my money if I transferred somewhere else . 

Also on the part of my plan that has a 4% guaranteed bonus it did not go up in total my plan last year by 4% but im guessing that is because the unit price suffered greatly in people leaving .

Please advise …………..I guess im mostly worried of this company going to the dogs no matter how big it is .

Thanks 
Alan 

 

  

Fast_Muchly

P.s  I also have around £25'000 with the prudential which can be added to the SL pot to get me near to my 150k total . I also already have accrued the 35 years of work to qualify for my full state pension at 67 . 
My plan is to semi retire take my 25% pot and use a drawdown plan and only take about 5% a year which will hopefully leave my pension pretty much intact for my daughter . 

Albermarle

Standard Life Aberdeen has been through a few changes but Standard Life retail pensions arm  (retail means dealing direct with Joe Public) is actually now owned by a company called Phoenix , so any share price you are monitoring is not related .
In any case Standard Life Pensions is a 'mutual insurer' and as such all investments are 100% covered by financial compensation in case of bankruptcy , fraud etc so you have nothing to worry about .
The actual performance of your investments is a different issue altogether and you may want to change them to another SL investment product ( or not) ,but you do not need to consider the actual stability of Standard Life themselves. 

Fast_Muchly

Albermarle said:

Standard Life Aberdeen has been through a few changes but Standard Life retail pensions arm  (retail means dealing direct with Joe Public) is actually now owned by a company called Phoenix , so any share price you are monitoring is not related .
In any case Standard Life Pensions is a 'mutual insurer' and as such all investments are 100% covered by financial compensation in case of bankruptcy , fraud etc so you have nothing to worry about .
The actual performance of your investments is a different issue altogether and you may want to change them to another SL investment product ( or not) ,but you do not need to consider the actual stability of Standard Life themselves. 

Excuse me fore being thick but my overall plan seemed to go up by a few thousand each year even though I do not contribute at all now , some years it went up by £7000 . Last year it went up by £200 ……...this came as quite a shock ...…..surely this has to be related to people leaving SL and its share price or am I just missing something completely . Why was performance so dismal last year was it same for most pension companies last year ?  or is this just SL .

dunstonh

Having now gave you some history im rather very worried about this company , im reading people are leaving it in droves the share price also seems to be falling drastically although it has recovered a little bit recently .
What are you reading? - Standard Life is in good health.

I guess im mostly worried of this company going to the dogs no matter how big it is .
You are unnecessarily worrying.

Why was performance so dismal last year was it same for most pension companies last year ?
With Profits funds lag behind events generally.  2018 was a negative year for investments.  Mainly due to the final quarter of 2018.    So, the Q4 loss would have been felt in 2019 for many WP funds.   All quite normal.

this came as quite a shock ...…..surely this has to be related to people leaving SL and its share price or am I just missing something completely . 
Who says people are leaving in their droves?
Yes you are missing a lot.  The returns on the fund have absolutely nothing to do with customer numbers.

Linton

Fast_Muchly said:

P.s  I also have around £25'000 with the prudential which can be added to the SL pot to get me near to my 150k total . I also already have accrued the 35 years of work to qualify for my full state pension at 67 . 
My plan is to semi retire take my 25% pot and use a drawdown plan and only take about 5% a year which will hopefully leave my pension pretty much intact for my daughter . 

1) Have you checked you State Pension Forecast - https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension? The 35 years is for people who spend their working life under the new SP scheme which started in 2016.  People who had many years working prior to 2016 may need more or less than 35 years for a full pension and could get more than that.
2) Are you planning at 5% - £7500/year, increasing by inflation, for the whole of retirement or just until you get your SP?  If the former, then 5% is not sustainable - there is a reasonable chance you will run out of money before death.  And that is assuming that the pension pot is suittably invested, which is not the case with your current investments.

Fast_Muchly

dunstonh said:

Having now gave you some history im rather very worried about this company , im reading people are leaving it in droves the share price also seems to be falling drastically although it has recovered a little bit recently .
What are you reading? - Standard Life is in good health.

I guess im mostly worried of this company going to the dogs no matter how big it is .
You are unnecessarily worrying.

Why was performance so dismal last year was it same for most pension companies last year ?
With Profits funds lag behind events generally.  2018 was a negative year for investments.  Mainly due to the final quarter of 2018.    So, the Q4 loss would have been felt in 2019 for many WP funds.   All quite normal.

this came as quite a shock ...…..surely this has to be related to people leaving SL and its share price or am I just missing something completely . 
Who says people are leaving in their droves?
Yes you are missing a lot.  The returns on the fund have absolutely nothing to do with customer numbers.

Hi 
         I know its a big company it is looking at the  share price which has nose dived and reading internet newspaper journalists columns about SL . I didn't know they lagged behind thanks for that . I wasstarting to panic seeing the share price tumble and reading old newspaper reports from the Aberdeen merger which I never realised had happened . All triggered off from me getting only + £200 on my £100k plus investment for the year as im getting nearer to my late 50's .

Fast_Muchly

Linton said:

Fast_Muchly said:

P.s  I also have around £25'000 with the prudential which can be added to the SL pot to get me near to my 150k total . I also already have accrued the 35 years of work to qualify for my full state pension at 67 . 
My plan is to semi retire take my 25% pot and use a drawdown plan and only take about 5% a year which will hopefully leave my pension pretty much intact for my daughter . 

1) Have you checked you State Pension Forecast - https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension? The 35 years is for people who spend their working life under the new SP scheme which started in 2016.  People who had many years working prior to 2016 may need more or less than 35 years for a full pension and could get more than that.
2) Are you planning at 5% - £7500/year, increasing by inflation, for the whole of retirement or just until you get your SP?  If the former, then 5% is not sustainable - there is a reasonable chance you will run out of money before death.  And that is assuming that the pension pot is suittably invested, which is not the case with your current investments.

Hi 
      No i wasnt planning on inflation at all as when that starts to hit my SP will come into affect , and i dont agree i have run some plans that do show as long as investment companies perform on AVERAGE it should be enough to maintain my pension taking only 5% a year . Even if soes dip slighlty im o.k with that , just want to leave a nice bulk of it for daughter if possible.

Fast_Muchly

Lets be honest as you retire you spend more earlier the older you get the less you need as you do little but watch tv with your slippers on .

Linton

Fast_Muchly said:

Albermarle said:

Standard Life Aberdeen has been through a few changes but Standard Life retail pensions arm  (retail means dealing direct with Joe Public) is actually now owned by a company called Phoenix , so any share price you are monitoring is not related .
In any case Standard Life Pensions is a 'mutual insurer' and as such all investments are 100% covered by financial compensation in case of bankruptcy , fraud etc so you have nothing to worry about .
The actual performance of your investments is a different issue altogether and you may want to change them to another SL investment product ( or not) ,but you do not need to consider the actual stability of Standard Life themselves. 

Excuse me fore being thick but my overall plan seemed to go up by a few thousand each year even though I do not contribute at all now , some years it went up by £7000 . Last year it went up by £200 ……...this came as quite a shock ...…..surely this has to be related to people leaving SL and its share price or am I just missing something completely . Why was performance so dismal last year was it same for most pension companies last year ?  or is this just SL .

The performance of your fund is nothing to do with Standard Life's share price.  You are not invested in SL but rather in funds that invest in companies from across the world.  SL are responsible for managing the fund, but their internal finances are separate from your pension.

The reason why your pension has been doing badly recently is because it is a "With Profits" fund whereby some money from the good years is kept back to ensure that the value increases during bad years.  I guess, but dont know, that some of the increases added in previous years may have been over-generous and SL are having to hold back the bonuses to keep the fund secure.  WP funds, apart from possibly Prudential's, have not been good investments in recent years.  The good side of this generally bad picture is that I would not expect your pernsion to be seriously affected by the large fall in share prices because of the coronovirus.

It could help if you let us know the name(s) of your pension funds.

Fast_Muchly

Linton said:

Fast_Muchly said:

P.s  I also have around £25'000 with the prudential which can be added to the SL pot to get me near to my 150k total . I also already have accrued the 35 years of work to qualify for my full state pension at 67 . 
My plan is to semi retire take my 25% pot and use a drawdown plan and only take about 5% a year which will hopefully leave my pension pretty much intact for my daughter . 

1) Have you checked you State Pension Forecast - https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension? The 35 years is for people who spend their working life under the new SP scheme which started in 2016.  People who had many years working prior to 2016 may need more or less than 35 years for a full pension and could get more than that.
2) Are you planning at 5% - £7500/year, increasing by inflation, for the whole of retirement or just until you get your SP?  If the former, then 5% is not sustainable - there is a reasonable chance you will run out of money before death.  And that is assuming that the pension pot is suittably invested, which is not the case with your current investments.