What time of the day do Scottish Widows set their unit prices - 9.36% drop in value on DC Pension ?

original1

Hi All

Does anyone know what time of the day Scottish Widows time their unit prices ?
The reason I ask is that my workplace pension was valued at £75,000 split between Higher Risk Growth with life styling (4 sub funds with a total holding of 73.19%) and a Target Drawdown Retirement fund (1 sub fund with a total holding of 26.81%) on 22nd Feb

When I logged in to the online portal and checked the fund value at 10am on Friday 14th March the value was £69,415, and when I checked at 9pm on the same day the value was £67,983.

The markets did close slightly higher up at close on Friday than Thursday 13th March, so was wondering why the total fund value went down ?

I'm 64 and thinking of retiring at 66, but would like to immediately move it to a money deposit pension fund cash account, take 25% tax free, and leave the rest in the hope it goes up in value over the next few years.


Thanks
Original1

TSCati

My work pension is with Scottish Widows and the value only seems to change once a day. There also seems to be a 2 day lag between a change in the FTSE impacting the value of the funds.

Albermarle

You will have to search the fine print of the prospectus.
Typically it seems that funds based on UK investments ( FTSE etc ) valuation point is between 10.00  and 15.00 .
Whilst if there is a strong US component it can be later at 21.00 UK time .
Normally funds are a long term investment and often contributed to monthly over many years ( as in a pension for example) so the daily valuation point is of little importance and small differences will even out . 

dunstonh

The markets did close slightly higher up at close on Friday than Thursday 13th March, so was wondering why the total fund value went down ?

Global markets will be a day behind.  For example, Friday saw the US markets up nearly 10%.  However, that is not reflected in your unit price.   Instead, the drop from the day before is what saw yours go down.

original1

Thanks for your responses.  I have just logged onto the Scottish Widows website and the value is still £67,983, and this corresponds with the number of units I hold, and the unit price dated 13th March 2020.
Units I hold X Unit price = £67,983.

Will the price update on Monday morning first thing, or will it stay at £67,983 until Tuesday when it will update with Monday 16th March's unit price  ?

Thrugelmir

Another similar question was asked the other day. Published at 12:00 daily was the time for that SW fund. 

original1

Thanks for the info everyone.

I am going to ask Scottish Widows to move the £67,983 to a money market fund, and crystallize a £7017 loss.

I honestly don't know if I can deal with the roller coaster of hearing news about the markets going up and down, and I will carry on contributing approx. £700 into the money market fund (both me and employer) per month.

Just some figures, pension started in Jan 2010. Drip feeding money in every month.

Total contribution made by me = £27,167

Total contribution made by employer = £26,738 

Total contributions by both me and employer = £54,000

So its made £13,983 up until this point.

Hopefully once in the money market fund it will stay as it is, so I have some stability, when I plan to retire age 66.

eskbanker

original1 said:

Will the price update on Monday morning first thing, or will it stay at £67,983 until Tuesday when it will update with Monday 16th March's unit price  ?

From your own experience the price was updated between 10am and 9pm on Friday with that day's figure, so surely the expectation should be that the same will apply tomorrow, rather than it being either first thing Monday or Tuesday?

Thrugelmir

You've made a £13k profit (if the price remains unchanged) not a loss. The question is have to you reached your personal financial objective? Enough money for what you would like to do. 

kinger101

It sounds like you're moving from far too high an equity allocation to far too low an equity allocation for your life stage.  By all means, move 25 % of the fund to a money market fund now (knowing inflation will slowly erode its value), but if you leave the other 75 %, you'll simply lock in the loss and prevent any future growth.  If you intend to use the remaining 75% for drawdown, one would ordinarily choose and allocation of between 40 - 60 % equities depending on attitude to risk.  

original1

Thanks for the responses. Being 1-2 years away from retirement, I am happy to crystallize the loss.