After advice for investing.

Albermarle

This has the advantage of a wider range of funds available, easy management from one web site and reduced fund charges.

The latter part should be checked carefully first as some employers ( or ex employers ) have negotiated very competitive rates . Especially I guess if it is/was a big employer . My current workplace pension has a platform charge of 0.17% and some funds with an OCF of only 0.1%.

BananaRepublic

Albermarle said:

This has the advantage of a wider range of funds available, easy management from one web site and reduced fund charges.

The latter part should be checked carefully first as some employers ( or ex employers ) have negotiated very competitive rates . Especially I guess if it is/was a big employer . My current workplace pension has a platform charge of 0.17% and some funds with an OCF of only 0.1%.

That’s correct, employer’s do usually negotiate low management charges, or even pay them for you. But once you leave that employer, the pension charges usually increase and they can be uncompetitive. The pensions provider of course hopes you won’t notice, and will stay with them. I was suggesting moving old pensions into a SIPP. 

BananaRepublic

Alexland said:

BananaRepublic said:
Paying extra into a SIPP, once you’ve paid the max into your work pension that your employer will match, makes sense.

Depends if the employer operates salary sacrifice to also save national insurance on workplace pension contributions. Our SIPPs are the result of doing partial lump sum transfers out of our salary sacrifice workplace pensions. It wouldn't be efficient to contribute directly.
Also as you say a LISA might be better than additional pension contributions depending on circumstances.

Assuming they allow greater salary sacrifice contributions than the max they will match of course. Then there is the issue of charges. As someone else pointed out, employer’s usually negotiate low or zero fees for the employee during the term of their employment, so it is worth staying if there is a good choice of funds. Sometimes the funds stink. The pensions industry is a bit rotten IMO. 

Thrugelmir

BananaRepublic said:

loken152 said:

Albermarle said:

Alexland already mentioned increasing investments into a pension but so far you have not mentioned your pension situation ?

My pension situation, is that I am paying into my works pension the maximum amount that they will match.  I must admit I have a couple of older pensions that I need move into my current one.

Many work pensions have appalling or mediocre performance, 

The default fund is quite correctly cautious. SIPP's require self administration. Over confidence in ones own abilities as an investor is the downfall of many on the back of the longest bull market in history.  

Albermarle

 But once you leave that employer, the pension charges usually increase 

I am sure you are right that this can happen, but I  had three previous workplace DC pensions and the charges did not change when I left. To be fair two were not particularly cheap anyway. I checked with my current one which does have low charges and they said the charges would stay the same once I left the company.

The default fund is quite correctly cautious.

Yes, but Banana Republic is right , some are just plain poor , like the Standard Life ones,  and you would be better off in  VLS 40 or 60 or something similar .

BananaRepublic

Albermarle said:

 But once you leave that employer, the pension charges usually increase 

I am sure you are right that this can happen, but I  had three previous workplace DC pensions and the charges did not change when I left. To be fair two were not particularly cheap anyway. I checked with my current one which does have low charges and they said the charges would stay the same once I left the company.

The default fund is quite correctly cautious.

Yes, but Banana Republic is right , some are just plain poor , like the Standard Life ones,  and you would be better off in  VLS 40 or 60 or something similar .

Funny you should mention Standard Life pensions. I had a company one that I forgot about for ten years. It had enjoyed approximately zero growth in that time, but I’d paid handsome fees each year. It was only £4,000, but I’d be a bit richer today had I moved it. 

BananaRepublic

Thrugelmir said:

BananaRepublic said:

loken152 said:

Albermarle said:

Alexland already mentioned increasing investments into a pension but so far you have not mentioned your pension situation ?

My pension situation, is that I am paying into my works pension the maximum amount that they will match.  I must admit I have a couple of older pensions that I need move into my current one.

Many work pensions have appalling or mediocre performance, 

The default fund is quite correctly cautious. SIPP's require self administration. Over confidence in ones own abilities as an investor is the downfall of many on the back of the longest bull market in history.  

No, some personal pensions are appallingly bad. Standard Life was, and maybe still is, a good example. The reason is that the provider wants you to pay generous fees for their pension fund rather than charge small fees for a better performing index fund. 

Yes of course it is possible to lose a lot of money through lack of caution. But that’s no excuse for providing bad products. 

Old_Lifer

Yes. some older products have ongoing fees which continue after you have stopped paying into them.  Someone who paid into a product for a couple of years and then left it untouched  for a couple of decades or more could find much of the pot has vanished in fees.

dunstonh

Albermarle said:

 But once you leave that employer, the pension charges usually increase 

I am sure you are right that this can happen, but I  had three previous workplace DC pensions and the charges did not change when I left. To be fair two were not particularly cheap anyway. I checked with my current one which does have low charges and they said the charges would stay the same once I left the company.

The default fund is quite correctly cautious.

Yes, but Banana Republic is right , some are just plain poor , like the Standard Life ones,  and you would be better off in  VLS 40 or 60 or something similar .

Pension providers used to be able to have split pricing for active and deferred members but that is not allowed any more.

Funny you should mention Standard Life pensions. I had a company one that I forgot about for ten years. It had enjoyed approximately zero growth in that time, but I’d paid handsome fees each year. It was only £4,000, but I’d be a bit richer today had I moved it. 

The only Std Life plans that would have had zero return would be those invested in the cash fund or where there is safeguarded benefit that was worth more than the actual value.  i.e. guaranteed minimum maturity value (those often stand still until they hit their maturity point) or a very big GAR or GMP.

BananaRepublic

dunstonh said:

Albermarle said:

 But once you leave that employer, the pension charges usually increase 

I am sure you are right that this can happen, but I  had three previous workplace DC pensions and the charges did not change when I left. To be fair two were not particularly cheap anyway. I checked with my current one which does have low charges and they said the charges would stay the same once I left the company.

The default fund is quite correctly cautious.

Yes, but Banana Republic is right , some are just plain poor , like the Standard Life ones,  and you would be better off in  VLS 40 or 60 or something similar .

Pension providers used to be able to have split pricing for active and deferred members but that is not allowed any more.

Funny you should mention Standard Life pensions. I had a company one that I forgot about for ten years. It had enjoyed approximately zero growth in that time, but I’d paid handsome fees each year. It was only £4,000, but I’d be a bit richer today had I moved it. 

The only Std Life plans that would have had zero return would be those invested in the cash fund or where there is safeguarded benefit that was worth more than the actual value.  i.e. guaranteed minimum maturity value (those often stand still until they hit their maturity point) or a very big GAR or GMP.

Nope, it was a Standard Life equity fund, the performance was atrocious. 

I transferred all my funds to a SIPP about five years ago, before that I had a fund that charged more after I left the employer. You can’t be right, I had company pensions where the fees were paid by the employer, and after I left I paid the fees and they weren’t very competitive. Fee wise it was much cheaper to transfer out.