Pension Help

Terry9999999

Any pension experts? I had a defined pension, I transferred after expert advice (costly) to Royal London, a high risk flexible pension. The problem is I have no control over it as its on the LSE which went up by a staggering amount last week. My concern is it may go pop! Its a very large pot indeed.  
Would prefer something more stable any ideas? 

  

Silvertabby

You can't get much more stable than a DB scheme.

bermudianmark

Do you mean Defined benefit scheme, if so that was 100% stable, if you took advice presumably you wanted risk instead?

Defined contribution is a different thing, that just means contributions are fixed.

Terry9999999

If you die on DB, only half goes to wife its too big to risk hence transfer, now all goes to her. The advice was good its gone up a fantastic amount but my only control is an appt that updates the fund daily. Its very stressful. Must be alternatives. 

Albermarle

My concern is it may go pop!
It seems like you transferred to a risk based investment based pension whilst having little knowledge of investing, or the potential risks involved .
Is an IFA looking after your pension/investments ? If not it sounds like you should be looking for one pronto. 

squirrelpie

"Royal London, a high risk flexible pension."

Royal London is a pension provider, not a particular pension. The investments that you choose to have within a pension determine the risk.

What is an "appt"? What pension do you have exactly? You can change investments within a pension by one or more of some online interface, telephone or postal instructions. As Albermarle said, it sounds like you need to find an IFA to manage these decisions for you; you will have to pay them, of course to assume that responsibility.

[Deleted User]

I have to ask... Why wouldn’t one spend a little bit of time  learning about a product before putting a “staggering” amount into it? The exuberance isn’t the most appropriate frame of mind. 

NottinghamKnight

Terry9999999 said:

If you die on DB, only half goes to wife its too big to risk hence transfer, now all goes to her. The advice was good its gone up a fantastic amount but my only control is an appt that updates the fund daily. Its very stressful. Must be alternatives. 

Do you have an adviser or are you trying to manage this yourself?
If the latter then it would probably be best to speak to one or more IFA about managing your portfolio as it doesn't sound like you have much of an idea and that is not a good place to be with presumably a large investment portfolio. 

Dox

Terry9999999 said:

Any pension experts? I had a defined pension, I transferred after expert advice (costly) to Royal London, a high risk flexible pension. The problem is I have no control over it as its on the LSE which went up by a staggering amount last week. My concern is it may go pop! Its a very large pot indeed.  
Would prefer something more stable any ideas? 

  

Shame you didn't take heed of Dunstons's advice: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6203329/change-of-pension-provide#latest. Also a shame that you don't seem to have understood what you've just done, based on this thread: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6216176/pension-fund-with-royal-london#latest

The fact that the fund has gone up a 'fantastic amount' simply means you moved at a time when the markets were about to rise. They most certainly will go 'pop' and you'll see an equally staggering loss. Having an app that gives you a daily update isn't a control in any way; all it does it report what the markets are doing.

Move to less volatile and lower risk (and thus potentially lower return) funds if you don't have the stomach for the roller coaster ride you appear to have jumped on so eagerly and may come to regret. Maybe go back and see the adviser who gave you the advice to transfer - or weren't they aware that you weren't going to be able to cope with ups and downs of the market? Did you remember to tell them that?

Marcon

Terry9999999 said:

If you die on DB, only half goes to wife its too big to risk hence transfer, now all goes to her. The advice was good its gone up a fantastic amount but my only control is an appt that updates the fund daily. Its very stressful. Must be alternatives. 

You've taken a much bigger risk by transferring out. If you had taken the maximum tax free cash lump sum from your DB pension at the time it came into payment, that would be a very large slice of cash (which your wife could inherit tax free if you hadn't spent it by the time you died - no IHT where assets transfer to a surviving spouse).

Even if you took maximum tax free cash, your wife's pension would be based on the assumption that you had taken NO tax free cash, so would have been higher than you probably thought. Some DB schemes pay more than 50% as a spouse's pension - 2/3rds is just as common - but presumably you double checked that before deciding to follow such a risky route as transferring to the unpredictable seas of a DC pension.

dunstonh

, I transferred after expert advice (costly) to Royal London, a high risk flexible pension.

Royal London dont have a plan called "flexible pension". There are other providers with that name in the pension product.   Royal London also dont really have any risk options.  The funds they offer are all convention mainstream funds.

The problem is I have no control over it as its on the LSE which went up by a staggering amount last week.

It is highly unlikely that an adviser would place you 100% into UK equity nowadays.  Are you sure you are invested that way?

My concern is it may go pop! 

You mean if there was nuclear war or an asteroid strike?  Would you really be caring about your pension in those scenarios?

Would prefer something more stable any ideas? 

I suspect you are not invested where you think you are invested,  So, before you start asking for alternatives, it may be better to understand what you have first.