Pension Help

dunstonh

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

Thanks for reminding me of the past comments.
Looks like we were ignored before.    I will repeat what I have said on other threads.  RL is a simple option with a limited investment selection. It is quite well priced (usually in the top 10 providers but at the very top). It's investment selection prevents individuals from making too much of a mess with their investments and I suspect the bulk of investors are in the governed portfolio range.  Its a great option for a transactional advice case to a low knowledge consumer who would be prone to making bad decisions with more advanced options.   We wouldn't use it for ongoing advice cases.  Although I know some would.

Middlestitch

Terry9999999 said:

I transferred after expert advice (costly) to Royal London, a high risk flexible pension. Would prefer something more stable any ideas? 

  

High risk = instability. Move to lower risk funds.

barnstar2077

If it has made great gains then do you actually need to move it? If it has gone up fifty percent say, then a drop of thirty percent wouldn't really matter in the big scheme of things.  If this is with HL, I would start by uninstalling the app and only looking at it once a year on your computer, and not at a time when there is something big happening in the news.

It does make sense to find out exactly which fund it is invested in though before you decide what to do. 

Marcon

Marcon said:

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.

Forgot to say...If you died the day after you retired, there is almost always a 'five year guarantee' in a DB pension which means that a lump sum payment equal to 60 instalments of the pension you would otherwise have received would be paid, normally tax free. Add in the above, coupled with the fact that your wife was assured of a pension for the rest of her life without having to faff around managing funds etc...are you sure that was good reason for transferring?