Rubbish work place pension with trigon

Mistermeaner

Started a job last year that has a dc pension scheme administered by trigon 
My previous employers scheme was with Zurich ne Scottish widows and while not perfect had a reasonable fund choice (100s) and a decent online platform

Trigon is awful - only 8 funds to choose from , only 2 are 100% equities and one of those is 70% uk weightred 

The only global equity fund is a Schroeder active fund with high fees that hasn't performed well

My old Zurich pension did 20%+ growth in 2020 while the new trigon lagged at 10%

I've left the Zurich pension where it is but am frustrated that my currently monthly investments are stuck on this rubbish trigon scheme
Not only are the funds weak there is no online platform and checking growth verifying payments etc (to e.g. Check annual allowance) takes weeks via email 

I've spoken with hr at work , trigon themselves and the trustees about getting more functionality and fund choice but it's like pulling teeth 
I've been told that I can't make partial transfers out of periodically transfer from the trigon scheme to Zurich

Wondering if anyone can offer any help or advice about how I can improve this situation - very frustrating to be forced / stuck using a below market product with no option to escape : I would have hoped it should be allowed to at least transfer out on a partial
 Basis once a year or something 

Thanks 

Steve182

What's the deal on offer in terms of employee contributions vs employer?
Can you pay in the minimum employee contribution required for them to meet their maximum obligation and pay that into the least bad fund on offer? Then open your own SIPP and contribute extra into the funds of your choosing?

dunstonh

All you can do is keep badgering the employer by telling them how awful their pension is.  The employer has lots of choice out there.

Thrugelmir

Mistermeaner said:

Trigon is awful - only 8 funds to choose from , only 2 are 100% equities and one of those is 70% uk weightred 

The only global equity fund is a Schroeder active fund with high fees that hasn't performed well

My old Zurich pension did 20%+ growth in 2020 while the new trigon lagged at 10%

Weighting to certain stocks played a major part in 2020 performance. May not be repeated this year. 

OldMusicGuy

Mistermeaner said:

Wondering if anyone can offer any help or advice about how I can improve this situation - very frustrating to be forced / stuck using a below market product with no option to escape : I would have hoped it should be allowed to at least transfer out on a partial
 Basis once a year or something 

Thanks 

My son was in a similar but worse situation with his previous job. A really expensive pension option with very few rubbish fund choices, all heavily UK biased. The simple answer is to change jobs and make sure you have a decent pension, my son negotiated better pension terms when he changed jobs.

In the meantime, your only option (like others said) is to make enough contributions to your current employer pension to get their max contribution. Then if you have excess to invest, start a SIPP and when you change jobs move this current pension to your SIPP (or new employer pension if it's good). It's not a bad idea to have your own SIPP running because you may be faced with a similar situation when you change jobs on the future.  

Albermarle

My previous employers scheme was with Zurich ne Scottish widows and while not perfect had a reasonable fund choice (100s) and a decent online platform

This is my current workplace pension . Does not really help you but worth pointing out generally that the website is rather clunky compared to some others, and a lot of the funds do also have a heavy UK bias. However there are other choices and some of the funds have very low OCF's ( 0.1% for a multi asset fund for example ) so that is the best part.

My old Zurich pension did 20%+ growth in 2020. I'm jealous, seems pretty high though ? 

Then if you have excess to invest, start a SIPP . This is one course of action but would be nothing to stop you investing any excess back into your old SW/Zurich pension , as it seem to be performing rather well. 

Marcon

dunstonh said:

All you can do is keep badgering the employer by telling them how awful their pension is.  The employer has lots of choice out there.

OP would be badgering the wrong party. This is a trust based scheme - so the trustees have ultimate responsibility for the choice of funds etc. 

OP, get hold of a copy of the Internal Dispute Resolution Procedure for the scheme (the administrators should be able to e-mail this to you) and try a formal complaint. Before you submit the form, have a word with TPAS (https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk) for some free, impartial advice on how best to frame your complaint to maximise the chances of ensuring it is taken seriously. The Pensions Regulator is very hot on trustees of DC schemes doing their best to ensure good outcomes for members, including offering 'suitable fund choices'. There is now a requirement to report each year on 'value for members' (see https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/document-library/codes-of-practice/code-13-governance-and-administration-of-occupational-trust-based-schemes-providing-money-purchase#824335ec8e714ce2b6f03907d997183f and scroll down to that section - paragraph 113 on). Are your trustees doing this?

The IDRP doesn't cover complaints against the employer - you would need to use your company's grievance procedure if you wanted to make it a formal issue with them too. Just bear in mind that with under 2 years' service, and a horrendous job market, changing jobs to get a different pension is not likely to be the 'simple answer' as suggested above - but if you make yourself too much of a nuisance you may find that option thrust upon you!

At least one third of the scheme's board of trustees have to be 'member nominated' - have you considered standing as an MNT when the next elections are due?

Mistermeaner

Thanks all for input ;
I have a couple of sipps : my old Zurich and one with hl , I want to keep the current work place one and pay the max 40k in because of the sal sac benefits 
While not ideal it's only 5% of my total portfolio so while annoying not a job leaving issue
I'll continue to petition the trustees and see how that goes , will consider marcons suggestion of formal complaint in due course but don't want to be that !!!!!! just yet 

Thanks again all.for your thoughts 

Mistermeaner

Albermarle said:

My previous employers scheme was with Zurich ne Scottish widows and while not perfect had a reasonable fund choice (100s) and a decent online platform

This is my current workplace pension . Does not really help you but worth pointing out generally that the website is rather clunky compared to some others, and a lot of the funds do also have a heavy UK bias. However there are other choices and some of the funds have very low OCF's ( 0.1% for a multi asset fund for example ) so that is the best part.

My old Zurich pension did 20%+ growth in 2020. I'm jealous, seems pretty high though ? 

Then if you have excess to invest, start a SIPP . This is one course of action but would be nothing to stop you investing any excess back into your old SW/Zurich pension , as it seem to be performing rather well. 

Re the 20% I think I'm about 65% in the Zurich global equity ex uk fund which did really well, plus another 5% in American smaller comps. The rest is in UK eu small caps and then some Asia Pacific