Can I swap some/all of my current pension to 1 where i can pick exact shares?

gwebstech

Hi all

I currently have a pension pot with Aviva, its doing ok i think, im 50 soon and wanted to know if i can take some or all of this pension and swap it into a pension where i can pick the exact shres i want to invest in. At the moment my Aviva plan only lets me pick from group pensions ie Japan equities, European investments etc but id like the option to pick ie Google or Tesla shares

Is this possible that any of you know of?

thanks

El_Torro

It certainly is possible, just search for a suitable SIPP.

Whether it’s a good idea is a different matter.

tacpot12

Unless you have an excellent record as a stock picker, it is unlikely to be a good idea. 

RobM99

Exactly what tacpot12 says, in my opinion - and that's all it is.. The administrators (is that the right word?) have the know-how (we'd hope!) to know when-and-what to buy/sell.   

Steve182

I did exactly that just over 2 years ago, transferred a company DC scheme to an AJ Bell SIPP.  
I hold shares in 15 companies, 8 IT's and 2 funds (OEIC) spread over SIPPs and ISAs. 
I do research, a lot of research. I pay an annual subscription to Stockopedia (which I think is a really useful tool), I'm patient, not impulsive, don't panic sell when things go bad and accept that sometimes my total portfolio may lose £40K or more within a week, which it has on a few occasions. It's always climbed back (touch wood), but it can be disconcerting until you get used to it. I've had plenty of successes, and my fair share of failures too, but overall I'm not complaining.

Your portfolio will almost certainly be less well diversified, as is mine. 

Have a really good think about whether individual stockpicking with your own pension fund is for you. 

If it's higher returns you are targeting you don't necessarily need to own individual shares. Look at "higher risk" growth funds, which you could combine with some lower risk funds too and achieve some diversity.

For the high risk/high return funds look at the offerings from Baillie Gifford, which have historically done very well. I emphasise "historically". Last year very few fund managers came close to Baillie Gifford, but things have habit of changing, and this year's winners often become next year's losers. Lindsell Train and Fundsmith have also done well historically, not quite so well last year though. You will likely still need a SIPP to invest in any of them as they are not normally offered by mainstream pension funds.

[Deleted User]

Yes you can do exactly that, gwebstech. 
The idea of pension freedoms introduced six years ago was to give the individual agency to manage his or her own fortune. Indeed, it is a responsibility that cannot easily be skirted.
Your plan looks good to me.

Albermarle

If you only wanted to move part of the pension, you would have to check with Aviva first whether this was possible or not .
Alternatively you could move the whole pension and whatever you did not use to buy individual shares , you could buy funds in the SIPP that would be similar to what you have now ( if that is what you wanted)

Prism

I used to use an Aviva personal pension and I found it pretty good with plenty of fund choices. The fees were a touch on the high side but certainly not the worst. I transfered to AJBell Youinvest, which was painless, to reduce the fees and open up my investment choices to include ETFs, investment trusts and individual shares. To date I have not invested in individual shares as I haven't got the time or skill to analyse each company in depth which is what you really need to do before going that route.

[Deleted User]

My experience does not chime with yours, Prism. 
While I'm wary of Tesla, I can vouch for the performance of the type of stock of interest to gwebstech; the investment journey accompanied throughout, I might add, by warnings of impending decline.
These corporations, the biggest in the world, are subject to constant scrutiny and analysis. The share price at any time
reflects the history, performance, analysis and projections in aggregate. You waste your labour trying to arrive at a more accurate price by duplicating the work yourself. 

Prism

ZingPowZing said:

My experience does not chime with yours, Prism. 
While I'm wary of Tesla, I can vouch for the performance of the type of stock of interest to gwebstech; the investment journey accompanied throughout, I might add, by warnings of impending decline.
These corporations, the biggest in the world, are subject to constant scrutiny and analysis. The share price at any time
reflects the history, performance, analysis and projections in aggregate. You waste your labour trying to arrive at a more accurate price by duplicating the work yourself. 

Actually I think our experience will end up being similar if you are correct about the pricing of most large companies being pretty accurate. We won't really know until in 10 years time or so when I guess neither us will be still around here comparing. I would say that your approach of holding a handful of direct share will likely be more volatile (not a problem in itself) but as long as they are diverse enough will probably end up in the same place as a cheap fund over the long term, with the benefit that you haven't paid fees along the way. 

[Deleted User]

Interesting. I think a direct shares holding has a ~95% chance of outperforming a fund with no fees over the next ten years.