Prudential or Nest pensions

smileguy

Hello All I have a prudential with profits fund pension  which I have not paid into for some years as I have a Nest work pension. As ISA interest rates have dropped  I was thinking of topping up one of my pensions which is best option Nest or the pru ?.My concern with the prudential is the final bonus how often do they not actually pay this or is it reduced.The small print says they don’t actually have to pay the final bonus ?. 

Is prudential still a safe option as there seems slot of negative reviews online. Many thanks 

dunstonh

 was thinking of topping up one of my pensions which is best option Nest or the pru ?

Which Pru version do you have?  Pru have dozens of versions of pensions over the years.  Many of which are no longer able to be incremented.

My concern with the prudential is the final bonus how often do they not actually pay this or is it reduced.

Final bonus is not really correctly named.  it accrues as you go along.

The small print says they don’t actually have to pay the final bonus ?. 

Correct.  It can go down as well as up and ultimately removed.  Whereas a conventional unit linked investment can go down as well as up but have no minimum (apart from zero).

Is prudential still a safe option as there seems slot of negative reviews online. 

Ignore reviews. They are usually written by people that dont have a clue what they are talking about.   That pretty much goes for most reviews covering most things.      

Issues with financial reviews is that the product version is not usually mentioned.  You could have their modern version and the reviewer could have a 30 year old version from a company the insurer bought and just rebranded. and the review is not happy that their 30 year old product cant do something that was only allowed 3 years years ago.   The reviewer could be moaning about performance but the pension could have 100 or so funds on it.   Yet they say nothing about the fund(s).

Prudential is not a safe or unsafe option.  They are no different to most other pension providers.  Some Pru plan versions can be gems. Others can be obsolete and improved on by moving them.    However, Nest is not the best either.  However, it could be better or worse than the Pru version you have.

smileguy

My prudential pension was taken out in 1990 it’s the with profits fund as far as I know.
last year the transfer value went up by nearly 10 percent ,the year before poor return but that was the same year prudential had been fined I think 😁.I’m not sure if they will let me invest more into it without  seeing a pru advisor first. 

Marcon

NEST has a hefty (1.8%) contribution charge, so depending on how close you are to taking your NEST benefits, that might be a deterrent. If the Pru isn't a viable alternative, then nothing to stop you opening another pension, either a SIPP or a stakeholder, as you prefer.

dunstonh

smileguy said:

My prudential pension was taken out in 1990 it’s the with profits fund as far as I know.
last year the transfer value went up by nearly 10 percent ,the year before poor return but that was the same year prudential had been fined I think 😁.I’m not sure if they will let me invest more into it without  seeing a pru advisor first. 

Pru being fined for something would have no impact on your returns.   Q4 2018 was a negative period on the markets.  

I’m not sure if they will let me invest more into it without  seeing a pru advisor first. 

Pru's salesforce was abolished in 2003.  They have a small direct salesforce but that is for their modern product.  Not a 1990s one.  

TVAS

Why haven't you simply phoned the Pru to ask them? If you have not made a contribution for years the answer is likely to be no. 
Nest too expensive waste of space product.
Stakeholder too expensive and inflexible.
SIPP Vanguard or Nutmeg cheap as chips.