Legal & General Workplace Pension limited investment choice

IamWood

My work pension is managed by L&G too under the default lifestyle fund: L&G PMC Multi Asset 3. 
Just transferred half of my funds into:
1) L&G PMC World (Ex-UK) Equity Index 3 (40%)
2) L&G PMC Asia Pacific (exJapan) Equity Index Fund 3 (10%)

I have another SIPP account with Vanguard which is UK-biased. 

Victorwelldue

So after much research I've came up with following potential options. Would appreciate comments on choices and help getting my head around the arithmetic of returns & charges.

As a reminder my aim is basically to have a diversified portfolio approx. 60% equities + 40% bonds etc with view to retiring in 10 to 12 years. I usually base my projections on returns of 3% above inflation so hoping to achieve that level as a minimum but obviously crystal ball time.

Choice 1
40% of portfolio L&G PMC Pre-Retirement Inflation Linked Fund 3 (NES3) Average 6.06% annual return
30% of portfolio L&G PMC North America Equity Index Fund 3 (NDX3)  Average 18.57% annual return
30% of portfolio L&G PMC European Fund 3 (B8M3) Average 18.53% annual return

Choice 2
40% of portfolio L&G PMC Pre-Retirement Inflation Linked Fund 3 (NES3) Average 6.06% annual return
30% of portfolio L&G PMC North America Equity Index Fund 3 (NDX3)  Average 18.57% annual return
30% of portfolio L&G PMC Global Equity Market Weights (30:70) Index Fund - GBP 75% Currency Hedged 3 (NRJ3) Average 12.65% annual return

Above annual returns are average of past 5 years and I'm trying to calculate what the overall average return would have been for those particular choices. For choice 1 I get 13.55% average annual return - is that correct? (I understand past performance no guarantee of future performance).

Regarding charges: I assume it doesn't really matter if you have one fund or 10 funds in your portfolio as all that matters is the overall percentage charge across the portfolio? For example one fund with charges of 0.15% would be same as 10 funds if all 10 funds were each 0.15% - Have I understood that correctly?

TVAS

Life styling can be switched off.
Sceptical that one cannot switch from a lifestyle fund query this again and get in writing. If the answer is still no raise it as a complaint. This seems ridiculous to me.

Victorwelldue

TVAS said:

Life styling can be switched off.
Sceptical that one cannot switch from a lifestyle fund query this again and get in writing. If the answer is still no raise it as a complaint. This seems ridiculous to me.

Yes I think I may have originally misunderstood what L&G meant. I believe I can pick whichever funds I want from the range on offer except for lifestyle funds where you can only have one lifestyle fund then be bound by the split contained within that fund (I think). 

Thrugelmir

Disregard annual return figures the past is no indication of the future.  All sorts of factors have combined to make some market returns in the past 5 years exceptional. 

Victorwelldue

Thrugelmir said:

Disregard annual return figures the past is no indication of the future.  All sorts of factors have combined to make some market returns in the past 5 years exceptional. 

I understand that and I'm anticipating much lower returns as mentioned. However surely there is still some utility in considering past performance as one factor alongside other factors when comparing funds?