Pension Review - Reeves IFA

Albermarle

IFA's investment teams have delivered 68-70% over the past year 

Do you mean they are claiming 70% growth in investments ?? Seems incredible .

A couple of points though.

The markets dived earlier last year due to Covid and then recovered , so if you measure from when it hit  the bottom , then of course you will get a good result . Five or ten year performance is more revealing.

Aegon managed fund has worked well to deliver 60% but is risky and may not fair so well in the future.

How risky do you think funds must be if they increase 70% in a year ( if that is what happened ) ?

sabsharpe

Albermarle said:

IFA's investment teams have delivered 68-70% over the past year 

Do you mean they are claiming 70% growth in investments ?? Seems incredible .

A couple of points though.

The markets dived earlier last year due to Covid and then recovered , so if you measure from when it hit  the bottom , then of course you will get a good result . Five or ten year performance is more revealing.

Aegon managed fund has worked well to deliver 60% but is risky and may not fair so well in the future.

How risky do you think funds must be if they increase 70% in a year ( if that is what happened ) ?

Apologies.... didn't make it clear the period of comparison was 5 years 

Albermarle

sabsharpe said:

Albermarle said:

IFA's investment teams have delivered 68-70% over the past year 

Do you mean they are claiming 70% growth in investments ?? Seems incredible .

A couple of points though.

The markets dived earlier last year due to Covid and then recovered , so if you measure from when it hit  the bottom , then of course you will get a good result . Five or ten year performance is more revealing.

Aegon managed fund has worked well to deliver 60% but is risky and may not fair so well in the future.

How risky do you think funds must be if they increase 70% in a year ( if that is what happened ) ?

Apologies.... didn't make it clear the period of comparison was 5 years 

OK no problem, but still the point remains . Your 60% ( in 5 years) growth fund is now seen as too risky but their 70% growth ones are not ?
It is very easy to transfer a pension nowadays but of course you have to decide where to then invest the money .
The transfer costs charged by IFA's always seems a lot for what is something you can do your self on the internet in < 10 minutes. I suppose they are really charging you for their time in meetings with you beforehand ( to understand your objectives , risk tolerance etc ) and some investment knowledge, Plus they have a lot of regulations to follow.
Also I think it is in case you stop paying the ongoing fee after a few months , then they have already covered their costs and more with the transfer fee.

Thrugelmir

With the S&P 500 returning 100% over the past 5 years. Any well weighted diversified portfolio should have effortlessly generated a decent return. Given the concentration of the top performing stocks. Unlikely to be quite so easy over the next 5 years. 

naedanger

sabsharpe said:

Thanks everyone for your comments. I have contacted some other companies and it seems to be consensus that:
a) Having all of the £240k in one Aegon managed fund has worked well to deliver 60% but is risky and may not fair so well in the future
b) Transfer the pot to a SIPP (IFAs want £1500 - £3600) to do this
c) IFA's investment teams have delivered 68-70% over the past year and will charge 0.75% - 1.32% for  ongoing advice and access to the underlying investment teams
d) Total yearly fees 1.65-2% (platform + fund + IFA in total)
My first thought is why not transfer my very simple pension into my own SIPP (saving £1500-£3600) at that point either picking some funds of similar risk to the level I'm currently on OR seeking the yearly advice from an IFA?
I could devote time to checking fund performance say once a month but do have a full time job and family.
That initial £1500-£3000 seems a lot for basically organising a fund transfer from Aegon to SIPP - or is there a lot more to it than that?
Honest feedback welcome....
 

I think checking fund performance monthly is checking far too frequently. You should aim to choose an investment mix (which might be achieved with a small number of funds) that you are comfortable holding for the medium to long term. You should not expect that choice to necessarily perform well relative to other choices or funds over short periods of time. 

If you need to check monthly or even yearly it suggests to me your original choice was not suitable.