Retirement savings plan

EthicsGradient

dunstonh said:

It is worth noting that the current value will just include the annual bonuses to date.  It will not include any final bonus accrued to date.    The transfer value will show the "real" value.  

Good point - is the £24,192 actually called a "projection", is it "already accrued value", "transfer value" or what? I would think a transfer value wouldn't necessarily be a good guide to a likely value when the contracted period is up, either - the underlying investments may depend on being held to maturity, or they may have structured things to discourage people withdrawing early.

dunstonh

Good point - is the £24,192 actually called a "projection", is it "already accrued value", "transfer value" or what?

Projections are frequently from the current value.   Rather than from the transfer value.

Indeed, it was quite farcical during the endowment years where you had projections showing a lower figure than the surrender value.  A few providers realised this after a few years and when that happened they started showing the guranteed minimum maturity value in its place.    I don't know if that happens with these plans seeing how niche they are and are not owned by a company with much in the way of resources.

amlale

thank you everyone
There might be some final bonuses if I continue to pay into the policy until term
Does anyone think I should bail out now and re invest in another product?

dunstonh

amlale said:

thank you everyone
There might be some final bonuses if I continue to pay into the policy until term
Does anyone think I should bail out now and re invest in another product?

compare your transfer value to the current value.  If the transfer value is higher then the difference is the final bonus accrued to date.

DaveSmithJr

Yes, it's a really terrible investment, but I wouldn't do anything with these savings anymore, as they've been lying around for quite a long time, and the 1% or even less that you get is better than nothing.

tebbins

Unfortunately yes the returns have been dire but you probably have little to no grounds to complain. Especially in the late 90s, because of the bull market since the 70s in which almost everything rose, returns projections got stupid, even though 5 minutes of applied sense should have made you realise "this can't go on". Vice versa, modern projections are also much less optimistic.

xylophone

From June 2000

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2000/jun/17/personalfinancenews.jobsandmoney2

This article may be of interest to the OP.