Recommendations for a pension provider

TimButterfield

Hi all, 

I have a problem with my pension provider. Essentially my pension moved from L&G to ReAssure when ReAssure bought the portfolio. I've nothing but trouble with it every since. My main issues are : 

• I run my own business, thus with L&G my company made contributions, as did I personally (my accountant doesn't support a means of salary sacrifice, so the latter was done via a personal direct debit, and the former as a direct debit from my companies business account. It took months and lots of dialogue with ReAssure to establish that they can't support more than one Direct Debit into a pension account. 
• The above means that my options are a single Direct Debit, and adhoc contributions, or two adhoc contributions. The problem with adhoc contributions is that they don't show in my pension account and have to reconcile manually, which has been taking 6 months (I feel there has to be a regulatory breach here some how). 
• Finally, I get no sense of my pension performance. No tools to track it's performance month on month, which is on top of a lack of sight of the actual value of my pension today (or at the last processing point which I think is typically once a week / once a month). 

I'm permanently frustrated with ReAssure and would like to move to another provider. Hence would love recommendations. What I'm looking for is: 

• A provider that provides me with tooling to be able to manage my pension and track it's performance. Including being able to chain the risk / fund options as I see fit. 
• A low fee (I don't know what low is, but at L&G I was paying 0.7 % I think). 
• A provider that would support multiple direct debits (one from my company bank, one from my personal bank)
• A provider that gives me an accurate picture of the value of my pension fund (with a reasonable frequency of it being updated). 
• And obviously a pension provider who's performance tracks very well against its competitors. 

There may be other valuable requirements, but these are the things that I feel that I'm lacking. Given so many providers in the market, I'm not sure how to nail them down based on my requirements, thus I would love recommendations. 

Kind Regards
Tim Butterfield

dunstonh

• I run my own business, thus with L&G my company made contributions, as did I personally (my accountant doesn't support a means of salary sacrifice, so the latter was done via a personal direct debit, and the former as a direct debit from my companies business account. It took months and lots of dialogue with ReAssure to establish that they can't support more than one Direct Debit into a pension account. 

There is absolutely no reason why a shareholding director would need to make personal contributions because of the accountant.     You just pick your pension provider and make employer contributions.      The accountant is costing you money.

• A low fee (I don't know what low is, but at L&G I was paying 0.7 % I think). 

0.3x% is the sort of ballpark nowadays for the cheap ones.

• A provider that would support multiple direct debits (one from my company bank, one from my personal bank)

Or get it done properly in the first place.

• A provider that gives me an accurate picture of the value of my pension fund (with a reasonable frequency of it being updated). 

Virtually all providers open for business do this.

• And obviously a pension provider who's performance tracks very well against its competitors. 

Irrelevant nowadays. The best ones are whole of market.  So, the pension provider has no influence on the performance as they all offer the same funds.

xylophone

You could  consider Hargreaves Lansdown.

https://www.hl.co.uk/pensions/sipp/self-employed

Albermarle

TimButterfield said:

Hi all, 

I have a problem with my pension provider. Essentially my pension moved from L&G to ReAssure when ReAssure bought the portfolio. I've nothing but trouble with it every since. My main issues are : 

• I run my own business, thus with L&G my company made contributions, as did I personally (my accountant doesn't support a means of salary sacrifice, so the latter was done via a personal direct debit, and the former as a direct debit from my companies business account. It took months and lots of dialogue with ReAssure to establish that they can't support more than one Direct Debit into a pension account. 
• The above means that my options are a single Direct Debit, and adhoc contributions, or two adhoc contributions. The problem with adhoc contributions is that they don't show in my pension account and have to reconcile manually, which has been taking 6 months (I feel there has to be a regulatory breach here some how). 
• Finally, I get no sense of my pension performance. No tools to track it's performance month on month, which is on top of a lack of sight of the actual value of my pension today (or at the last processing point which I think is typically once a week / once a month). 

I'm permanently frustrated with ReAssure and would like to move to another provider. Hence would love recommendations. What I'm looking for is: 

• A provider that provides me with tooling to be able to manage my pension and track it's performance. Including being able to chain the risk / fund options as I see fit. That would be normal for any modern provider.
• A low fee (I don't know what low is, but at L&G I was paying 0.7 % I think). This depends on what investments you decide to hold within the pension, some are more expensive than others. Also some providers have two charges - one for managing the pension platform and one for the investments. Some just have one charge. 0.7% as a total is middling.
• A provider that would support multiple direct debits (one from my company bank, one from my personal bank) Dunstonh has addressed this issue
• A provider that gives me an accurate picture of the value of my pension fund (with a reasonable frequency of it being updated). Normal nowadays to see it online.in an app, updated in real time.
• And obviously a pension provider who's performance tracks very well against its competitors. Pension providers compete on charges, customer service etc. It is the  investments within the pension that'perform' 

There may be other valuable requirements, but these are the things that I feel that I'm lacking. Given so many providers in the market, I'm not sure how to nail them down based on my requirements, thus I would love recommendations. 

Kind Regards
Tim Butterfield

Given so many providers in the market, I'm not sure how to nail them down based on my requirements, thus I would love recommendations. 

Nearly all providers will fulfil your needs, from a servicing angle. However you seem to be confused about the performance angle.
That all depends on the type of investment(s) you pick within the pension. Particularly the risk level. So this is an area you need to study a bit more I think.

Just to get a feel for what is available, you could have a look at this. Best SIPP: Build a low cost DIY pension - MoneySavingExpert

TimButterfield

Thank you all for the responses. I appreciate the advice and direct responses. 

I pay personal and company as that was the pattern advised to me originally, plus mimics the structure that would happen if I were an employee of any other business. Though I appreciate I'm in a different position. I'll read around this, speak to my accountant find a path forward on that (which as you say may mean company only contributions). 

Thanks @dunstonh re the fee. Again, I'm not informed and don't know where to find such information other than google search, which as we know isn't always reality. 

Re pension performance, maybe I didn't frame my point correctly. Pension companies invest the money we give to them, and take a fee. Not all pension companies make good purchase / fund decisions. If I invest based on risk profile and don't specify the exact funds, then I'm trusting the provider to make fund choices on my behalf. Thus I'd expect pension providers to sell their services based on their strengths, e.g. maybe making a better than average return for customers who have a particular risk profile? 

My effort and energy has never really been focussed on pensions. Now I'm over 40 and suffering issues with my current provider, I need to make some better decisions and move my pension fund.

dunstonh

I pay personal and company as that was the pattern advised to me originally,

Who gave you that advice as it is almost certainly wrong?

Personal contributions mean you have drawn money out of your company using dividends/salary.  Assuming dividends (as you are likely to be earning more than the primary threshold), that means you are paying 19% corporation tax and 8.75% dividend tax (or 33.75% if higher rate).    If you make personal contributions, you are getting less than that back in tax relief.

Whereas with company contributions, you get corporation tax reduction (as it's a business expense) and you get money out of the company with no income tax/dividend tax/NI.

 plus mimics the structure that would happen if I were an employee of any other business. 

Shareholding directors are not required to be auto-enrolled like employees unless you have a contract of employment with yourself (which is unnecessary).  

The extra tax you are paying for this decision is so much greater than a small difference in charges.

Re pension performance, maybe I didn't frame my point correctly. Pension companies invest the money we give to them, and take a fee.Not all pension companies make good purchase / fund decisions. If I invest based on risk profile and don't specify the exact funds, then I'm trusting the provider to make fund choices on my behalf. Thus I'd expect pension providers to sell their services based on their strengths, e.g. maybe making a better than average return for customers who have a particular risk profile? 

That thinking is out of date unless you have an old-fashioned plan or one that is restricted heavily (and many auto-enrolment schemes are but individual plans don't need to be).  Pension companies do not invest the money or make the investment decisions.  They just handle the administration.  You pick the investment funds and the fund manager is the one that makes the decisions (or you use passive index tracker funds which track the index).

There are some off-shelf-solutions but nowadays, many of these use index tracking funds as the underlying investment and its the weightings that are controlled.  Usually by the fund manager, IFA or third party or yourself.  Not the pension provider.

Albermarle

Re pension performance, maybe I didn't frame my point correctly. Pension companies invest the money we give to them, and take a fee. Not all pension companies make good purchase / fund decisions. If I invest based on risk profile and don't specify the exact funds, then I'm trusting the provider to make fund choices on my behalf. Thus I'd expect pension providers to sell their services based on their strengths, e.g. maybe making a better than average return for customers who have a particular risk profile? 

A few points to make here:

1) A typical workplace pension will have a choice of investments, but if you do not choose one your money goes into a default fund, that is typically medium risk type.

2) A typical personal pension or SIPP, will have a wider range of investments, but you have to choose one or more, or your money just sits in cash. Many of the investments will have a risk rating, but I think it is fair to say that risk rating is not an exact science.

3)There are nowadays 'robo advisors' where you answer a few questions and they then suggest an investment.

4) You can get professional advice as another option, and they will sort it all out for you. with a personalised investment portfolio, for a fee of course.

5) On your final point, this is very tricky. For example' medium risk' will cover a range. An investment with a 'medium high' risk fund will normally have better results in the long term than one with a 'medium low' risk fund. However the latter will hold up better during a bad period. So very difficult to compare. Also as often said ' past peformance is no guarantee of future performance' As another example funds with a high UK% have performed worse in recent times than those with a high US%. However in future could well be the other way around. 

Perksy5

TimButterfield said:

Thank you all for the responses. I appreciate the advice and direct responses. 

I pay personal and company as that was the pattern advised to me originally, plus mimics the structure that would happen if I were an employee of any other business. Though I appreciate I'm in a different position. I'll read around this, speak to my accountant find a path forward on that (which as you say may mean company only contributions). 

Thanks @dunstonh re the fee. Again, I'm not informed and don't know where to find such information other than google search, which as we know isn't always reality. 

Re pension performance, maybe I didn't frame my point correctly. Pension companies invest the money we give to them, and take a fee. Not all pension companies make good purchase / fund decisions. If I invest based on risk profile and don't specify the exact funds, then I'm trusting the provider to make fund choices on my behalf. Thus I'd expect pension providers to sell their services based on their strengths, e.g. maybe making a better than average return for customers who have a particular risk profile? 

My effort and energy has never really been focussed on pensions. Now I'm over 40 and suffering issues with my current provider, I need to make some better decisions and move my pension fund.

What you describe sounds more like barclays' plan & invest offering, though just to stress this is *not* a pension. 
I think you're idea of a managed investment service is more aligned to wealth management services rather than what a pension would be where you as the account holder would choose what fund its invested in rather than it being actively managed on your behalf.
It might be worth some financial advice, unbiased.co.uk is a good starting point to have someone take a look at your personal circumstances and support you with a tailored plan if you're prepared to pay their fee