How are your pension pots doing

Albermarle

The above is what I'm invested in, from the same date last year I am down just under 13%

Without going into detail and with all the caveats already mentioned, 13% down in the last 12 months is in the right ball park for a medium risk portfolio. The majority will be in the 10% to 15% down area.

Regarding your portfolio, you will inevitably get some comments that there are too many funds. Perhaps more importantly do you know what the total charges are . IFA charge + platform charge + average of Investment charges. ?

gh67

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

gh67 said:

Deleted_User said:

How did you pick this selection? What was the strategy/logic/intended asset allocation?

I have an FA and as I know nothing I was advised by him. I wouldn't dream of doing it myself or where to start.

Have you considered using an IFA?

Sorry I meant an IFA

billy2shots

I don't see that many in general but when I see portfolios constructed like this I automatically presume the creater is trying to justify their fee. 

2% here, 4% there blah blah. 

The customer will look at the complexity and think they could never DIY. 

Roger175

Interesting selection! This is why I ditched my IFA many years ago. It just seemed to be a case of random fund picking with little strategy.

The final straw for me was when I deposited a lump sum and my IFA wrote to me suggesting 4 funds. A few days later I had a similar letter suggesting another 4 funds, I think only one was common. When I questioned it, he apologised that he had forgotten that he'd dictated me the original letter and had done it again. When I questioned his fund recommendations, he as good as admitted he'd picked a general selection and felt it was pretty much pot luck! 

dunstonh

Interesting selection! This is why I ditched my IFA many years ago. It just seemed to be a case of random fund picking with little strategy.

There is nothing random about fund selection and weightings.    10-15+ years ago, maybe but everything nowadays has to be documented and justified at firm level.  Firms should be operating consistently.   What you describe isn't but your reference to many years ago is probably the reason for that.

Roger175

Dunstonh

I most certainly don't wish to tar all IFA's with the same brush. My experience was approx15 years ago. The guy just didn't inspire me with confidence and the incident I mention was just the final straw. 

I have certainly made lots of mistakes going it alone and would be the first to admit I probably should be using an IFA. 

bostonerimus

At the recent worst my pension pot had shrunk by 20%, but it's recovered a bit and is now 10% below it's peak. However, a long time ago I decided that I would not rely on withdrawals from a volatile DC pot for my retirement income so I don't worry about the variations in the size of my pot.

[Deleted User]

gh67 said:

Deleted_User said:

How did you pick this selection? What was the strategy/logic/intended asset allocation?

I have an FA and as I know nothing I was advised by him. I wouldn't dream of doing it myself or where to start.

Well, did your advisor tell you what his strategy and asset allocation were and why?  If not then you should ask. 

Did your portfolio have the same funds a year/two years ago?  If so, your advisor owes you an explanation.  For example it was certain that long-term bonds sitting in your portfolio in 2020 and 2021 were going to perform very poorly over their lifetimes.  The exact timing of bond losses was not knowable with any certainty.  The tight coupling between interest rates and bond returns is what made it possible to see the brewing problems. Bond yields tell you exactly what average return you’ll get over the life of the bond.  This is true whether you own that bond on its own or blended into a fund. And when the yield is next to zero, well below inflation then a problem will hit.  

Why didn’t he get rid of assets which were guaranteed to make a loss?  I can understand that people with a single low cost fund combining stocks and bonds don’t have this kind of flexibility.  But this portfolio has 2% fund allocations, so what stopped the advisor from making the changes? 

LV_426

Total value of my pension assets are down 6% on this time last year.

Bianchiintenso

My Zurich (ex allied dunbar) pension is down 6% on peak
wife SIPP is down 4.64%