How are your pension pots doing

gh67

Deleted_User 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.

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? 

Since opening the fund I haven’t put any money into it so yes same funds if that’s what you mean. 

At the end of 21 it had increased roughly 20% from its initial investment, now it’s only about 7% above its initial investment. I’m still in profit I just think it could be doing better, I won’t be touching it for another 5 years minimum so want to make sure it’s in the right place going forward. 

If I’m honest I’m having my doubts about the IFA, is it an easy enough job to change them. 

dunstonh

dunstonh said:

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.

10-15 years ago would have needed an IFA to be at the cutting edge in terms of software and service providers to have the data used today.   Go back further and there was nothing at all apart from opinion.    Rule changes in recent years along with improved data, software and service providers mean its very different today to how it was 5 years ago, let alone 10-20 etc

Until relatively recently, there was no requirement for firms to have a documented process/governance report.   

garyelder

I wasn’t sure about my IFA but my pot is down 9.1 % since I’ve had it so I’m going to go with it  i need my pension pot in 5 years time  

SouthCoastBoy

My s&s isa is up less than 1% since last year and my personal sipp up around 2%. Company pension down around 10%, funds choice in company pension is very restrictive. I'm looking forward to transferring it to a sipp once I leave

Scrudgy

For what it’s worth.

last 5 years overall +54%
last 12 months -7.8%

lisyloo

I'm down 7.6% over the last 12 months which I don't think is too bad considering war, pandemic, recession etc.

Prism

Feel free to have a look at Cloud Dogs spreadsheet to see how some sample portfolios have done over the last 5 years or so. The examples do not take into account any IFA or platform fees.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xsUO5U8fU9F0zcXNav99c2yTRCbIUn8DF1RGtArds2Q/edit?usp=sharing

bownyboy

Down -8.01% on Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap which is where both we have our ISA and SIPPs which make up approximately 80%, then 10% cash and 10% Global Bond Fund which is down -14.06% 

Intoodeep

I have an investment with Prudential Prufund Growth Fund Series E, which is up 2.6% in 2022

LHW99

As mentioned on another thread, down a whisker over 3% this year, but up an average of 6% over the last 8 years (unitised ISAs + SIPPs)