Should I move my Scottish Widows Retirement Fund

sterling47

Hello. I am 68, self employed and still working on a semi retired basis, I am also in receipt of my full state pension and am no longer making personal pension contributions.
In Feb 2020 I, myself and not through an adviser, moved two small pots from Aegon and one from Phoenix with a total value of £150K into a new Governed Investment Strategy retirement fund with Scottish Widows, their Balanced - targeting flexible access with a stated retirement age of 67.
Like everyone else I took the hit from Covid and in September 2021 I had the Governed Investment Strategy switched off, and my retirement age increased to 75, in an effort to grow the fund. Truss, Putin and the energy crisis caused more pain and the fund is now worth the same as when I opened it 3 years ago. The fund is currently invested in Portfolios 3 & 4.I have not drawn on the fund yet, nor will I need to do so in the foreseeable future. 
Should I stick with what I have or are there better funds within Scottish Widows which I could move to, or would a move to another provider be the way to go (and if so which one)
Sorry for the tome but wanted to include all relevant info.
Many thanks.

Marcon

sterling47 said:

Hello. I am 68, self employed and still working on a semi retired basis, I am also in receipt of my full state pension and am no longer making personal pension contributions.
In Feb 2020 I, myself and not through an adviser, moved two small pots from Aegon and one from Phoenix with a total value of £150K into a new Governed Investment Strategy retirement fund with Scottish Widows, their Balanced - targeting flexible access with a stated retirement age of 67.
Like everyone else I took the hit from Covid and in September 2021 I had the Governed Investment Strategy switched off, and my retirement age increased to 75, in an effort to grow the fund. Truss, Putin and the energy crisis caused more pain and the fund is now worth the same as when I opened it 3 years ago. The fund is currently invested in Portfolios 3 & 4.I have not drawn on the fund yet, nor will I need to do so in the foreseeable future. 
Should I stick with what I have or are there better funds within Scottish Widows which I could move to, or would a move to another provider be the way to go (and if so which one)
Sorry for the tome but wanted to include all relevant info.
Many thanks.

What's your attitude to risk?

Linton

Choice of provider is less important than your investment strategy.

The problem is balancing return and risk.  Generally speaking the higher the return you chase the greater the risk of a crash causing a temporary major fall in the value of your pot.  That is a risk worth taking if you dont want to access the money for the next 20 years when the natural tendancy for share prices to rise will over-ride the effect of short term crashes.

However in your case  I asume you wont want to wait 20 years to access the money.  So at the other extreme you could put all your investments into cash and then you would know for certain how much you would have when you fully retire.  But inflation will take its toll - generally cash loses out to inflation.

There are various ways of achieving the right balance.  The key question is when do you want to access the money and what llevel of drawdown would you need?  You say you dont see the need to drawdown in the foreable future - so what is the pot for? Why do you consider the current returns inadequate?

When you know your aims and have a corresponding investment strategy you can consider which funds and which provider are most appropriate.

xylophone

am no longer making personal pension contributions.

You still have "relevant earnings" from your self employment.

You could be contributing to a personal pension and receiving tax relief until you are 75.

Even if no relevant earnings or earnings under £3500 gross per annum, you may still contributes up to £2880 net to a PP and receive tax relief of up to £720.

You might find this article of interest.

https://monevator.com/pension-fund-returns/

dunstonh

 Truss, Putin and the energy crisis caused more pain and the fund is now worth the same as when I opened it 3 years ago.

Its unlikely Truss has caused you any pain.  She just gets the blame for everything.  However, the short term market reaction recovered quickly.

Should I stick with what I have or are there better funds within Scottish Widows which I could move to, or would a move to another provider be the way to go (and if so which one)

Scottish Widows was an unusual choice to begin with.  Unless it was an FA tied to SW, rather than IFA.

 The fund is currently invested in Portfolios 3 & 4.I have not drawn on the fund yet, nor will I need to do so in the foreseeable future. 

Set the scheme age to 99 and pick an investment solution that has no lifestyling risk adjustments.    What that should be would depend on information not supplied but referred to in posts above.

sterling47

Thank you all for your input. When I say foreseeable future I mean 2 or 3 years. Like many, recent world events caused me to totally change my retirement plans.
The bottom line I suppose is have Scottish Widows performed or could I do better. Over 3 years my fund has lost and gained and lost again and is now the same value as it was when started so there are no losses that would be consolidated if I moved.
When I do start to draw down (say 2 to 3 years) it would be at the accepted SWR.

Albermarle

 Like many, recent world events caused me to totally change my retirement plans.

There are always 'world events' it is just that the ones happening now always seem worse, and you have to try and detach from the news to some extent. 
Movements in financial markets this decade have not been particularly unusual by historical standards, although with high inflation on top, it has turned the screw a bit.

Over 3 years my fund has lost and gained and lost again and is now the same value as it was when started.
Yes it has been difficult to make much progress, but again nothing that unusual in historical terms, especially after the previous decade was so good for investments.

kinger101

The first question is how are you funds invested?  This is independent of the fund provider.  They don't decide how it is invested.  You do.

The second is which provider should you use.  I have a pension with Scottish Widows and the sole reason is that's my employers scheme.

As a provider, they're absolutely dreadful with abysmal customer service, a very narrow portfolio to choose from (zero passive funds) and a complete inability to even make their website work with Chrome.  Rather than fixing it they just downgraded the whole site to remove transparency.

There is not a chance in hell I'll have my funds there when I retire or ever bank with Lloyds, their parent company.  They've made their contempt for customers too clear.

It is hard to see how any FA recommending them can be working in your interest.