Pension nightmare

Steve_and_Elaine

I have a pension with Royal London that has lost 25% of its fund value in 18 months and the fund value is still dropping.
I was recommended a financial advisor with a local company by a friend. It was the financial advisor who recommended Royal London. He has since left the company, and the company wrote to inform me that they no longer manage my pension.

This is a very stressful situation. I am worried that I won't be able to afford to retire, and at the same time won't be able to continue to work due to ill health.

Does anyone have any general advice on how to:

a) find a trustworthy financial advisor to look after my pensions 

b) find another pension fund that performs reasonably well and that doesn’t have excessive fees, so I can transfer to it

Any advice gratefully received

MallyGirl

The starting point should be an Independent Financial Advisor

Steve_and_Elaine

I had one but he was fly by night. How do I find a reliable one?

MallyGirl

Steve_and_Elaine said:

I had one but he was fly by night. How do I find a reliable one?

usually local recommendation is the response but it sounds like that is what you did before. Are you saying that your IFA worked for a company and left but took the management of your pension with him? Have you had any communication from him?

Steve_and_Elaine

I called him when I received the letter saying he had left the company.
He said I had the option to leave my business with him or go elsewhere. 
Just thought, I need to check that Royal London have stopped all payments to his company.

Albermarle

Steve_and_Elaine said:

I have a pension with Royal London that has lost 25% of its fund value in 18 months and the fund value is still dropping.
I was recommended a financial advisor with a local company by a friend. It was the financial advisor who recommended Royal London. He has since left the company, and the company wrote to inform me that they no longer manage my pension.

This is a very stressful situation. I am worried that I won't be able to afford to retire, and at the same time won't be able to continue to work due to ill health.

Does anyone have any general advice on how to:

a) find a trustworthy financial advisor to look after my pensions 

b) find another pension fund that performs reasonably well and that doesn’t have excessive fees, so I can transfer to it

Any advice gratefully received

The markets have been through an almost unique period where normally low risk assets like gilts and bonds have fallen a lot. I am guessing that your advisor had put your money in a 'low risk' fund after you maybe advised him you were risk averse? It is nothing to do with the fact you are with Royal London. They have numerous alternative pension/investment funds as do other pension providers. How the money is invested is important, the actual pension provider is not that important.
The upside is that if you wanted to buy an annuity with your pension, then the rates for these have gone up a lot.

Marcon

Steve_and_Elaine said:

I have a pension with Royal London that has lost 25% of its fund value in 18 months and the fund value is still dropping.
I was recommended a financial advisor with a local company by a friend. It was the financial advisor who recommended Royal London. He has since left the company, and the company wrote to inform me that they no longer manage my pension.

This is a very stressful situation. I am worried that I won't be able to afford to retire, and at the same time won't be able to continue to work due to ill health.

Does anyone have any general advice on how to:

a) find a trustworthy financial advisor to look after my pensions 

b) find another pension fund that performs reasonably well and that doesn’t have excessive fees, so I can transfer to it

Any advice gratefully received

Your pension hasn't lost value; the underlying funds in which you have invested are driving the performance (or lack of it). What other options do you have within Royal London? Have you considered switching to these rather than transferring to a different pension scheme/provider altogether?

Steve_and_Elaine

Hi Albermarle, friends and family have pensions elsewhere that have not suffered the same losses.
This is a very bad performance from Royal London

Steve_and_Elaine

Hi Marcon, see above comment. RL is performing so badly that I cannot stay with them. All trust has gone.

Audaxer

Steve_and_Elaine said:

Hi Albermarle, friends and family have pensions elsewhere that have not suffered the same losses.
This is a very bad performance from Royal London

It's poor performance may be due to your pension fund containing a high percentage of bonds, which were traditionally low risk investments, but have performed very poorly over the last 18 months or so. Do you know what the percentage split of equity and bonds is in your pension fund? 

Prism

Steve_and_Elaine said:

Hi Albermarle, friends and family have pensions elsewhere that have not suffered the same losses.
This is a very bad performance from Royal London

They will be invested differently to you but it won't be because they are using a different company than Royal London. Royal London have many different funds which have performed at different levels, as have other pension companies which also have funds on significant losses. As an example, I use one RL Fund which is currently at -8% over the last 18 months. It will be invested differently to the ones you are in.