Company Scottish Widows Pension 16/9/2023

Sky_Dancer

Scottish widows have transferred my pension portfolio's from, series 2 pension funds (three & four) to CS8 (three & four) pension funds on 16/9/2023 without my permission or notification that they were moving the funds.
I called Scottish widows & they informed me it was a change of title. But when I looked into it the unit prices are approx 50% of the original but the pot was still the same so there is more units now. I cannot see the units & unit price as they have been removed from the platform up date (see below) I had to call SW back and get this details units & unit price confirming I have been transferred to 2 totally different funds.

I spoke with my company & they told me that they were informed by SW that the platform was changing with improvement, which is correct there are some improvements, but also there is some good information they have removed ie units & unit price. 
There will be a letter sent, post platform update to let people know!! 

I have requested my company to look into this matter, which they are taking up with the SW fund manager.

Are SW allowed to do this?
Any advice on my options?

dunstonh

Are SW allowed to do this?

yes

Any advice on my options?

In what respect?

New software often means legacy information goes away.    SW, post Lloyds Bank ownership, have never been strong on software.  However, there has been some money spent recently and they have entered the platform market finally and are using FNZ.  And they have upgraded their non-platform software (which you are on).

The funds are the same.    You have just changed which series you are on (S2 to CS8).   As the different series were launched on different dates, the unit price would be different.    But that doesn't matter.

Sky_Dancer

Series 2 funds are still active on their website so why transfer the funds?

Correct the pot value is still the same, but is there no legacy information to refer back to. 

dunstonh

Series 2 funds are still active on their website so why transfer the funds?

S2 funds are still used on old individual personal pensions and individual stakeholder pensions.    SW have been structuring their workplace schemes away from their individual schemes.   It may be for efficiency or maybe Lloyds are thinking about selling off the legacy book and retaining workplace (which has happened with other insurers).  Whatever it is, S2 is still in use with certain plans

Correct the pot value is still the same, but is there no legacy information to refer back to. 

Its new software.   Its starting over.

RNV

Hello,

Would appreciate if @dunstonh could expand a bit more to convince me (and others in the same situation) that the SW fund Series change is "nothing to worry about"....

I'm one of those for whom mid Sept all workplace SW funds available have been transferred from Series 2 to Series 8.  Yes, the total £value of my pension remained the same (at the time;  went down since but I believe this is not necessarily connected to Series change)  but there doesn't seem to be any way now to check  the current unit price and number of units held in the pension. 

The Fact Sheet linked doesn't even show fund size, manager etc standard info   Pension Portfolio Two Pn CS8 PDF Factsheet (feprecisionplus.com).  Would the fund size be the same as shown on Series  2 ?  If not the same and e.g. lower - why is it not to be alarmed of ?

Trustnet doesn't recognise the reference SEDOL number.... Where can I find the current unit value?

etc etc issues still discovering

Many thanks

dunstonh

Would appreciate if @dunstonh could expand a bit more to convince me (and others in the same situation) that the SW fund Series change is "nothing to worry about"....

I would perhaps ask why you think it is something to worry about?
Multiple share classes are common place and have been with funds for over 40 years.    It is just a means to price differently for different distribution channels and/or different product versions.



I could have put a bunch of other series on there as well.  The key difference is some have unbundled charges. Some are bundled and some are priced for different contract versions.  The oldest on there is the s2 which was bundled charging pre 2013 RDR version.

Trustnet doesn't recognise the reference SEDOL number.... Where can I find the current unit value?

Trustnet is the free version of Financial Express Analytics.    Analytics has every universe but Trustnet is somewhat limited in the life and pensions universe.  Sometimes only showing the master share class and not the rest.

Some fund houses (in particular insurers on life and pension funds) wont pay to have FE (i.e. trustnet) to compile additional data and some won't even output basic data.

he Fact Sheet linked doesn't even show fund size, manager etc standard info   Pension Portfolio Two Pn CS8 PDF Factsheet (feprecisionplus.com).  Would the fund size be the same as shown on Series  2 ?  If not the same and e.g. lower - why is it not to be alarmed of ?

SW are not outputting the data on that fund in that respect.  They dont provide that data on other share classes either.
Generally speaking, the later the share class start date, the lower the fund size would be relative to that share class.   

RNV

Thanks a lot, will "keep calm and carry on" ....

Pretty annoying all historical data on pot units is gone though....