Is my pension fund choice OK

Mistermeaner

HI 

Quick check that I am not doing anything stupid with my work DC pension

Work has just moved us all to a new provider; Mercer. Platform is user friendly so I have decided to merge my old workplace DC pots into one place on the mercer platform

I am 43, and total value of my pots is circa £670K

I am intending to put it all into Mercer passive global equity fund, with a total charge (including platform) of 0.15% which looks good value and gives a broad passive global exposure to the whole world of equities including UK

Is this a sensible place to put all the funds? I am risk tolerant and haven't done anything during dips in the past. I intend to continue paying into this fund for the foreseeable as well (currently doing 60k a year)

In addition to this pension I have £30K in a LISA, £30K in an isa (all invested in vanguard 100 + some riskier type stuff) + 20K in cash

My partner has a DC of 120K + 30K LISA and has recently joined the LGPS (we are going to look at transferring in her DC pot if we can)

Thanks

El_Torro

Since you won't be able to access your pension for the next 15 years or so I think a global tracker is fine. You may want to move some of it to a less volatile fund in future, but for now I think you're doing OK.

You may want to split your pension into more than one platform when you get closer to being able to access it, just to have a contingency. Not something you need to worry too much about today though.

Also congrats on having a £670k pension at 43. I'm the same age but my pension is not in that league

Linton

Your proposal looks fine to me for the time being. You will probably wish to review your strategy when you get closer to when you want to access the money, say 5 years beforehand.

Having all your money in a single fund could worry some people but you could well be happy with it.

I have seen comments from some people that Mercer’s processes can be slow so there may be some advantage in putting part of your pension savings in a separate SIPP. Also that would provide some protection against events like  IT failures at an inopportune time. Though this diversification could be achieved through your partners pensions.

El_Torro

Just one more thought from me: Your pension is big and the investments outside of the pension are relatively small. Would it make sense to focus on your Stocks & Shares ISA for a few years rather than putting £60k a year into your pension? That way you have some money accessible before you're 58. 

If there's good reasons (e.g. losing the Personal Allowance or losing child benefit) to do this then fine. Just something to consider. Even if you don't plan to retire before you're 58 the future is never 100% certain.

Pat38493

We sometimes see comments on here that Mercer are very slow and poor customer service.  However, these comments seem to mainly relate to Mercer's administration of DB schemes.  It may not be the same situation with DC pensions.

Albermarle

I am intending to put it all into Mercer passive global equity fund, with a total charge (including platform) of 0.15% which looks good value

That is a very low cost for a workplace pension. Normally they are more in the range of 0.3% to 0.7% assuming only investments in passive funds. Hopefully the price does not reflect in the service, as in the DB pension sphere they have a very poor reputation.

squirrelpie

FWIW, my DB pension is administered by Mercer and I haven't found anything wrong yet (fingers crossed )

Albermarle

squirrelpie said:

FWIW, my DB pension is administered by Mercer and I haven't found anything wrong yet (fingers crossed )

Problems usually start when you say you want to start withdrawing it and you wait for them to send the forms out, and then wait for an illustration, and then wait for a response to a query, and then wait for a response to a complaint that you have been waiting for other answers too long etc Then in my case wait for the first heavily delayed payment to arrive and it did not .

af1963

Just for info, been helping someone deal with Mercer for over 18 months, trying (so far, unsuccessfully) to get paperwork for a DB pension sorted out and payment started. Lots of errors in forms and calculations, and they take weeks to respond to questions. Doesn't inspire much confidence.

If it was me, I'd keep at least some of the pension money with a different provider in case you need it with less than several years notice. And double check any figures they provide.

Pat38493

af1963 said:

Just for info, been helping someone deal with Mercer for over 18 months, trying (so far, unsuccessfully) to get paperwork for a DB pension sorted out and payment started. Lots of errors in forms and calculations, and they take weeks to respond to questions. Doesn't inspire much confidence.

If it was me, I'd keep at least some of the pension money with a different provider in case you need it with less than several years notice. And double check any figures they provide.

For DB pensions, double checking calculations is next to impossible.  If there’s one thing they do work hard at, it’s trying to make sure that customers don’t have sufficient information to double check their calculations.

af1963

For DB pensions, double checking calculations is next to impossible.  If there’s one thing they do work hard at, it’s trying to make sure that customers don’t have sufficient information to double check their calculations.

Yes, their line is normally "No, we can't show you how we've worked this out, but take our word for it. the figures are correct".  Even though this is the third or fourth set of different figures provided and the numbers quoted still don't add up.  I wonder how many people end up with miscalculated amounts because they take them at their word.

Hopefully easier to keep an eye on what's going on in a DC pot.