Best performing pension in the uk right now?

TRACYNUTT

Hi, my pension is not performing at all well and I am paying more in fees than I am earning. What would be the best way to check whether I should move my pension? Can anybody tell me which pension companies are performing well in the uk at the moment? Is it possible to withdraw your whole pension pot and move it into a high interest savings account?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

TRACYNUTT said:

Hi, my pension is not performing at all well and I am paying more in fees than I am earning. What would be the best way to check whether I should move my pension? Can anybody tell me which pension companies are performing well in the uk at the moment? Is it possible to withdraw your whole pension pot and move it into a high interest savings account?

Pensions themselves don't perform as such, it's the investments within them that count. 

Although the provider fees can have an impact.

What are you invested in??

wjr4

What are the fees?

gm0

It is not possible (below pension access age when you take income to do with as you choose) to extract pension money and put it in savings accounts

Neither would it be a good idea.  Gains in a pension product wrapper are non-taxable along the journey. 
Tax is due on income later.  Tax relief on contributions.  No tax on investment returns.

Gains in a savings account are taxable. IHT also favours the pension by excluding it.

People regularly develop the impulse in difficult times to retreat from a product they don't fully understand to a simpler one that they think that they do.  Which is a natural enough reaction.  We are all wired for short term loss aversion.

But that being so - does *not* mean that the idea is in their best interests.   It is not.

JohnWinder

Pensions themselves don't perform as such, it's the investments within them that count. 

Interested to know how the original question ought to have been phrased, just ‘the pension’ bit….

SVaz

It’s akin to saying ‘my car is performing badly’ , without any pertinent information it’s meaningless.
The most basic info would be ;
Age. 
Employed / self employed/ neither. 

What type of pension, who with and whether an employer contributes.  
What the pension is invested in.

The very first step for the OP is to understand what pensions / funds within actually mean. 

https://www.legalandgeneral.com/retirement/pensions/pensions-explained/

eskbanker

JohnWinder said:

Pensions themselves don't perform as such, it's the investments within them that count. 

Interested to know how the original question ought to have been phrased, just ‘the pension’ bit….

But the point is that the entire premise of the post should be discussed, rather than zooming in on one specific element - OP seemed to be under the impression that because fees have exceeded investment growth over an undefined period, the answer is to move to another pension company or even outside that wrapper into savings.  That's far too simplistic (and potentially impractical or undesirable) so further detail is needed in order to offer any meaningful guidance....

QrizB

I would hazard a guess that the "best performing pension in the UK" is the State Pension.

Low contributions, few explicit charges, and triple-locked once in payment.

Andy_L

JohnWinder said:

Pensions themselves don't perform as such, it's the investments within them that count. 

Interested to know how the original question ought to have been phrased, just ‘the pension’ bit….

What are the best performing investments in the UK right now that can be held in a pension

JohnWinder

Q1:

1. Consider how suitable the investments in your current pension are, for your circumstances. That’s a confounding task for a beginner, bread and butter for an advisor, and easy enough for an informed amateur. Are you interested in putting in some work to become an informed amateur if you’re not already?
2. If they’re suitable, are they sufficiently now cost? If they’re not suitable, find a pension provider that offers suitable investments at a sensibly lowest cost, or suggest your advisors does that.
3. Scan quickly to be comfortable that fraud is not taking money from you, rather than just bad luck, wrong asset choice or excessive costs.
4. If you’re moving, consider consequent costs like exit fees, taxes atc.

Q2:  While different pension companies probably offer many different individual investment funds, many of which would and wouldn’t suit an individual, it’s probably more relevant to focus on which investments are most suitable for your financial situation (age, assets, future needs, risk tolerance etc). A large determinant of how much you finish up with depends on the mix of assets you choose, also very important is how much you contribute, how early you start and for how long, as well as keeping costs low.

Q3. Probably, but it might not be theoretically the better choice, but in practice might be so. 

Bostonerimus1

TRACYNUTT said:

Hi, my pension is not performing at all well and I am paying more in fees than I am earning. What would be the best way to check whether I should move my pension? Can anybody tell me which pension companies are performing well in the uk at the moment? Is it possible to withdraw your whole pension pot and move it into a high interest savings account?

Your question contains a basic misconception. A pension is not an investment, it is a wrapper that contains investments. That wrapper confers things like tax deferral and withdrawal rules onto the money and investments inside. You have to understand the underlying investments to assess performance, but not over times like one or two years, your perspective needs to be decades.