Where to invest pension pot?

lon_85

SVaz said:

I’d assumed it was an inherited pot, is that not the case?  

No its not inherited I'm helping my mum with her own pension pot. 

Albermarle

OK to be clear after two pages of questions and answers.
You arranged on behalf of your Mum, the transfer of 3 pension pots to a SIPP with AJ Bell, and that money is now sat as cash in the AJ Bell SIPP . Is that correct ?

Assuming it is then your original question was how to invest it.
This depends mainly on two things .
1) When is it likely that the money will be needed? If ever ?
2) Is your Mum happy to take some modest risk to hopefully get the money to grow, or not ?

SVaz

Yes, I’m saying I thought your MUM had inherited it and it had been transferred for her into a Sipp.
 it was guesswork because you gave such little information. 

lon_85

@Albermarle - correct, she doesn't need it immediately; just wanted it to be accessible easily in case of an energency. Yep moderate risk is fine. My apologies everyone just getting used to the wording/terms and learning things as I go along I've not dealt with pension schemes and sipp accounts before it's more confusing than I thought lol. 

Albermarle

lon_85 said:

@Albermarle - correct, she doesn't need it immediately; just wanted it to be accessible easily in case of an energency. Yep moderate risk is fine. My apologies everyone just getting used to the wording/terms and learning things as I go along I've not dealt with pension schemes and sipp accounts before it's more confusing than I thought lol. 

Don't worry, pensions are a bit of a minefield. If you read this forum regularly, the fog will slowly clear.

Whatever you invest the pension pot in, it will be accessible at reasonably short notice if necessary.

The issue is that investing works best as a long term game. This is because in the shorter term they can go up and down, but in the longer term you should see steady growth.
So it is not ideal to invest and then suddenly to need the money after a couple of years and have to cash in the investment when it may be going through a down phase. On the other hand it is not ideal to leave it all in cash long term either.

We hesitate to make specific recommendations on the forum, but I think in this case looking at a low cost medium risk multi asset fund is as good an answer as any. Such as one of this range ( available on the AJ Bell platform)
HSBC Global Strategy Portfolios - HSBC Asset Management UK
Or A J Bell offer something similar themselves but with a slightly higher charge.
AJ Bell funds | AJ Bell
If you want to keep some as cash, then better currently to invest it in a STMM ( Short term money market fund) than leave it in the Aj Bell cash account. Such as 
Royal London Short Term Money Market Fd (FUND:B3P2RZ5) - Share price | AJ Bell

lon_85

Thank you! @Albermarle 🙂 Is Hargreaves Landsdown a better option for the platform? I just chose the first one that came to mind but now in hindsight maybe I should have given it more thought. 

Albermarle

lon_85 said:

Thank you! @Albermarle 🙂 Is Hargreaves Landsdown a better option for the platform? I just chose the first one that came to mind but now in hindsight maybe I should have given it more thought. 

HL and Aj Bell platforms are similar but HL charges are higher, so may as well stick with AJ Bell.

Steve_666_

Given the smallish capital amount and the users limited knowledge, would Vanguard LS funds in a Vanguard account be a sensible option?

Albermarle

Steve_666_ said:

Given the smallish capital amount and the users limited knowledge, would Vanguard LS funds in a Vanguard account be a sensible option?

The funds I suggested ( HSBC global strategy and AJ bell own funds) are very similar to the Vanguard LS funds.
The HSBC ones are slightly cheaper and have a marginally better performance recently.
OP has  already transferred onto  the AJ Bell platform, so easier to stay there I think.

Steve_666_

Albermarle said:

Steve_666_ said:

Given the smallish capital amount and the users limited knowledge, would Vanguard LS funds in a Vanguard account be a sensible option?

The funds I suggested ( HSBC global strategy and AJ bell own funds) are very similar to the Vanguard LS funds.
The HSBC ones are slightly cheaper and have a marginally better performance recently.
OP has  already transferred onto  the AJ Bell platform, so easier to stay there I think.

The Blackrock Mymap funds are a similar and a direct competitor, the fact sheets suggest that there is a 5% initial charge, for me thats a showstopper. I think it is likely that some/most SIPP providers can get this waivered, however I'm binning mymap and its going to be straight fight between Vanguard LS/own platform and HSBC GS/some platform.