General Help Pension pot investment

Fast_Muchly

Hi , 
         First i have read through previous threads before posting this and there is nothing specific to my question .

I have taken my 25% pension pot so im maxed out on that , but going forward i want to for now leave it invested but in the VERY NEAR future start drawing on it at lets say 5% a year ( yes i know the 4% rule ) . I do not know enough to go down the SIPP route although i possibly would love to know enough . 

so o.k ,  i have now left  roughly 24k transferred away from prudential to Vanguards Target Retirement 2025 Fund  and it has already made around £700 profit having only been going around 6 months . 

I also have around 99k  in standard lifes AMPP  ( active money pension plan ) this is making a profit of £1770 roughly .

My question is this , i havent like Standard lifes rate of returns for the past 3 or 4 years in my old pension plans which became more or less nothing even though i had a guaranteed 4% increase on units in one of them and the other the millenium plan was poor as well . I am NOW NOT IN THESE PLANS but as you can see its been transferred out to the above plan. But i have a gut feeling Standard life while still being a big company is under performing and has become a poor investment company .I read a while back that it is losing customers .If you do the maths on the 2 plans i am now in , you can see that vanguard is out performing Standard life .If the other 99k was in with vanguard i would have £2800 profit and not £1770 over a very short time period . 

Im wondering if a general consensus on here by people who seem to know the markets if Vanguard would be the better option to take all my money , i have already asked and there is no fees for me to transfer from standard life . I know its a sort of how long is a piece of string type question but something nags at me that standard life have become stagnant and get by on their old reputation and people in the know are leaving in droves .

Fast_Muchly

P.s the fees i pay on both plans standard life and vanguard is 0.5% , so they are the same in that respect . 

dunstonh

yes i know the 4% rule

Hopefully, you also know it isn't a rule and even the US side hasn't had a 100% success rate over longer periods (with life expectancy increasing).   And that you need at least 50% equities and less than 70% equities for it to work as well as being a US resident for tax purposes.

In the UK, 3.5% is considered to be more reliable dropping to 3% if you are in your 50s.

i havent like Standard lifes rate of returns for the past 3 or 4 years in my old pension plans which became more or less nothing even though i had a guaranteed 4% increase on units in one of them and the other the millenium plan was poor as well 

Everything has been poor for the last 2 years as it was a negative period for most things (although stockmarkets have increased in 2023).

 But i have a gut feeling Standard life while still being a big company is under performing and has become a poor investment company 

You don't invest in the insurer.  You invest in investment funds which invest in the areas they say they will invest in.  Those areas cannot be changed.  e.g. if you invest in the UK equity fund, it will invest 100% into UK equity.  Even if UK equity is not a good place to be.

Aberdeen Standard Life recently split with Phoenix buying the legacy book of Standard Life and the Standard Life brand.  The investment side of ASL rebranded as Abrdn.   All the modern pension and investment options went to Abrdn.

 .I read a while back that it is losing customers .

Old Standard Life or New Standard Life?

They grew excluding the removal of Lloyds Bank Group, which moved assets as it considered ASL to be a "material competitor" following the SL & A merge.   Abrdn's report in 2023 showed it performed in line with the sector with adviser and personal (DIY) business increasing.

New Standard Life (as in Standard Life, a Phoenix company) isn't using the Standard Life brand for individual investment and pension business.   Just corporate and legacy and insurance.  Old Standard Life (as in Abrdn) is only focused on investment class (all tax wrappers).

.If you do the maths on the 2 plans i am now in , you can see that vanguard is out performing Standard life .

You are not comparing like for like.  For example, the SL WP fund would have outperformed Vanguard in 2022 due to the guaranteed growth rate.  Vanguard TR would have been negative in 2022.

You say you are not in those funds now but you don't say what funds you are in currently.

f the other 99k was in with vanguard i would have £2800 profit and not £1770 over a very short time period . 

An economic cycle is around 15 years.   How short is the period you are looking at?   And was that short term period when the asset classes for each fund had positive or negative returns?

Im wondering if a general consensus on here by people who seem to know the markets if Vanguard would be the better option to take all my money

The guaranteed growth option on the SL pension will be better than Vanguard.    That can be useful for the defensive side of the portfolio.  The rest will depend on the fund range you have available to you on the SL pension.   
SL's whole of market pensions offer all the Vanguard funds.  Vanguard only offers its own brand funds.   So, a whole of market SL pension would be better by default.    A restricted SL offering matches Vanguard in that they are both restricted.   However, it would depend on how restricted your contract is.

Asset classes, countries and regions go up and down at different rates at different times.   Your returns are linked to that.  Not the logo in the corner.     What goes up highest in one period, can go down the most in the next.

Albermarle

New Standard Life (as in Standard Life, a Phoenix company) isn't using the Standard Life brand for individual investment and pension business. 

@dunstonh

Just a small correction to this. Standard Life ( a Phoenix company) is still using the SL brand for current pensions, and in fact actively promoting them to retail customers.

Pensions | Standard Life