Considering a pension move due to charges

MK62

Albermarle said:

I know with one provider ( Fidelity) that you can transfer an uncrystallised pension on line , but if it is fully or partly crystallised you have to speak to them first.

Might be to do with the FCA's Investment Pathways initiative......

mrs_slapshot

dunstonh said:

No changes are made to my portfolio.

There should be as you are paying for a DFM.  DFMs tend to make changes quarterly.  However, the adviser is responsible for the actions of the DFM in most cases.

yes, sorry - should have been more specific. Changes are made to my portfolio regularly because as you say it has a DFM (Discretionary Fund Manager for anyone who didn't know what this acronym meant, like me..). I meant changes aren't made following my review with my advisor.

jamesd

The tax free lump sum can be up to 25%, all of it taken at one and only one time. But it doesn't have to be 25% of the whole pot, it can be 25% of part of it.

So to see if you can take any more tax free money you'll need to see whether they extinguished your right to more by taking 20% of the whole pot or left it intact by taking 25% of part.

Taking less than 25% is odd and should have prompted questions so you probably do have part crystallised (from which 25% tax free taken) and part in uncrystallised.

mrs_slapshot

caveman8006 said:

This is the low-down on the IM fees - looks very dodgy all round, although it does seem that the one-off fee of 1% only applies to non-advised accounts, so shouldn't impact the OP

https://citywire.com/new-model-adviser/news/sipp-provider-s-one-off-1-fee-for-advised-clients-leaves-ifas-outraged/a2432522

I've now had an email from IM saying they've decided to drop the 1% charge, following feedback...

ian16527

You can transfer a partially crystalised pot to Vanguard

Albermarle

ian16527 said:

You can transfer a partially crystalised pot to Vanguard

and many other providers.

RogerPensionGuy

I just listened to the link below and it maybe of some interest to some.

These outputs are very good, but at about 12mins plus it appears to say people may get a pension pot of circa 200Kish. However paying charges of 0.4% or 0.75% approximately may affect the pot by 70K plus or minus, maybe I just didn't understand or the difference effect on pension pots has no reference to 200K.

Anyway, plenty of good pointers in it.

.
☆☆☆

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001wh03?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

JohnWinder

Hubwise Personal Pension invested in the Tatton Core Active portfolio.’

‘pension charges .. were around £5k in 2022 - 1.693% to be exact.’

‘I don't feel my situation is complicated at all,… So I don't feel I need ongoing advice as such - and I am happy to research more - so if any of you could recommend books/websites to use (in addition to this one) I'd be grateful.’

I could only find portfolio composition information on the Tatton balanced funds, none of the others and not the one you named. So my comments are limited.
Their ’60/40’ fund is similar to the Vanguard VLS60 in composition, with UK equity bias and similar returns over Tatton’s lifetime of about 6 years. But you’re right, one costs 0.22%/year and the other 0.54%/year in OCF. You can use a compound interest calculator to determine how many pounds difference would be your loss over 20 years (it’s about £15,000 on a £100,000 fund). And that’s a guaranteed loss if the fees remain as they are.
But perhaps the Tatton is a better fund than VLS60. They’re both well diversified, but the difference seems to be Tatton believes in tactical asset allocation (see their ‘investment approach’ page) which makes adjustments based on economic circumstances, interest rates etc.  What do folk say about that? 

‘Tactical asset allocation was very popular during the 1980s and 1990; many (US pension) funds offered them as choices, and the Vanguard LifeStrategy funds began as tactical asset allocation funds. They failed conspicuously enough that they are almost forgotten now. Vanguard's LifeStrategy funds still exist, but Vanguard froze their allocations at fixed values (20/80, 40/60, 60/40, and 80/20). Vanguard gave up on tactical asset allocation.

‘Tactical asset allocation was advocated by Mebane Faber in a book entitled Global Tactical Asset Allocation, as well as some papers and articles, and eventually he launched an ETF based on it. Here is how it performed (red) compared to a simple non-tactical fund with a similar stock-bond allocation, Vanguard LifeStrategy Moderate’:
To see the graph you'll need to follow the link, but it's not good.
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=383012&newpost=6925407

'The problem is, as new research from Morningstar shows, the performance of tactical allocation funds has been dreadful.’  https://www.evidenceinvestor.com/tactical-allocation-funds-have-been-stinkers-morningstar/   
‘Essentially, no matter where you look, wherever there is active intervention, there is usually value loss.
Moringstar has found the approach largely doesn’t work for investors. https://www.morningstar.com/articles/648444/tactical-funds-miss-their-chance
And this study (https://www.pipsbenchmark.com/2023/05/does-award-winning-fund-beat-benchmark.html) looked at 600 active UK mixed funds over 10 years and found only 6 of them had better risk adjusted returns than a VLS type fund.
If you want to understand the big picture better yourself, as you requested, Hale’s book Smarter Investing might be in your local library. Get your son to read it to. You’ll be ready to skip advisor, DFM and high fund management fees with confidence. What’s not to like?

engagedandopen

Do you work for Vanguard, JohnWinder?

JohnWinder

It wouldn't be reasonable to express favourable opinions about their products if I did, disclosure or no disclosure of a conflict of interest. So, no.