Extremely disappointing workplace pension

pieroabcd

The one that is performing pretty well is a mix of LifeSight Diversified Growth (55%, 7% growth) and LifeSight Equity (45%, 17% growth) but i can't really find the compositions. The risk is medium with drawdown.

Albermarle

dunstonh said:

but it's still far from being exciting.

Its never going to be exciting with that asset make up.

home bias in a period when UK equity has been poor.
low in global equity.

Now compare it to the fund that you say is doing well.

It may not be exciting but still surprising that it seems to be only 5% up in 6 years.

It looks a bit like VLS60, which is up significantly more.

dunstonh

Albermarle said:

dunstonh said:

but it's still far from being exciting.

Its never going to be exciting with that asset make up.

home bias in a period when UK equity has been poor.
low in global equity.

Now compare it to the fund that you say is doing well.

It may not be exciting but still surprising that it seems to be only 5% up in 6 years.

It looks a bit like VLS60, which is up significantly more.

The key will be the dates.  Many workplace pensions issue annual statements and when you get them, they are often a month out of date on their value point.   If the Op is looking at a nov or early december date  then they are missing the late December rally.

Arthur_Black

This is interesting because I am a similar situation.   I have an old pension with SW and recently delving into it it has a total growth rate of 2.8% since 2019, total not per annum.    It is being lifestyled away into bonds.  It seems like a no brainer to move it,  however recent returns haven’t been so bad as obviously bonds have made some gains.   You pays your money takes your choice etc.   

pieroabcd

It seems that I'd better split this fund in two a d dedicate a good 45% to us equities to get a decent return.
In the list of funds available there seems to be only one choice for US, while there are loads of UK ones (probably not worth the change if I've read  the correct things).

Arthur_Black

I think you find that most global equity funds are 60-70% US anyway, because that’s where the money is.   Whether that will continue who knows?   Obviously you can add bonds (or chose a fund that does) to reduce your exposure so stock markets.  

Albermarle

Arthur_Black said:

I think you find that most global equity funds are 60-70% US anyway, because that’s where the money is.   Whether that will continue who knows?   Obviously you can add bonds (or chose a fund that does) to reduce your exposure so stock markets.  

I think it is clear that the US financial markets will continue to dominate in terms of size for some time yet, and therefore a global equity index fund will continue to contain 60 to 70% of US stocks.
The question is actually how will these US shares perform going forward?

Hoenir

Arthur_Black said:

I think you find that most global equity funds are 60-70% US anyway, because that’s where the money is.   Whether that will continue who knows?   Obviously you can add bonds (or chose a fund that does) to reduce your exposure so stock markets.  

Dig deeper and the "growth" is primarily down to 7 companies. The lack of broader investor understanding simply reinforces the narrative Global is great avoid the UK entirely. Money flow creates momentium that drives a market seemingly endlessly upwards. 

Hoenir

Arthur_Black said:

This is interesting because I am a similar situation.   I have an old pension with SW and recently delving into it it has a total growth rate of 2.8% since 2019, total not per annum.    It is being lifestyled away into bonds.  It seems like a no brainer to move it,  however recent returns haven’t been so bad as obviously bonds have made some gains.   You pays your money takes your choice etc.   

Bonds will recover the temporary loss. As they have a higher fixed redemption capital value at some point in the future. Never going to be an exciting investment. However now far more attractive. With the normality of interest rates and ending of QE. 

Cus

Hoenir said:

Arthur_Black said:

I think you find that most global equity funds are 60-70% US anyway, because that’s where the money is.   Whether that will continue who knows?   Obviously you can add bonds (or chose a fund that does) to reduce your exposure so stock markets.  

Dig deeper and the "growth" is primarily down to 7 companies. The lack of broader investor understanding simply reinforces the narrative Global is great avoid the UK entirely. Money flow creates momentium that drives a market seemingly endlessly upwards. 

Retail continue to move flow into passive index tracker funds, and are told to not sell when it dips. Less people are therefore valuation driven, and index trackers just have to keep on investing based on market capitalisation, creating a loop of onwards and upwards.  How will it break?