Lifesight Pensions

gmje

One of my pension fund is moving to this company . Is anyone else with them ,what benefits have you found compared to the old provider ? and did your pot loose value in the move?

leosayer

I have been with LifeSight for around 3 years, transferred from a DC scheme administered by WTW.

I find the whole website a bit dumbed down but I guess that's understandable. 

The investment choices are limited, but just about OK for my needs. They do a cheap global developed market equity index tracker and one for emerging market too both of which I invest in.

I find their fixed income offerings poor so I use their cash fund. If you want a short or medium term gilt / govt bond fund then you're out of luck. I questioned them about this and when then lost the will to carry on because they seemingly deliberately misunderstood my question.

I'd much rather be on a platform like AJ Bell or HL but my LifeSight pot has a link to a DB scheme so I will need to stick it out for another 18 months or so.

A while ago I tried out the 'Age-O-Meter' on their website and found it surprisingly useful but now I only use for validating what my own planning spreadsheets tell me.

I think I was out of the market for a week or two due to the transfer and they actually deferred the planned move due to market volatility around Covid. In the end, I don't recall missing out in any material way but I was nervous at the time.

Marcon

gmje said:

One of my pension fund is moving to this company . Is anyone else with them ,what benefits have you found compared to the old provider ? and did your pot loose value in the move?

Without knowing your current provider, it's not much help having war stories from other people, who may have had a totally different experience from the one you'll have. Hasn't your employer given any reasons for the move and why they think it will be in the interests of employees - eg lower charges, better online functionality or whatever?

 Are you actually transferring your current pot, or just using the new provider for future contributions?

DullGreyGuy

leosayer said:

I have been with LifeSight for around 3 years, transferred from a DC scheme administered by WTW.

LifeSight is a WTW solution

leosayer

DullGreyGuy said:

leosayer said:

I have been with LifeSight for around 3 years, transferred from a DC scheme administered by WTW.

LifeSight is a WTW solution

Yes, thanks for reminding me. It reminded me of a problem on their website where you can't log on to both their DB portal and the LifeSight portal on the same device.

DullGreyGuy

leosayer said:

DullGreyGuy said:

leosayer said:

I have been with LifeSight for around 3 years, transferred from a DC scheme administered by WTW.

LifeSight is a WTW solution

Yes, thanks for reminding me. It reminded me of a problem on their website where you can't log on to both their DB portal and the LifeSight portal on the same device.

There's potentially shared underlying technologies that conflict with you having two different log ins.

WTWs a funny company, if you come from the general insurance world it's Willis, if you come from pensions or annuities then they're Watson. Yet to find who has old memories of Towers (Perrin)

Albermarle

DullGreyGuy said:

leosayer said:

DullGreyGuy said:

leosayer said:

I have been with LifeSight for around 3 years, transferred from a DC scheme administered by WTW.

LifeSight is a WTW solution

Yes, thanks for reminding me. It reminded me of a problem on their website where you can't log on to both their DB portal and the LifeSight portal on the same device.

There's potentially shared underlying technologies that conflict with you having two different log ins.

WTWs a funny company, if you come from the general insurance world it's Willis, if you come from pensions or annuities then they're Watson. Yet to find who has old memories of Towers (Perrin)

Also like some other large DB pension administrators they have a poor reputation for customer service, response to queries and accuracy.

artyboy

DullGreyGuy said:

leosayer said:

DullGreyGuy said:

leosayer said:

I have been with LifeSight for around 3 years, transferred from a DC scheme administered by WTW.

LifeSight is a WTW solution

Yes, thanks for reminding me. It reminded me of a problem on their website where you can't log on to both their DB portal and the LifeSight portal on the same device.

There's potentially shared underlying technologies that conflict with you having two different log ins.

WTWs a funny company, if you come from the general insurance world it's Willis, if you come from pensions or annuities then they're Watson. Yet to find who has old memories of Towers (Perrin)

And if, god forbid, you want to transfer a pension out, I have another name for them that I will not repeat here!

gm0

Few of the life company or WTW and similar pension admin company products - which offer drawdown to old scheme trustees (they are the customer - not you). Are that impressive on a couple of dimensions.   Fund choice.  Mobile and web trading options and order entry.  Not competing for consumers with apps or investment support and tools.

It is normally possible to create something workable by way of asset allocation. 
But you don't get the wide selection of a consumer SIPP - so you transfer some (as I did), or all if you want it.

Depending on the size of the scheme being touted for an admin contract - and some other things - the deal your trustees do for the full membership - may be good or bad value vs what is out there in the market as a consumer.

In terms of the platform/product cost for active savers, deferred, or in drawdown members.  Some can be very good on cost. And you would struggle to do much better in consumer SIPP world. No metric. Scheme by scheme.  I don't know about Lifesight.  But the costs for Worksave (the L&G equivalent thing) are set employer scheme by employer scheme - it's not a product with a standard price as such.  Although the same funds keep turning up at mostly similar costs.  I'd hazard a guess this works the same way.  Product cost negotiated with the admin contract.

Another quirk - linked to old schemes (sometimes anyway) - is to carry across the insured fund approach of the occupational trust used prior.   Another minor difference from most consumer SIPPs. 100% FSCS vs 85k.

I'm not a hater as such (no particularly bad experiences with my two stints with TowersPerrin and WTW. 
I didn't notice them being notably better or worse for my DC scheme with the web site and support.  But my expectations were low.  And I wasn't in the throes of implementing drawdown at the time

For all that - I wouldn't view them as the long term home for my pension in deaccumulation either.  I'd examine the costs (of my particular version), fund type and choices and whether I could live with the basic nature of the platform.

If you deaccumulate with occasional rebalancing and not really investing via trading actively.  Then it scarcely matters.  But we all regard different things as the minimum to be expected in 2024.   If you have to send a secure message requesting an investment switch happens - soon i.e. in the next few days. 
That doesn't feel the same as dropping in a market "limit order" yourself. 

Even though for an occupational with active savers there are fairly good reasons for it to work the way it does.

An admin change shouldn't have you out of the market at all.   A move by bulk transfer of all members would usually also be invisible even with a rebranded product. You would have an investment switching freeze for a while to make it easier to do the conversion and checking without more noise.  And they would do it in the background.   Same funds. Same unit counts most likely.   If you are (for some more frankly bizarre circumstance - moved one at a time - to a new product with different fund lists - using pension transfer via cash movement.  Like doing the transfer yourself.  Then that is about 1 week out of the market or a tad less.   Sell day (set sell price). Settle plus 2.  Cash moves (fast or slow method 0-3).  Buy (sets buy price). Settle plus 2.  Available to do whatever else.

gmje

Marcon said:

gmje said:

One of my pension fund is moving to this company . Is anyone else with them ,what benefits have you found compared to the old provider ? and did your pot loose value in the move?

Without knowing your current provider, it's not much help having war stories from other people, who may have had a totally different experience from the one you'll have. Hasn't your employer given any reasons for the move and why they think it will be in the interests of employees - eg lower charges, better online functionality or whatever?

 Are you actually transferring your current pot, or just using the new provider for future contributions?

It an old deferred pot. I dont have choice,too late to cash it in. a bit miffed because its just started to rise again with current managers.looks like lower charges at Life sight

gmje

gm0 said:

Few of the life company or WTW and similar pension admin company products - which offer drawdown to old scheme trustees (they are the customer - not you). Are that impressive on a couple of dimensions.   Fund choice.  Mobile and web trading options and order entry.  Not competing for consumers with apps or investment support and tools.

It is normally possible to create something workable by way of asset allocation. 
But you don't get the wide selection of a consumer SIPP - so you transfer some (as I did), or all if you want it.

Depending on the size of the scheme being touted for an admin contract - and some other things - the deal your trustees do for the full membership - may be good or bad value vs what is out there in the market as a consumer.

In terms of the platform/product cost for active savers, deferred, or in drawdown members.  Some can be very good on cost. And you would struggle to do much better in consumer SIPP world. No metric. Scheme by scheme.  I don't know about Lifesight.  But the costs for Worksave (the L&G equivalent thing) are set employer scheme by employer scheme - it's not a product with a standard price as such.  Although the same funds keep turning up at mostly similar costs.  I'd hazard a guess this works the same way.  Product cost negotiated with the admin contract.

Another quirk - linked to old schemes (sometimes anyway) - is to carry across the insured fund approach of the occupational trust used prior.   Another minor difference from most consumer SIPPs. 100% FSCS vs 85k.

I'm not a hater as such (no particularly bad experiences with my two stints with TowersPerrin and WTW. 
I didn't notice them being notably better or worse for my DC scheme with the web site and support.  But my expectations were low.  And I wasn't in the throes of implementing drawdown at the time

For all that - I wouldn't view them as the long term home for my pension in deaccumulation either.  I'd examine the costs (of my particular version), fund type and choices and whether I could live with the basic nature of the platform.

If you deaccumulate with occasional rebalancing and not really investing via trading actively.  Then it scarcely matters.  But we all regard different things as the minimum to be expected in 2024.   If you have to send a secure message requesting an investment switch happens - soon i.e. in the next few days. 
That doesn't feel the same as dropping in a market "limit order" yourself. 

Even though for an occupational with active savers there are fairly good reasons for it to work the way it does.

An admin change shouldn't have you out of the market at all.   A move by bulk transfer of all members would usually also be invisible even with a rebranded product. You would have an investment switching freeze for a while to make it easier to do the conversion and checking without more noise.  And they would do it in the background.   Same funds. Same unit counts most likely.   If you are (for some more frankly bizarre circumstance - moved one at a time - to a new product with different fund lists - using pension transfer via cash movement.  Like doing the transfer yourself.  Then that is about 1 week out of the market or a tad less.   Sell day (set sell price). Settle plus 2.  Cash moves (fast or slow method 0-3).  Buy (sets buy price). Settle plus 2.  Available to do whatever else.

thanks gm0 its a DC  scheme the trustees are moving all members and its scheduled to be frozen early Nov and inaccessible until mid late Jan.........seems a long wait. im not intended to leave it long ive already retired