Scottish Widows Pension drawdown

Steve16663

With the recent info from the Daly Mail ( Beat the hidden pension DESTROYER ).
I found that my pension through my employer, is invested in this lifestyle accounts and find that at my age a certain amount has been invested in this drawdown funds 50% now, which is something that I would not have chosen as it is well below the so called benchmark.  The advice in the article would be to transfer away from the lifestyle fund and reinvest in another area.
For sure no one could advise into which fund to reinvest but my issue after looking to the web site is knowing where to look to chose a different investments, there are fund within the lifestyle account but if I chose in this fund I presume the funds will still transfer to the lower returns rate funds instead.  The only other area that I have looked is on the main Scottish Widows web site.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated as we all know this is a minefield 

flaneurs_lobster

Typical Daily Mail article, 95% is a fear-mongering winge-fest about how bad the pensions industry and the Government are for losing the poor not-yet pensioners billions by not having invested in the stuff that went up the most. 

When it eventually gets to "What can you do about it?" its suggestion is to invest your funds somewhere else. And maybe talk to an IFA. 

That'll do it.

bjorn_toby_wilde

Unfortunately you did choose it, if only by accepting what was, by default, chosen for you. You’re far from alone because the vast majority stick with the default choices because pensions are not easy for most to understand.

As flaneurs_lobster says, your best course of action is probably to get some INDEPENDENT financial advice.  Do you know an independent financial adviser or do you have a friend/family member who is financially savvy who can help you find one?

Steve16663

I Have an IFA who has just advised me to transfer other pensions into this fund because investigating by him the charges on the company fund are a lot better that the fund I already which were instigated back in the 1980's, which I have not been able to move without charges until the set retirement date of 60. ( Or should say advised would not recover the cost. ) This process near too completion and did not realised that this was a drawdown fund, and was not fully explain when the company changed providers I presume because there is a large number of employees, to many to give individual advice, so as Bjon say's the majority don't understand the process stick to the default as myself, which is why I am now trying to correct.

QrizB

Steve16663 said:

I Have an IFA ...

If you explain to your IFA what outcome you're aiming for (drawdown? annuity? Lambo?) they will be able to advise you on which Scottish Widows fund(s) are best suited to achieving that goal.

Brie

QrizB said:

Steve16663 said:

I Have an IFA ...

If you explain to your IFA what outcome you're aiming for (drawdown? annuity? Lambo?) they will be able to advice you on which Scottish Widows fund(s) are best suited to achieving that goal.

Lambo?  Not heard of that before!  Explanation please!!!

Hoenir

Steve16663 said:

which is something that I would not have chosen as it is well below the so called benchmark. 

We can all invest with hindsight. The greatest challenge is to invest with foresight. 

GrumpyDil

Brie said:

QrizB said:

Steve16663 said:

I Have an IFA ...

If you explain to your IFA what outcome you're aiming for (drawdown? annuity? Lambo?) they will be able to advice you on which Scottish Widows fund(s) are best suited to achieving that goal.

Lambo?  Not heard of that before!  Explanation please!!!

Suspect Lamborghini as in if op wants to splash out instead of having a regular income. 

Ivkoto

Brie said:

QrizB said:

Steve16663 said:

I Have an IFA ...

If you explain to your IFA what outcome you're aiming for (drawdown? annuity? Lambo?) they will be able to advice you on which Scottish Widows fund(s) are best suited to achieving that goal.

Lambo?  Not heard of that before!  Explanation please!!!

Can't explain it better, than this picture ⬇️

QrizB

Brie said:

QrizB said:

Steve16663 said:

I Have an IFA ...

If you explain to your IFA what outcome you're aiming for (drawdown? annuity? Lambo?) they will be able to advice you on which Scottish Widows fund(s) are best suited to achieving that goal.

Lambo?  Not heard of that before!  Explanation please!!!

Spend it all on a fast car, a yacht, a wild weekend in Las Vegas with [redacted] and [redacted], you get the idea

Albermarle

Steve16663 said:

I Have an IFA who has just advised me to transfer other pensions into this fund because investigating by him the charges on the company fund are a lot better that the fund I already which were instigated back in the 1980's, which I have not been able to move without charges until the set retirement date of 60. ( Or should say advised would not recover the cost. ) This process near too completion and did not realised that this was a drawdown fund, and was not fully explain when the company changed providers I presume because there is a large number of employees, to many to give individual advice, so as Bjon say's the majority don't understand the process stick to the default as myself, which is why I am now trying to correct.

If you spend some time reading through this forum, you should become better informed and more confident to make decisions on your pension investments. That is partly at least how many of the regular posters became better informed in the first place.
In some threads you will see recommendations/links to useful info and videos.

You will see threads on DB/final salary pension and on the state pension. You can skip these and concentrate on the ones with investments ( DC type) .