Pension

dunstonh

LHW99 said:

If you have <£100k then IMO 3.22% in Natural resources isn't really going to amount to much (<£3k?)

And I do wonder if you need emerging markets, Asian and Tokyo funds - there must be at least some overlap, and at a total of ~25% it seems a big chunk of your potfolio.

A portfolio is the sum of its parts.   It is made up of around 20,000 assets, each usually 0.0x% to 0.x% of the overall worth.   So, personally, I don't buy into the small bits not making little difference argument because all of the portfolio is small bits.  

Veritas Asian is Asia Pacifix ex Japan.

20122013

LHW99 said:

If you have <£100k then IMO 3.22% in Natural resources isn't really going to amount to much (<£3k?)

You are right about the Natural resources, as I have less than £100K, (every penny counts) perhaps I need to choose low cost fund(s).

LHW99 said:

And I do wonder if you need emerging markets, Asian and Tokyo funds - there must be at least some overlap, and at a total of ~25% it seems a big chunk of your potfolio.

These 3 as the highest value in my portfolio, ie over the £10K each:

 

SW Royal London UK Equity Income CS8

SW Schroder UK Alpha Plus CS8

SW Veritas Asian CS8

Would switching out all the UK funds make any impact but then it will not be balanced / diverse? 

Scottish Widows Balanced Portfolio CS8   
Scottish Widows Balanced Solution CS8   
Scottish Widows Pension Portfolio One CS8   

There are SW funds to choose from but not really suitable, hence, I keep gravitating towards the low cost global tracker.  too risky though.

20122013

Help with maths ,please.

Which will have a lower fee for my  3600 pension limit (£2880 + tax relief) contribution?

SW AMC 0.35%

or 

Open a new SIPP  with ii £5.99 pcm (have yet to read the TCs and how to withdraw etc)

MallyGirl

0.35% of £3600 =£12.60 per year. Plus platform charge.
if you left in cash in ii you would pay £71.88 per year in fees and maybe get a tiny amount of interest 

20122013

MallyGirl said:

0.35% of £3600 =£12.60 per year. Plus platform charge.
if you left in cash in ii you would pay £71.88 per year in fees and maybe get a tiny amount of interest 

Appreciate that. Maybe draw all the tax free amount and reinvest it in S&S ISA and keep doing the £2880 contribution.

20122013

As Dunstonh had mentioned that my portfolio is structured. Does SW provides alternative funds will lower fees ? I asked as I have to look through each fund to try to find a cheaper alternative. Also, looking for money market funds and gilts funds it seems they are not purely government but corporate bonds or gilts.

I am thinking of these funds with 0.1% fee: 
SW Pension Portfolio 2 CS8
Scottish Widows Global growth 2 CS8
may add the
Scottish Widows Global Equity CS8  (but already have similiar in my S&S ISA)

20122013

May I ask 'the general consensus is that your pension pot would roughly double every 10 years.'  Does this include index trackers?

dunstonh

20122013 said:

May I ask 'the general consensus is that your pension pot would roughly double every 10 years.'  Does this include index trackers?

That is not a safe assumption.  The median return of a 60% equities portfolio over 10 years is 8% (before charges).    However, there are plenty of periods either side of that do not give you the median.

Such as March 1999 to February 2009 where the 10 year return was just 2% (so negative after charges).

Statistically, more periods will be closer to the median than further away but you cannot say your pot "would" double every 10 years.  It could double or it could be better or worse.

There have been 20 year periods which would be negative.   e.g. January 1929 to Dec 1948 was just 5% before charges (so negative after charges).

20122013

dunstonh said:

20122013 said:

May I ask 'the general consensus is that your pension pot would roughly double every 10 years.'  Does this include index trackers?

That is not a safe assumption.  The median return of a 60% equities portfolio over 10 years is 8% (before charges).    However, there are plenty of periods either side of that do not give you the median.

Such as March 1999 to February 2009 where the 10 year return was just 2% (so negative after charges).

Statistically, more periods will be closer to the median than further away but you cannot say your pot "would" double every 10 years.  It could double or it could be better or worse.

There have been 20 year periods which would be negative.   e.g. January 1929 to Dec 1948 was just 5% before charges (so negative after charges).

Appreciate this. I had posted my last message is because I had checked and the value did double from 2010 to 2020.. but since then it has been yoyo - same as my S&S ISA valuation  it seemed my ex iFA have chosen similar funds.  

I have since switched all my S&S ISA to one global index fund, I am thinking to also switch my pension funds to SW Global index tracker.

Grateful that a lot of posters have contributed but I am unsure what funds to choose, partly, because not understanding the funds. And I cannot find the MMF or the Gilts (even though I find it not easy to understand how they work but it maybe less volatile than the global tracker) I did find some funds which holds some corporate bonds / securities but not government bonds (prefer government bonds but not sure whether it is a good time to invest in them). so I am back to global tracker.  And will pay in the £2880 I have been delaying as unsure what fund to choose and do not want SW to select for me.

DRS1

I don't know if you have seen this but it gives you some information about your funds (You may need to select Pension Funds and then Scottish Widows as the brand).  There are lots of pages and some of your funds are near the end but when you get there it shows performance and some details on how the fund is invested (in the pdf)
+Digital – Fund Centre
Looking at that the last three funds on your list (UK Alpha, US Smaller Companies and Veritas Asia) seem to feature in the bottom quartile rather a lot.  That may mean they will be the next best thing but if it were me I'd be switching to something cheaper and less niche - though I take the point made above that you need to consider the whole portfolio so replacing the lot with something global may be the way to go.