Pension value diving

LHW99

You may be retiring  / wanting to use the pension in 5 years, but how are you plaaning to take the money?

If you plan to draw down, then most of the money (hopefully) will be invested for 20-30 years (or more).

If you want an annuity, then hopefully your SL pension is moving things over already, as said above. Otherwise, why crystallise a loss now?

Cobbler_tone

I’m retiring in two years max and I don’t see moving to a cash plan within my scheme a loss, I see it as a modest 7% gain since 2021. In fact, when you consider employer contributions and the tax breaks, it’s an absolutely mammoth gain.
I don’t see a move in the market over the next two years where I can have peace of mind and guarantee that 7% gain isn’t going to decline if I move it again. Even if it did, my mindset is never one of looking back in regret. The same as when I sell any of my shares at a profit which could have been more. 

roadweary

dunstonh said:

Tbh, I've been skeptical of taking advice from an IFA as I see no 'league table' or proof of how good their advice is.  

How would you league table advice?  It's either good or bad, and you get consumer protection against the bad.

Percentage growth in funds per year perhaps?

wjr4

roadweary said:

dunstonh said:

Tbh, I've been skeptical of taking advice from an IFA as I see no 'league table' or proof of how good their advice is.  

How would you league table advice?  It's either good or bad, and you get consumer protection against the bad.

Percentage growth in funds per year perhaps?

Financial planning isn’t just investment advice. 

roadweary

wjr4 said:

roadweary said:

dunstonh said:

Tbh, I've been skeptical of taking advice from an IFA as I see no 'league table' or proof of how good their advice is.  

How would you league table advice?  It's either good or bad, and you get consumer protection against the bad.

Percentage growth in funds per year perhaps?

Financial planning isn’t just investment advice. 

I get that

roadweary

Cobbler_tone said:

I’m retiring in two years max and I don’t see moving to a cash plan within my scheme a loss, I see it as a modest 7% gain since 2021. In fact, when you consider employer contributions and the tax breaks, it’s an absolutely mammoth gain.
I don’t see a move in the market over the next two years where I can have peace of mind and guarantee that 7% gain isn’t going to decline if I move it again. Even if it did, my mindset is never one of looking back in regret. The same as when I sell any of my shares at a profit which could have been more. 

All completely logical and a great way to look at things. 

Sarahspangles

roadweary said:

dunstonh said:

Tbh, I've been skeptical of taking advice from an IFA as I see no 'league table' or proof of how good their advice is.  

How would you league table advice?  It's either good or bad, and you get consumer protection against the bad.

Percentage growth in funds per year perhaps?

I was very happy with my fund choices, until the recent shenanigans. I track my SIPP in Trustnet and also the L&G PMC Multi Asset Fund 3 that was the default fund in the workplace pension out of which I transferred. Can’t help noticing that the L&G fund hasn’t been hit as hard as my Vanguard LifeStrategy funds.

I didn’t take advice, but if I had an IFA would have highlighted the risks of choosing higher risk investments for some of my portfolio. I wouldn’t expect an IFA to be penalised for how my choices turned out. If I wasn’t aware of the risk then that would be a failing on their part.

It’s like walking into a car showroom and saying ‘Which car will go fastest’ and not factoring in which would be safest in a crash.

roadweary

Sarahspangles said:

roadweary said:

dunstonh said:

Tbh, I've been skeptical of taking advice from an IFA as I see no 'league table' or proof of how good their advice is.  

How would you league table advice?  It's either good or bad, and you get consumer protection against the bad.

Percentage growth in funds per year perhaps?

I was very happy with my fund choices, until the recent shenanigans. I track my SIPP in Trustnet and also the L&G PMC Multi Asset Fund 3 that was the default fund in the workplace pension out of which I transferred. Can’t help noticing that the L&G fund hasn’t been hit as hard as my Vanguard LifeStrategy funds.

I didn’t take advice, but if I had an IFA would have highlighted the risks of choosing higher risk investments for some of my portfolio. I wouldn’t expect an IFA to be penalised for how my choices turned out. If I wasn’t aware of the risk then that would be a failing on their part.

It’s like walking into a car showroom and saying ‘Which car will go fastest’ and not factoring in which would be safest in a crash.

Hi, thanks for the info.  My response about the IFA was just a single faceted idea. I appreciate there are many facets, but to follow your analogy, the point in the car showroom is that there are objective measurements of performance that are available to consider. I’m not aware of any for an IFA?

Of course that could just highlight my lack of knowledge. 

dunstonh

roadweary said:

dunstonh said:

Tbh, I've been skeptical of taking advice from an IFA as I see no 'league table' or proof of how good their advice is.  

How would you league table advice?  It's either good or bad, and you get consumer protection against the bad.

Percentage growth in funds per year perhaps?

That would be a very bad way to measure advice.

1) how would you compare low risk investors with high risk ones?
2) advisers have no impact on the investment returns of funds.  
3) Linking charges to performance would increase the charges you pay as positive periods outnumber negative.  It would also create risk bias.

Advisers' priority is to put in place suitable investments.  Not to try and outperform when it's impossible to know what is going to perform best in the future.

roadweary

dunstonh said:

roadweary said:

dunstonh said:

Tbh, I've been skeptical of taking advice from an IFA as I see no 'league table' or proof of how good their advice is.  

How would you league table advice?  It's either good or bad, and you get consumer protection against the bad.

Percentage growth in funds per year perhaps?

That would be a very bad way to measure advice.

1) how would you compare low risk investors with high risk ones?
2) advisers have no impact on the investment returns of funds.  
3) Linking charges to performance would increase the charges you pay as positive periods outnumber negative.  It would also create risk bias.

Advisers' priority is to put in place suitable investments.  Not to try and outperform when it's impossible to know what is going to perform best in the future.

That makes sense. How would you suggest somebody select an IFA?