Problems finding out total charges on pension

^opm^

Why is it so difficult to find out what your total charges are.

 I have several pensions and as a year end review I am trying to find out what total charges I am being charged. 

As an example, I have an old SERPs with Royal London, I rang them up and they said a standard 1% charge is applied, but in looking at my statement it said last year my estimated charges were £180, therefore you would think my fund contained 180x100 which equals £18000 (give or take with variations on fund value throughout year), but in reality it has about four times this amount, so the charges do not tally up.

Why? Any advice or thoughts would be very welcome.

I am trying to find out charges from other pension providers too, and none of them add up of the ones I have done so far.

dunstonh

Why is it so difficult to find out what your total charges are.

Its not on modern pensions.  It can be on legacy pensions built before modern charges disclosures were put in place.

Its a bit like asking why your black and white TV from the 80s cannot give you ultra HD and Dolby Atmos.

As an example, I have an old SERPs with Royal London, I rang them up and they said a standard 1% charge is applied, but in looking at my statement it said last year my estimated charges were £180, therefore you would think my fund contained 180x100 which equals £18000 (give or take with variations on fund value throughout year), but in reality it has about four times this amount, so the charges do not tally up.

Many RL plans have a 1% AMC but with fund based discounts.  Most RL statements give you the percentage and monetary amounts of the charges over the 12 months.

BTW, if this pension is from the contracting out days, then that makes it a legacy pension.  ie.. a black and white TV.

^opm^

Thanks for reply, yes it is an old pension from being contracted out years ago so has had no money added for many years.

So basically they charge me a 1% fee but takeaway a fund discount but I have no idea of how much as on my last statement it just said annual charges of approx £180.

Marcon

^opm^ said:

Thanks for reply, yes it is an old pension from being contracted out years ago so has had no money added for many years.

So basically they charge me a 1% fee but takeaway a fund discount but I have no idea of how much as on my last statement it just said annual charges of approx £180.

(1% of the closing fund value - £180)  should give you a reasonable approximation. You say your fund is worth about £72,000, so £720 - £180 = £540. That's a pretty good discount, since it reduces your fees to about 0.25%.

AlanP_2

RL give a tiered discount, at least they do on mine, based on amount invested.

There is a chart on their website I think.

I also get an annual profit share / rebate which brings my overall charge to about 0.2

Aylesbury_Duck

Is it possible that the 1% charge isn't levied on a sub-fund, for example?  My Aviva pension has a 1% charge on all funds except the with-profits sub-fund, so the effective overall charge is a lot less than 1% of the whole pension value.

^opm^

Thank you for all replies, seems to me as you say, I can have a rough guide to the average my pension has been worth throughout year, see what I have been charged and work out a percentage from that. Will give me a fairly close figure.