Scottish Widows Flexible Option Bond-good for 2%!

ANGLICANPAT

Hope its alright to resurrect this old thread, but I wondered what people thought now of the Scottish Widows Option Bond ,a bit further down the line. I hadnt seen this thread before, I just found it when I decided Id look online and see what anyone had to say about the bond, since my £20k in it has bombed since my IFA recommended the bond in Feb 06 , and hasnt moved any of the funds around since. (He hasnt contacted us since it started , so Im presuming he hasnt moved it around) Im about to make contact with him .
Looking at the articles Ive read, it seems Scottish Widows have been a poor choice since way before our IFA put us in the fund, which is annoying . The funds he put us in were external . In equal portions - European (thats all it says), SW InvP High Income, SW Inv Cautious Mgd, SW Jup UK growth, and cash.
Do these sound ok or should I query if he doesnt want to move them. Thanks

munk

The european one will probably be SW's own European fund.

The one plus that springs to mind is that at least you have your money spread across a number of different funds within the wrapper. Those funds don't sound too bad from memory either although I must admit I haven't looked recently to check how the various funds available within the wrapper are doing... those funds used to be reasonably decent performers though (not too sure of the inv cautious fund though).

If you wanted to you could check here and see how they're performing:

http://www.trustnet.com/Tools/Search.aspx?keyword=&scope=ut&on=f

jem16

ANGLICANPAT wrote: »

I just found it when I decided Id look online and see what anyone had to say about the bond, since my £20k in it has bombed since my IFA recommended the bond in Feb 06 , and hasnt moved any of the funds around since.

£20k sounds very small for an investment bond to be used - better prices are usually for amounts of at least £100k. Why was the bond recommended? Was an ISA or unit trusts recommended first?

Looking at the articles Ive read, it seems Scottish Widows have been a poor choice since way before our IFA put us in the fund, which is annoying . The funds he put us in were external . In equal portions - European (thats all it says), SW InvP High Income, SW Inv Cautious Mgd, SW Jup UK growth, and cash.

As only one of your 5 funds is Scottish Widows, I'm not sure why you blame the provider.

I'd be questioning the use of the wrapper itself rather than the funds.

ANGLICANPAT

jem16 wrote: »

£20k sounds very small for an investment bond to be used - better prices are usually for amounts of at least £100k. Why was the bond recommended? Was an ISA or unit trusts recommended first?

The amount was originally £40k , half went into another investment bond by the Pru. It was a vehicle to enable the money to be written in trust for our son and , I think,legally keep it outside the inheritance tax stuff

jem16

ANGLICANPAT wrote: »

The amount was originally £40k , half went into another investment bond by the Pru. It was a vehicle to enable the money to be written in trust for our son and , I think,legally keep it outside the inheritance tax stuff

Putting it into trust is a good reason - still a small amount at £40k though. Seems strange to split it - I wonder why it wasn't kept with the one provider.

ANGLICANPAT

We were told the two bonds worked and were charged differently, and we also noticed one paid the IFA far more incidentally -- and that we wouldnt get any better a deal on 4ok than 20k , with either, so we decided to hedge our bets . Wish wed been advised to stick witht he Pru now, it hasnt lost anywhere near as much.

jem16

ANGLICANPAT wrote: »

Wish wed been advised to stick witht he Pru now, it hasnt lost anywhere near as much.

Neither the Pru nor Scottish Widows have lost/made you money. It's the investments inside that have