Which Scottish Widows Pension?

PensionKid

Hi,
I am 36 years of age and thinking of starting a pension (about time) with Scottish Widows but not really sure which one is best for me. I am thinking of investing £100-£120 a month - please help.

Thanks

Confused PensionKid

dunstonh

The retirement account is their flagship pension. Its ideal for the more experienced investor or those wanting a large investment choice as its basically a fund supermarket pension. Its not the best one for a small amount like £100 a month.

The personal pension is the middle option. It offers a fairly decent range of funds and includes stakeholder funds at same cost.

The stakeholder pension is pretty pointless as it offers nothing that you cannot get on the personal pension.

cagey76

scottish widows come with a good reputation,

Dunstonh, is there any downside to going direct to Scottish Widows ? is going through a supermarket any cheaper ?

dunstonh

cagey76 wrote: »

Dunstonh, is there any downside to going direct to Scottish Widows ? is going through a supermarket any cheaper ?

A fund supermarket of SIPP will never be cheaper. However, its a case of the investment options being better.

The Scot Widows Stakeholder has about 29 funds. The personal pension has around 100. The retirement account will have around 1000.

If you want india or china and a range of emerging markets and other specialist areas you are not going to get them on a stakeholder and you will find a limited choice on a personal pension. Only the SIPPs and fund supermarket pensions will give you that choice. However, the funds are typically the unit trust funds with an annual management charge closer to 1.5%. If you utilise the funds then its money well spent. If you dont utilise the funds and pick a multimanager fund or a bog standard fund you can get for half the price in a stakeholder then its money wasted.

PensionKid

Thanks for the info Dunstonh,
Am i doing the right thing in going with Scottish Widows. Obviously i have decided on a pension with them - would you advise me to go ahead and fill out the forms on line or hold back and look for an alternative pension with another provider?

dunstonh

PensionKid wrote: »

Thanks for the info Dunstonh,
Am i doing the right thing in going with Scottish Widows. Obviously i have decided on a pension with them - would you advise me to go ahead and fill out the forms on line or hold back and look for an alternative pension with another provider?

There is a line on how far I can go telling you what you should or should not do without breaching FSA rules. You are now getting close to that line with that question.

Its one that I cannot really answer anyway.

Would I have a Scottish Widows pension? No
Do I recommend Scottish Widows pensions to clients? yes. However, I also utilise a bunch of other providers and consider stakeholder, personal pension, fund supermarket pension and SIPPs depending on what the person is looking for.

Perhaps a question to be asked is; How are you buying it? If you are getting it through a LloydsTSB branch then the answer is no. dont buy it that way as its the most expensive way to get Scottish Widows products (and you dont get the full range either). If its from their website, then again No. Its cheaper than Lloyds but more expensive than using a discount IFA.

Before you decide on provider, you need to decide on where and how you want to invest. If you dont mind compromising your investments and want cheap then you can get cheaper with L&G. If you want a decent fund range and prioritise quality of investment over charges then you can go with a SIPP or fund supermarket. If you want to find a balance between the two and utilise some stakeholder funds along with some external funds then a personal pension is better.

Once you know what you want and how you want to invest then you pick the provider to do that with. That could be Scottish Widows. it could be Clerical Medical or Norwich Union. It could be Selestia or Cofunds or it could be a SIPP provider like HL.

I cannot steer you in any direction because there is no one best option. Only best options which suit what you are looking for. Scottish Widows could be the best option for you. It may not. It certainly is not the worst option out there. You could look at the supermarket pensions or Virgin pension if you want some really poor examples.

EdInvestor

PensionKid wrote: »

Thanks for the info Dunstonh,
Am i doing the right thing in going with Scottish Widows. Obviously i have decided on a pension with them - would you advise me to go ahead and fill out the forms on line or hold back and look for an alternative pension with another provider?

Better to go through a discount broker which will rebate part of the charges, eg

https://www.cavendishonline.co.uk

Never ever buy direct from a provider, it's the worst of both worlds - you pay the same as you would if you took advice from an IFA, but get no advice and no misselling protection either if it is the wrong product.