personal pension-should I transfer??

Katakins

Hello everyone,

I do not know what to do for the best and would be extremely grateful for any help.

I have 2 personal pensions, one with freinds prov that I started in 1994 and it is worth 22,458. The second is with winsor life ( it was nm life, tomorrow but winsor life recently took them over) that I started a few years later and is worth 37926.51. I am 37yo.

I have never switches funds , I just stuck with my IFA advise at the time.

Fre Prov- stewardship fund. They charge 5% on all units I buy and 2.50 a month policy charge and annual charge of 0.75%. I pay 75 a mth.

windsor life- 50% in balanced managed
50% european equity fund .These guys charge 5% bid offer spread on all units purchased and 0.75% on initial units and 0.48% on capital units and 2 pounds a mth policy charge. I pay 250 a mth.


soooooooo my question is do these charges seem overall reasonable for a pension and do those funds sound like an ok choice OR should I start getting clever and transfer to a low cost online provider that I have read about on the site and start trying to manage it myself.

I do not know where to compare pensions. If my situation is average to ok then I may leave well alone but if I am in really bad funds with high charges I will make an effort. I just dont know how well I am doing.


Sorry this is so long k x

EdInvestor

Katakins wrote: »

soooooooo my question is do these charges seem overall reasonable for a pension

Err no. Especially the Windsor Life one.

should I start getting clever and transfer to a low cost online provider that I have read about on the site and start trying to manage it myself.

Yes IMHO.

The first thing to do is to ask for a transfer value for the two of them.

Katakins

Yup I got transfer values,

friends prov 21352 and windsor life 36351

Thank you for your comments.

k x

EdInvestor

Katakins wrote: »

Yup I got transfer values,

friends prov 21352 and windsor life 36351

That's not too bad.

I have 2 personal pensions, one with freinds prov that I started in 1994 and it is worth 22,458. The second is with winsor life ( it was nm life, tomorrow but winsor life recently took them over) that I started a few years later and is worth 37926.51.

Particularly with the latter pension, one might have expected a much larger transfer penalty.

I would move both of them over to either a SIPP with Hargreaves Lansdown, https://www.h-l.co.uk or to a personal pension with Scottish Widows, then choosing around 10 funds to spread the money around according to your level of risk (this needs a bit oif research effort, but it's worth it, once you've got it set up you should be able to leave it long term, just checking annually).

You will pay much lower charges with either of these two and also have a good selection of the best unit trusts to invest in.

This site is very useful for checking the best unit trusts:

https://www.citywire.co.uk/Home/Funds.aspx

Look at the top 10 in each category over 3,5 and 10 years to get consistent performers. The F&C Stewardship Income fund is probably the closest to the one you have now and will have a better record - run by the same fund managers basically.

TRUSt_NO_1_2

EdInvestor wrote: »

That's not too bad.

I would move both of them over to either a SIPP with Hargreaves Lansdown, www.h-l.co.uk or to a personal pension with Scottish Widows.....

Scottish Widows ...interesting choice

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/money/funds/article3294102.ece

EdInvestor

I'm suggesting SW's pension wrapper, not its funds :rolleyes: The SW wrapper is competitively priced and has a large selection of external (non SW) funds to choose from, which are the better performers.

People need to realise that the pension wrapper and the investment funds within it are different beasts. This is much more obvious with a SIPP, which is one reason I tend to support them, because it wakes people up to what they need to do ie, figure out how to invest the money in their pension.

Many people STILL seem to think the insurance company does this for you.

It doesn't.

Katakins

Dear EdInvestor
Fantastic info for me to make a start and take things into my own hands.

I am very grateful for your time and effort.

k xx

jem16

EdInvestor wrote: »

I'm suggesting SW's pension wrapper, not its funds :rolleyes: The SW wrapper is competitively priced and has a large selection of external (non SW) funds to choose from, which are the better performers.

Nice to see you recommending something other than a SIPP Ed.

I agree with you on this one. The SW personal pension is a reallly good one with over 100 funds to choose from so you have plenty of choice both internally and externally.

Just like any company SW has good funds and bad - despite what the article above says, the ones which have done better for me over the last year have been 2 internal funds but the best one is an external fund.

jem16

Katakins wrote: »

Dear EdInvestor
Fantastic info for me to make a start and take things into my own hands.

I am very grateful for your time and effort.

k xx

If you are going to go with SW don't go direct to them - it will work out more expensive than getting an IFA to set it up for you.

In fact you may be better getting an IFA to review your whole pension requirements and organise a transfer if it's the best thing for you.

dunstonh

Like most personal pensions, you will usually find that a few of the internal funds are good enough to be used and you can end up with the best of both worlds with a PPP unlike the stakeholder which can only access internal funds.

You have to laugh at that times article. It so much focuses on the fund houses and not the funds. Inv Perp are one of the best fund houses around. Some of the best funds available come from them. Schroders have some cracking funds as well. Fidelity had a bad run a few years back with a loss of managers and some of its flagship funds losing out but they have been coming back strongly and Aberdeen is probably listed because of the Aberdeen Property Share fund. However, that isnt a dog fund. Its because the sector went downhill. The article is quite frankly pathetic, misjudged and taking data and publishing the wrong conclusion.

EdInvestor

jem16 wrote: »

If you are going to go with SW don't go direct to them - it will work out more expensive than getting an IFA to set it up for you.

And even cheaper if you go via a discount broker such as https://www.cavendishonline.co.uk which rebates the charges.It won't cost you anything to go to HL, they are also a discount broker.