Scottish Widows pension question

Freefall123

mlmoneysaver wrote: »

Thank-you for the reply. I just spoke to SW. They are sending me a pack containing the fund choices but they have confirmed that the annual management charge is 1%. I'll come back later with the fund choices...

how did you manage this? I too have a scottish widows stakeholder pension and when I ring them up and ask about transferring to a personal pension for more funds they want to put me in contact with a financial advisor - they never offer an information pack - what the pack called.

The only advise I could get from them was the funds were listed on the web at

http://webfund6.financialexpress.net/clientsv21/scottishwidows2/pricetable.aspx?fname=&strRec=0&selCat1=Pension%20Funds%20-%20Series%203&selCat2=&selCat3=

but they said personal pension plans were series 1 , you have listed series 2

( series 3 was the stakeholder)

Can you confirm that series 2 ( which have much better funds) are the ones that there personal pension will have access to.

I dont want them to put me in touch with an adviser when it will be cheaper via an execution only one such as Cavendish.

freefall

dunstonh

If you start asking SW questions which could be considered advice questions, they will refer you to an IFA. If you just ask them to send you the forms to transfer to a personal pension and a funds list then they will send them to you.

Series 2 is the current PPP funds on offer. Series 3 are the stakeholder funds.

mlmoneysaver

Freefall123 wrote: »

how did you manage this? I too have a scottish widows stakeholder pension and when I ring them up and ask about transferring to a personal pension for more funds they want to put me in contact with a financial advisor - they never offer an information pack - what the pack called.

They presented me with the possible options (so not advice) and I don't need to transfer anything to anywhere so they were ok dealing with my request as I was just asking for facts, i.e. what is the list of funds that I can invest in? The 'pack' was just the current policy details document (with the AMC charges) and the fund listing on separate sheets of paper (above).

Freefall123 wrote: »

but they said personal pension plans were series 1 , you have listed series 2

( series 3 was the stakeholder)

Can you confirm that series 2 ( which have much better funds) are the ones that there personal pension will have access to.

Sorry I don't know. I may have got the terminology wrong as mine is def. series 2 which according to dunstonh is the current PPP (that is Personal Pension Plan right?)

Freefall123 wrote: »

I dont want them to put me in touch with an adviser when it will be cheaper via an execution only one such as Cavendish.

freefall

Incidentally, when I got the details they said the AMC is 1.25%, whereas, over the phone I was told 1% (by two different people). Also, when I called to clarify which it was I couldn't get a straight answer. Given that I am in the internal SW fund, I was expecting an AMC of 1%. I have asked them to confirm and re-send the information.

dunstonh

Part of the confusion may be due to the fact that some of the SW pensions are not "real" SW pensions but old Lloyds Bank, Black Horse or TSB pensions. Whilst they have the SW logo on them now, they are inherited and still only offer the old Black Horse Life range of funds and not the SW range of funds. You may have a contract that is too old to be easily switched but require an internal transfer (still easy but just a few more forms).

All internal funds should be 1%. Indeed, if you are doing this DIY, then it should be 0.6%. (note that an IFA can beat that if you have more than 20 years to go until retirement so using an IFA in those cases can still make it cheaper than DIY with Cavendish).

Freefall123

[quote
All internal funds should be 1%. Indeed, if you are doing this DIY, then it should be 0.6%. (note that an IFA can beat that if you have more than 20 years to go until retirement so using an IFA in those cases can still make it cheaper than DIY with Cavendish).[/quote]

Are you saying if I deal with scottish widows direct and just ask them to transfer over I should get an AMG of 0.6%?

I will be 45 this year so its a close call for the 20 years to go - what AMG would i get via an IFA?

Thanks for the reply so far

Freefall123

mlmoneysaver wrote: »

They presented me with the possible options (so not advice) and I don't need to transfer anything to anywhere so they were ok dealing with my request as I was just asking for facts, i.e. what is the list of funds that I can invest in? The 'pack' was just the current policy details document (with the AMC charges) and the fund listing on separate sheets of paper (above)..

Thats all I asked for - I just said I had a stakeholder with them, I wanted to transfer to their PPP because of a wider choice of funds, could they send me a list. I asked this on 2 seperate occasions and got the same spiel about putting me in touch with a financial advisor - the second time the guy said if I wanted to see the funds I could look online at series 1 but he wouldnt give me an AMC fgure at all and said it varied depending on which funds. Doesnt give me much faith in them.

Now I dont know wether to wait until I can transfer my PR stakeholder into a SIPP in October

Thanks for the reply

Freefall

dunstonh

Are you saying if I deal with scottish widows direct and just ask them to transfer over I should get an AMG of 0.6%?

No. If you go direct then SW will put the pricing at their retail price and keep the commission for themselves. You need to use an IFA to get the discount. Martin usually recommends Cavendish for this.

I will be 45 this year so its a close call for the 20 years to go - what AMG would i get via an IFA?

Or 21 years if you intend to match state retirement age as that will be 66 in your case.

You are right on the cusp where it starts to get better with the options an IFA has. However, the differences wont be great unless you have a good transfer value. If you do then you could be looking at 0.3% potentially as a reduction in yield (the RIY is the important figure to look at when comparing pensions).

Doesnt give me much faith in them.

They are not really geared for dealing direct with the public. They expect most of the communications to come via an intermediary or IFA. Many of them are also paranoid of being heard to give advice. Remember that their calls are listened to randomly without their knowledge (they know they are listened to but dont know when). So, they usually go a little over the top in avoiding questions. Plus, you have to realise that many of these people are low skilled. They may not know the answers or only have a limited knowledge on what you are talking about.

All that said, the answers you were given are correct. The AMC is dependent on the fund

Freefall123

dunstonh wrote: »

You are right on the cusp where it starts to get better with the options an IFA has. However, the differences wont be great unless you have a good transfer value. If you do then you could be looking at 0.3% potentially as a reduction in yield (the RIY is the important figure to look at when comparing pensions).

approx £38,000 would that get me 0.3%? and can you recommend anyone

Freefall