Equitable Life with profits pension / takeover.
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The adviser I am speaking with appears to have never heard of Equitable Life and knows nothing about their current situation. He has now checked and 'nobody' knows anything about it. Suggests I ring E.L.
Pretty sure they will suggest ringing NHS Pensions.
Anybody know any answers?
What kind of 'adviser' has never heard of EL and the ongoing situation?0 -
So, I received my “investment options” booklets and forms from Utmost. Part 1 claims “The Equitable recently sent you a decision pack...”. Never got it. Will be calling them tomorrow. What is the deadline for voting?0
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Deleted_User wrote: »What is the deadline for voting?
The info you want is in post no. 18.0 -
Wife has a very small sum in the above.
I'm just writing this while I am on ( a very long) hold to the NHS Pension scheme. The adviser I am speaking with appears to have never heard of Equitable Life and knows nothing about their current situation. He has now checked and 'nobody' knows anything about it. Suggests I ring E.L.
Pretty sure they will suggest ringing NHS Pensions.
Anybody know any answers?
Always good to proven correct. EL referred me back to NHS who again knew very little. Given NHS are the largest employer in the country I am a little surprised there is so little information and nobody else has shown interest. I have now resorted to emails and twitter. Perhaps NHS have some clout and will do a deal for a huge uplift :beer:Will keep you all posted.0 -
Always good to proven correct. EL referred me back to NHS who again knew very little. Given NHS are the largest employer in the country I am a little surprised there is so little information and nobody else has shown interest. I have now resorted to emails and twitter. Perhaps NHS have some clout and will do a deal for a huge uplift :beer:Will keep you all posted.
I understand that the NHS pension scheme is now run by Capita and that there have been numerous concerns about the poor service provided.
Good luck.0 -
I received the Investment Options pack today. My main concern was fees and charges, but it says that the Annual Management Charge is guaranteed to be capped at 1% and currently planned to be 0.5-0.75%.
It also says there are no entry/exit fees as bid/offer prices are the same and therefore there are no fees for switching funds (and I assume withdrawing and moving elsewhere although that isn't actually stated) - although they reserve the right to introduce a fee for that later (at least 1 year later?).
The investment options are pretty limited and there are no past performance statistics but from their list I would probably only be interested in Global Equities. The underlying funds for this are JPM Global Research Enhanced Index Equity Fund & ASI World Equity Enhanced Index. The good news is one can easily check performance for both these funds and they look to outperform in that category by a little.
On the face of this I am tempted to take the offer and stick the funds in Global Equities. But of course, my holding with EL is only a small fraction of my overall pension pot and have other options for more flexibility. Of course YMMV, this is not financial advice, do your own research, don't blame me, etc, etc.
P.S. We discussed what's in this for Utmost. The JPM fund mentioned has a 0.35% management charge yet Utmost are charging 0.75%. That's a 0.4% clear profit (and maybe more if they have negotiated a discount with JPM). EL have funds under management of £5.9bn (as at 31 December 2018). 0.4% of £5.9bn is over £23 million pounds for doing not much. Easy money!
P.P.S. Selftrade (allegedly a low cost broker) have a 0.3% funds platform fee for investments under 50K so 0.4% from Utmost could be considered 'in the ballpark' for what one should be paying. Happy to hear if anyone has a better suggestion though.0 -
TomArgyl - if you have still not got your packs - they can be downloaded - from the EL website.
All - my apologies - my funds list came from the initial version of the Equitable Section of the Utmost website - so is missing the Managed Fund - from the investment booklet.
For those worried about transfer rights - as far as I can tell - this is a legal requirement on all government authorised pension providers.
But on the other hand - other tansfer forms I have seen - suggest there are issues around what one provider defined as "safegaurded benefits" e.g. guaranteed minimum pensions etc - so may not be 100% guranteed to be straightfoward for all - but didn't invetigate too deeply at the time - as I knew didn't have these.
Re transfers - if you have a significant / big pot ( The times suggested post uplift the average was around £25K ) - or were thinking of adding a smaller pot - to an existing SIPP you have been building up for a while- then you may need to think about protection.
As already pointed out above - they are different - and may need to be aware of FSCS rules - regarding pension protection. These are still sadly - despite the growth in SIPPS in recent years - different for SIPPS ( 85K) and private pensions (100% ) and the 85K cap is also quoted on HL webiste -
https://www.fscs.org.uk/what-we-cover/pensions/
https://www.hl.co.uk/security-centre/how-safe-is-your-investment
Which states applies in event of institution or the deposit holder for cash funds going into default.
Anyway - finally as at took over 2 weeks - sent my request when first got the pack - a written answer re exit fees from Utmost from EL - which agrees with helpdesk query reports above.
I am reading this that if you want your money out of Utmost for free - then need to think about doing it early - as suspect after a year it could change - like the AMCs etc.
The EL answer
[FONT="]"Exit Fees[/FONT]
[FONT="] [/FONT]
[FONT="]Equitable do not charge exit fees or penalties, and Utmost has agreed to administer all Transferring Policies to an equivalent standard. Therefore, Utmost are not entitled to charge any fees for a Policyholder exercising their right to transfer to another provider.[/FONT]
[FONT="] [/FONT]
[FONT="]Utmost also has no plans to introduce any such fees in the immediate future."[/FONT]
[FONT="][/FONT]
I am not convinced I like the idea of Utmost - but on the face of it - the plan - although a bit restrictive in investment choice - is better than originally expected from the old Utmost website ( and I think my SIPP - that has 100's of funds is just too many to know which is 'best'. Just glad many of us have a vote - or it may not have been as good a deal.
But - on the other hand - not convinced EL can survive as is until or beyond retirement - to stay with them either ( I have many years - in double digits - to go to state age - assuming it doesn't jump again - IDS 75 etc ). So much so that like the original poster - had thought about transferring in the past - e.g. after capital distribution jumped to 35% - and now with a primary + secondary uplift - the bribe to leave is far greater.
If the vote goes for the scheme ( and there are mixed views above suggesting the 75% is not going to be easy ) - then I will probably hide in secure cash for a while.
Good luck with you decision making.0 -
P.S. We discussed what's in this for Utmost. The JPM fund mentioned has a 0.35% management charge yet Utmost are charging 0.75%. That's a 0.4% clear profit (and maybe more if they have negotiated a discount with JPgM). EL have funds under management of £5.9bn (as at 31 December 2018). 0.4% of £5.9bn is over £23 million pounds for doing not much. Easy money!
0.4% isn’t “clear profit”. There are costs, such as paying their staff. In any case, I don’t really care how the charges are distributed.
The charges are the same as what unit holders are paying Equitable right now. I have both units and with profit funds with EL so in my mind it’s a no-brainer to vote “yes”.
At the same .5% is the highest cost of any of my investment (average 0.1%), let alone 0.75%. So, I am switching out of Utmost once the sale goes through.0 -
My OH age 50(ish) has appx 20K in EL, but according to what I can see hers is already Unit Linked and not With Profit, so she wouldn't qualify for any uplift.
Does this sound plausible?
Just wait until the dust settles?0 -
Deleted_User wrote: »At the same .5% is the highest cost of any of my investment (average 0.1%), let alone 0.75%. So, I am switching out of Utmost once the sale goes through.
May I ask... what providers are you using for that 0.1% average (I assume there's a basket of them)?0
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