Excessive or reasonable charges for managed SIPP?

• Money Market Instruments (Inc Cash) 0.43% £1,504.47
• Bonds 19.99% £70,751.81
• UK Equities 19.94% £70,567.36
• Overseas Equities 49.72% £175,941.55
• Specialist 9.92% £35,085.16
• Total 100.00% £353,850.35

Money Market Instruments (Inc Cash)			
	Instrument Code	Description	% of Portfolio
	GBPCash	GBP Cash	0.43%
Total:			0.43%
			
Managed Portfolios			
	Instrument Code	Description	
	93052	PFM Medium	
Bonds			
	Instrument Code	Description	% of Portfolio
	BUH5.LN	Artemis High Income I Inc	10.02%
	11VO.LN	AXA Framlington Mgd Inc Z Gr Acc	10.06%
Total:			20.08%
Overseas Equities			
	Instrument Code	Description	% of Portfolio
	N204.LN	Janus Henderson ErpGt I A	4.88%
	0ZCJ.LN	M&G North American Dividend I Acc G	10.07%
	GO2Q.LN	FP WHEB Sustainability C Acc	4.92%
	G19C.LN	HSBC American Index C Acc	5.05%
	09QS.LN	Jupiter Japan Income I Acc	5.05%
	GMUE.LN	Fidelity Asia W Acc	5.04%
	J8GC.LN	Natixis LS U.S. Eq Ldrs N/A GBP	5.02%
	JOVD.LN	Schroder European L Acc	4.88%
	JOWH.LN	Schroder Asian Income L Acc	5.01%
Total:			49.92%
Specialist			
	Instrument Code	Description	% of Portfolio
	K7JT.LN	Kames Property Income Feeder Acc B	4.98%
	MQEZ.LN	BMO UK Property Feeder 2 Acc	4.97%
Total:			9.95%
UK Equities			
	Instrument Code	Description	% of Portfolio
	L532.LN	LF Lindsell Train UK Equity Acc	5.09%
	0A3M.LN	LF Miton UK Multi Cap Inc B I Acc	4.93%
	JOVL.LN	Schroder Income L Acc	4.89%
	OAFU.LN	Trojan Income X Acc	5.12%
Total:			20.03%

The charges are as follows;
- PFM Associates Wealth Management Service – 1% per annum based on the fund value and is paid monthly
- Standard Life Platform Charge – Based on the current value this is 0.35% per annum paid monthly

While, as you have seen, these charges are deducted directly from the capital in your pension, in addition there are underlying costs associated with the funds selected in your portfolio. These charges would be different over any given time period and will depend on the activity within each fund. The annual cost of these charges is estimated to be 0.8% at present for the portfolio of funds we have built. These charges are not deducted from your fund value but are incurred within each of the collective investment funds, in which you and many other investors hold capital and are reflected in the performance achieved by the funds.

Having had a look at performance and as part of our monthly Investment Committee meetings and ongoing research, particularly taking in to account the investment volatility in 2018, we are satisfied with the returns achieved by the portfolio, especially over the longer term and with the positioning of the portfolio at this time. With a longer term outlook there will be years with better performance than others and of course performance does not occur uniformly. 2018 was a good example of a year when equity performance, generally speaking, suffered and this was particularly true of the volatility experienced in quarter four, due to a number of influential factors. Compared to the investment markets in general we were happy with how the portfolio behaved in this environment. We anticipate that given the current position in the economic cycle and the issues facing investment markets globally, that returns are likely to more modest and for there to be periods of increased volatility in the shorter term. Of course the objectives are for the longer term as set out as part of the recommendations.

You have achieved returns on average of 7.31% per annum over the last 3 years after all charges. We believe this represents a good return from a well diversified and managed portfolio, particularly given the backdrop during that time.

PFM charges remain as they are above based on managing the overall capital invested and not based on the growth achieved. The overall charges noted do also include the initial fees taken for the advice provided and set up etc.