Reply to: Pension Providers

[glashIFA@Paramount]

What on earth would you do with thousands of ponds? You're not a frog are you? Who on earth would take financial advice from a frog? Go on, hop it!

Quite funny that. i see what you've done there, you've taken my typing error which should have read pounds but was actually typed in as ponds, then you've associated that with frogs, then said "hop it".....as in frogs. Yep, very amusing.

[nevergoingtopay]

What on earth would you do with thousands of ponds? You're not a frog are you? Who on earth would take financial advice from a frog? Go on, hop it!

Maybe he is the policeman from Allo'Allo!.....

[Incognito]

Had LOADS of good experiences but, given that I'm an "evil IFA of the underworld" not much point in sharing them with you as you'd no doubt dismiss them without consideration....or, if I gave you the name of a provider you'd probably avoid it in case i got several thousand ponds in commission just for mentioning them.

What on earth would you do with thousands of ponds? You're not a frog are you? Who on earth would take financial advice from a frog? Go on, hop it!

[GreenerGrass]

I know what you mean plileds, in an uncertain world it's worth thinking about paying off the mortgage early and only paying into a SIPP, or whatever, after you are 100% debt free.
The downside to that is if the market is near a peak when you start paying into your pension again, you won't have benefitted from "pound cost averaging" over time, and also the level of inflation is a big factor.
But if we have a global depression (with no inflation for a decade or more) you may have made the right move in just paying off your house.

Article here on pension vs paying mortgage off earlier (although it ignores the risk of depression and institutions failing):
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/retirem...8&in_page_id=6

[phileds]

Yes, who to invest your money with.

In 1997 I signed up with an over 200 years old pension company. "Safe as houses" their rep told me - literally, almost, as much of their investment portfolio was in property, and also, MPs had their pensions with them, so how likely were they to go bust?

"Oh, over 200 years old, just like Barings!" said I, referring to a venerable finance institution which had just gone bust. And we both laughed. I signed up there and then. Its reputation was second to none, what was there to be afraid of?

The company, of course, was Equitable Life, and years later, its pensioners are still awaiting some sort of restitution from the government which, despite damning independent reports, is STILL dragging its feet, whilst a few thousand Equitable pensioners die and the problem slowly lessens...

Add in what has happened to world markets recently, British banks brought to their knees and managed by "the best and brightest" that money can buy, and all I can say is, my faith in men in suits in the City is so low it's undetectable.

Personally, I would put my money in something which involves the least tinkering by some overpaid besuited idiot - such as a tracker fund. There are plenty to choose from, so you can diversify - if that is you still believe that global markets really are uncoupled....

Sorry for the rather negative post, but my faith in financial wizardry is non-existent now. Many now question whether pensions are even a decent investment now, or the best way to park your money for the future, and not without reason.

Those billions in bonuses are paid for by the fees the suits take for pushing money through different ledgers. That ain't cheap.

[Little'Old Me]

I've been paying from my Ltd company "Employers Gross Contributions" into a Sippdeal pension. To be honest I did it only to reduce the companies CT bill, without going overboard with contributions, and find a safe place to collect cash. Sippdeal has not made any charges to my fund for doing it. The interest rate at the moment is dreadful, but they do offer higher rate from time to time which you have to apply for.

http://www.sippdeal.co.uk

My plan is - when things are a lot more stable - or once I built up a really substantial fund, I'll transfer it elsewhere as they currently only charge £50.00 plus VAT to transfer to another scheme anywhere. In the meantime its not costing me anything, and not being effected by the Stock market, so I don't feel I am losing out.

[glashIFA@Paramount]

There are a couple of (non-leveraged) absolute return funds out there that aren't doing too bad. They can still lose money in the short term though, but not as much as a FTSE tracker.
In my (Hargreaves Lansdown www.h-l.co.uk/) SIPP at the moment I have a mix of them, cash, an absolute return bond fund, index linked gilt funds and a gold ETF. You couldn't hold any of these in a crummy stakeholder pension.

Good article here:
http://www.moneyweek.com/investments...-us-14632.aspx

As well as moneyweek http://www.marketoracle.co.uk is a decent resource and has some good articles by Nadeem Walayat and others, if you are managing your own SIPP it helps to keep informed.

Although when the FTSE gets down to 3000 it'll might be worth drip feeding into a FTSE tracker, and then ploughing into oil ETFs and oil stocks when oil finds a bottom about $30-ish. Who knows for sure though?

GlashIFA what type of investments have you been recommending to your clients, did you advise any of them to pull out of pure long equity funds at the beginning of last year?
We've now had a decade of crap stockmarket performance (if you just buy and hold) and the possibility of another decade even though they appear "cheap" to some people.
At some point in the future people will get so sick of consistent weak returns or losses that they will start getting back into BTL property to supplement their pension. Although when that happens it will probably be time to start buying stocks again as well.

We started the exodus when the markets got down to 5000 points. The type of investments that we've been recommending are all dependant on the individuals requirements, so hard to be specific. we have created our own portfolios via Dimensional which allows us to focus on asset class and buy at creation.Figures show that as many as 80% of Fund Managers change jobs over a three-year period. Performance often dips when a Fund Manager leaves which is why we've never really focussed on managers and always looked at asset classes. The days of buy and hold are long gone. a couple of opportunities that i like, certainly for the short term, are Braemars Agricultural Land OEIC and their Student Let Accomodation OEIC. New funds so i reckon they should be non corrolated value for money going forward but not a long term option. i think a number of my clients are probably overweight in cash at this time but i reckon the opportunities are there and just need seeking out. Usual caveats - this reply does not constitute advice and is not a recommendation to anyone!!!

[GreenerGrass]

There are a couple of (non-leveraged) absolute return funds out there that aren't doing too bad. They can still lose money in the short term though, but not as much as a FTSE tracker.
In my (Hargreaves Lansdown www.h-l.co.uk/) SIPP at the moment I have a mix of them, cash, an absolute return bond fund, index linked gilt funds and a gold ETF. You couldn't hold any of these in a crummy stakeholder pension.

Good article here:
http://www.moneyweek.com/investments...-us-14632.aspx

As well as moneyweek http://www.marketoracle.co.uk is a decent resource and has some good articles by Nadeem Walayat and others, if you are managing your own SIPP it helps to keep informed.

Although when the FTSE gets down to 3000 it'll might be worth drip feeding into a FTSE tracker, and then ploughing into oil ETFs and oil stocks when oil finds a bottom about $30-ish. Who knows for sure though?

GlashIFA what type of investments have you been recommending to your clients, did you advise any of them to pull out of pure long equity funds at the beginning of last year?

We've now had a decade of crap stockmarket performance (if you just buy and hold) and the possibility of another decade even though they appear "cheap" to some people.
At some point in the future people will get so sick of consistent weak returns or losses that they will start getting back into BTL property to supplement their pension. Although when that happens it will probably be time to start buying stocks again as well.

[moorfield]

That's right, what we need is a tracker that follows the FTSE upwards, but doesn't follow it downwards

Sounds like you need one of those absolute return hedge fund thingermejobbies. Oh, hang on ...

[expat]

Yes Virgin Tracker, which has lost 30% of it's value in a quarter as it tracks the FTSE down the pan.

That's right, what we need is a tracker that follows the FTSE upwards, but doesn't follow it downwards

[glashIFA@Paramount]

First post so here goes .

Trying in vain to find recommendations for decent pension providers (without falling prey to the evil IFA's of the underworld!) for us good old contractors.

Anyone have any good experiences they'd like to share, including the name of a provider to research further?

Ta

Had LOADS of good experiences but, given that I'm an "evil IFA of the underworld" not much point in sharing them with you as you'd no doubt dismiss them without consideration....or, if I gave you the name of a provider you'd probably avoid it in case i got several thousand ponds in commission just for mentioning them.

[FarmerPalmer]

Yes Virgin Tracker, which has lost 30% of it's value in a quarter as it tracks the FTSE down the pan.

and as its fallen ... it can now track it all the way back up if you plough some money in now !

[DimPrawn]

For a simple tracker try Virgin Money, but if you want a choice of funds then try someone like Scottish Equitable.

My secretary has a Virgin Stakeholder Pension
I have a Scottish Equitable Stakeholder Pension.
My business pays directly into both.

Yes Virgin Tracker, which has lost 30% of it's value in a quarter as it tracks the FTSE down the pan.

[FarmerPalmer]

For a simple tracker try Virgin Money, but if you want a choice of funds then try someone like Scottish Equitable.

My secretary has a Virgin Stakeholder Pension
I have a Scottish Equitable Stakeholder Pension.
My business pays directly into both.

[pmeswani]

Further questions:

Are you looking at moving an existing fund from one provider to a new one?

Is already out of myco? Have you looked at ISAs? Massive tax advantages over pensions.

SIPP's add £200 for every £800 deposited (or £250 for every £1000) and invested in the right funds can yield beyond 7% (But as always, this isn't guaranteed). ISA's don't have much benefits these days in terms of interest earned. I would go with SIPP Pensions over ISA's any day... unless there was a significant rate of return.