Fees on personal pensions

[9xxNick]

I have a personal pension which is invested via a platform. The annual fees I am paying currently break down to the following amounts:

Platform: 0.18%
Fund management: 0.65% on average
IFA: 0.35%

So my overall costs are about 1.2% p.a. of the pot value.

Is this reasonable? If the answer to that needs qualification by way of fund value, at what size of fund would this seem reasonably, if any?

[JulianPH]

They seem very reasonable to me. Which platform is it, if you don't mind saying?

[9xxNick]

Aviva

[JulianPH]

Aviva do not have a 0.18% platform charge. Unless you are arriving at this fee from a blend of tiered charges on a quite large sum this doesn't, therefore, sound right.

PM me if you don't want to give personal details on here.

Cheers

Edited for typo

[darreni]

We've got the Aviva platform fee down to 0.09 on some of the larger pensions. Fixed not tiered.

[JulianPH]

darreni said:

We've got the Aviva platform fee down to 0.09 on some of the larger pensions. Fixed not tiered.

That also crossed my mind (that the adviser had a discount in place).

Assuming this to be the case I think the fees are pretty great, though could be even better with passives, but of course that may not be the direction they want to go in.

[9xxNick]

Julian - PM sent.

[JulianPH]

Just responding now!

[sas62]

This prompted me to check on both daughters Aviva pensions. (Originally Norwich Union stakeholders).

First thing I noticed is how tricky it is on the portal to see the charges compared to HL.

By looking at the PDF annual statements I can see an annual Aviva charge of 0.09.

However the annual statement does not show any fund charges. (Liontrust Sustainable Future UK & Absolute funds)

The pension were bought direct without IFA so total charges seem to be 0.09.

Am I missing anything?

[Derek Chevalier]

9xxNick said:

I have a personal pension which is invested via a platform. The annual fees I am paying currently break down to the following amounts:

Platform: 0.18%
Fund management: 0.65% on average
IFA: 0.35%

So my overall costs are about 1.2% p.a. of the pot value.

Is this reasonable? If the answer to that needs qualification by way of fund value, at what size of fund would this seem reasonably, if any?

Looks cheap relative to the typical offering, and potentially good value as well (compared to the typical offering). Interesting that the IFA charge (where the vast majority of value should be added) around half the the fund management cost (which is typically a value destroyer).

[mikeiow]

Interesting. My main work pot is with Aviva: no visible platform charge to me (it is a company membersite, I suspect that addresses that). Over 80 funds: default funds charge 0.25%, many other 0.35%. Some go up to 0.8%, iirc

[JulianPH]

Derek Chevalier said:

Looks cheap relative to the typical offering, and potentially good value as well (compared to the typical offering). Interesting that the IFA charge (where the vast majority of value should be added) around half the the fund management cost (which is typically a value destroyer).

It appears that you are holding other advisers up to your own high standards. Unfortunately this is rarely the case, in my experience.

[anonymous-user]

9xxNick said:

IFA: 0.35% So my overall costs are about 1.2% p.a. of the pot value. Is this reasonable?

That IFA charge is not unreasonable for an IFA charge - provided you need an IFA all year, every year.
But what is the IFA actually doing for you?

My own yardstick is to try to keep total costs under 1% - but that's easier for me because I don't feel the need for "advice".