Pensions management - SJP etc

Pensions management - SJP etc

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Discussion

jinkster

Original Poster:

2,350 posts

171 months

Yesterday (18:00)
quotequote all
Hi all,

Who does anyone recommend for pension management etc for growth? A few guys at work use SJP and have been impressed with results. Some reviews online read horrific. Fees high but growth of 18% over the last 12 months. My current Fidelity funds (unmanaged) are showing 9.5% growth. Even with fees SJP seems a no brainer but be interested to hear of opinions. I'm 42 yrs old so not drawing anytime soon.

Thanks.


dalenorth

904 posts

182 months

Yesterday (19:03)
quotequote all
You need to be cautious of SJP in terms of fees and exit. I have lady IFA we have used for our clients for years, so happy to make an intro if you want to drop me a pm.

xeny

4,968 posts

93 months

Yesterday (19:03)
quotequote all
jinkster said:
Hi all,

Fees high but growth of 18% over the last 12 months.
I'd be more interested to see what they've done over the past decade, including maximum drawdown. To give an example I've an investment that is 106.18% up over the past 3 years, but only 85.47% up over the past 5. It's easy to cherry pick a benchmark duration to make a volatile asset look great.

Keep in mind that the return you get is (underlying investment performance - fees), so starting out by picking a service known for high fees seems like going horse racing and starting by taking one of the horse's legs off.

C69

821 posts

27 months

Yesterday (20:02)
quotequote all
Looking at SJP's own figures, none of its pension funds appear to have achieved a 0-12 month discrete performance of +18%. However, a couple - SJP Japan and SJP UK Equity Income - have exceeded +16%.

https://www.sjp.co.uk/individuals/fund-prices/pens...

It'd be interesting to see which funds your friends are holding to achieve the returns that they claim.

As with any pension provider, costs are a critical consideration. Not only the ongoing costs while you're building up your pension pot, but any costs associated with drawdown when you retire too.

In the case of SJP, paying an initial 'advice charge' of 4.5% and initial 'product charge' of 1.5% would be instant red flags for me.

Notsofastfrank

234 posts

210 months

Yesterday (20:54)
quotequote all
The biggest Red Flag for you or anybody else considering SJP is that they are not independent. SJP “advisers” are just salesmen for SJP funds, you have no choice. Speak to a real IFA.

jinkster

Original Poster:

2,350 posts

171 months

Yesterday (21:38)
quotequote all
A couple of friends are in the Polaris 4 fund and looking at like for like based on my Fidelity self chosen funds.


mikeiow

7,110 posts

145 months

Yesterday (23:25)
quotequote all
jinkster said:
A couple of friends are in the Polaris 4 fund and looking at like for like based on my Fidelity self chosen funds.
Polaris 4?
Looks like 8.2% growth over the past 12 months, according to them

Where are they claiming 18%?!
Maybe they are including their active contributions to skew things.

As said above: find a real IFA. Or continue to DIY - you already appear to be beating them!


911hope

3,549 posts

41 months

Yesterday (23:45)
quotequote all
jinkster said:
Hi all,

Who does anyone recommend for pension management etc for growth? A few guys at work use SJP and have been impressed with results. Some reviews online read horrific. Fees high but growth of 18% over the last 12 months. My current Fidelity funds (unmanaged) are showing 9.5% growth. Even with fees SJP seems a no brainer but be interested to hear of opinions. I'm 42 yrs old so not drawing anytime soon.

Thanks.
Look at performance of funds over a much longer term. Use proper data to do this and not anecdotes.

Consider the impact of charges over the long term.
Do the basic maths to understand the compounding impact of charges. Eg. 1% annually applied over 20 years leaves for pot reduced by 1- 0.99^20=??



PistonHead007

309 posts

46 months

Notsofastfrank said:
The biggest Red Flag for you or anybody else considering SJP is that they are not independent. SJP advisers are just salesmen for SJP funds, you have no choice. Speak to a real IFA.
Spoiler alert...there is no such thing as truly independent.

Even a so called IFA will be working off a relatively narrow range of common go to products/investments. So whilst they have the ability to recommend anything, they'll in effect still be using a panel like a restricted adviser.

Nothing wrong with using a panel, so long as it's got good stuff on it. Which SJP's does not.

GiantEnemyCrab

7,814 posts

218 months

Do not place additional value on SJP becauase people in your social circle use them.

They are fking expensive and good luck trying to move away from them.

Run!

mikef

5,607 posts

266 months

OP, you are saying that a published review shows 18% growth? Can you post a link

I would be cautious of what other people are claiming
  1. 18% after fees across a portfolio may not be sustainable (mine are 10% to 15% up over the same period, across 4 my 5 pension providers)
  2. people don’t like to admit they have backed a loser, and will call out one winning bet among many
  3. some outfits (probably the agents rather than companies) can offer incentives to existing clients to to bring in more punters

bitchstewie

58,540 posts

225 months

18% doesn't smell right.

Read this thread from end to end.

St. James' Place - a review…

Tye Green

894 posts

124 months

911hope said:
Look at performance of funds over a much longer term. Use proper data to do this and not anecdotes.

Consider the impact of charges over the long term.
Do the basic maths to understand the compounding impact of charges. Eg. 1% annually applied over 20 years leaves for pot reduced by 1- 0.99^20=??
it's actually much worse than that because they will charge you fees and also fund charges which seems to total around 2+ % annually and after 20 years when you realise the amount you will have paid out over those years in charges and fees it will stagger you.

if SJP were as good as your pal says they would just sack all their staff, get a giant bank loan and invest it all into their own funds...

start your own SIPP with one of the large and well know providers such as HL , Interactive Investor, AJ Bell etc and put the money into a global tracker ETF.


Greshamst

2,352 posts

135 months

If you’re 42, I’d just self-service on whatever pension platform has the lowest fees, and put it into the biggest global index fund you can find, like Vanguard all world (VWRP).

Then in ten years time, you can look at getting advice on how to reduce risk as you get closer to pension age.

I’m of the belief that few financial advisors, especially SJP will beat a global index fee especially when fees are taken into consideration, and you are young enough to take on the risk of all equities.

OddCat

2,696 posts

186 months

GiantEnemyCrab said:
They are fking expensive and good luck trying to move away from them.
How much do they charge then? How is that broken down? How does that differ from what other are charging?

Anyone can move from SJP at any time. Why would you think someone would need 'good luck' to do so?