Personal pension change fund or provider?

[tae_qs]

I have a personal pension with Royal London which I do not contribute to anymore, with approximately £100k invested in their RLP UK Equity fund. I still have at least 20 more years before retirement and have been wondering if the money would be better being placed in another fund or provider?

Can anyone recommend a source of information to investigate suitable funds or if it worthwhile please?

Thanks, Ian.

[Ginge R]

Hi Ian,

Royal London is a very good service provider, certainly one of the ones at the top of things within that area (personal pensions). If you wanted to change the provider for another type of pension, I'd probably ask 'why' - do you want to self invest (for instance)?

On the other hand, if you simply wanted to introduce some diversity and review asset allocation, you might want to consider one of their Governed Portfolios. But if you simply wanted to change providers into another personal pension, I'd struggle to find a good reason.

[tae_qs]

Ginge R said:

Hi Ian,

Royal London is a very good service provider, certainly one of the ones at the top of things within that area (personal pensions). If you wanted to change the provider for another type of pension, I'd probably ask 'why' - do you want to self invest (for instance)?

On the other hand, if you simply wanted to introduce some diversity and review asset allocation, you might want to consider one of their Governed Portfolios. But if you simply wanted to change providers into another personal pension, I'd struggle to find a good reason.

Thanks for the information Ginge, I did not know they were so well regarded. I obviously had some good advice when I took it out. I was not specifically looking to move away from them, I was trying to understand if there was a better alternative.

Is it worth my time to investigate moving some or all of the money to a different fund?

And then what tools / websites are available to investigate these funds?

Thanks again
Ian

[sidicks]

tae_qs said:

Thanks for the information Ginge, I did not know they were so well regarded. I obviously had some good advice when I took it out. I was not specifically looking to move away from them, I was trying to understand if there was a better alternative.

Is it worth my time to investigate moving some or all of the money to a different fund?

And then what tools / websites are available to investigate these funds?

Thanks again
Ian

What other funds?
Why?
What are you trying to achieve?
What risks are you happy to accept?
etc

[tae_qs]

sidicks said:

What other funds?
Why?
What are you trying to achieve?
What risks are you happy to accept?
etc

I do not know which funds. I am trying to ensure I have a good return for my retirement. As I still have 20 years to go I do not want to be stuck in an underperforming fund. But I do not know how to analyse whether there is a better alternative.

[JulianPH]

FE Trustnet is a fund comparison site you could use.

Your fund appears to basically be a FTSE Allshare Tracker - and with a 1% annual management charge, a very expensive one too!

https://www.trustnet.com/Factsheets/Factsheet.aspx...

If all you want to do is track the FTSE then there are much cheaper options available that could save you a fortune over 20 years.

But I would question the wisdom of just tracking the UK market. There are other developed markets and the potential of strong developing markets to consider. Equally you have other asset classes such a property, gilts and bonds that could be added to the mix to generate potential for higher returns whilst spreading risk.

You could look at selecting your own choice of very low cost trackers and building a portfolio yourself to really cut your fees, or use a managed model portfolio service to do all this for you - still for less than the Royal London fees.

Your performance has been good lately because the FTSE has performed well, but if that changes direction so will your pension value. I think a broader spread is a better idea personally and it is easy to achieve.

Intelligent Money (my investment management/SIPP/ISA company) offers this at 0.87% a year. Alternatively speak with Royal London and see what else they can offer you. Also, Ginge R runs 'Fiver A Day' which offers managed model portfolios so you could have a word with him.

[Ginge R]

Julian,

Very kind of you.

Ian,

If you'd like to drop me a line, I'll give you a couple of pointers.