Pension- what funds to pick?
Discussion
I have two pensions, a SIPP with IM which is all my previous employments bundled into one, and my current workplace pension with Scottish Widows.
The SW pension is invested in a default plan, mixed equity 60-80%, which is annualised over the last 10 years at 5.9%. I can actually choose which fund(s) i would like to invest in, however there are an absolute plethora of funds to choose from such as SW Artemis SmartGARP Paris-Aligned Global
Equity CS1, SW Legal & General World Equity Index CS1, SW Fidelity UK Gilt CS1 and many more. In fact I think there may be a few hundred.
Question is what is the best way to understanding the funds, the titles/names don't make much sense to me, they all have fact sheets but its quite laborious downloading each one and looking at the figures.
the 5.9% average over 10 years isn't bad but id like to increase my risk a little and potentially reap a bigger return.
The SW pension is invested in a default plan, mixed equity 60-80%, which is annualised over the last 10 years at 5.9%. I can actually choose which fund(s) i would like to invest in, however there are an absolute plethora of funds to choose from such as SW Artemis SmartGARP Paris-Aligned Global
Equity CS1, SW Legal & General World Equity Index CS1, SW Fidelity UK Gilt CS1 and many more. In fact I think there may be a few hundred.
Question is what is the best way to understanding the funds, the titles/names don't make much sense to me, they all have fact sheets but its quite laborious downloading each one and looking at the figures.
the 5.9% average over 10 years isn't bad but id like to increase my risk a little and potentially reap a bigger return.
Your current age and intended retirement date should influence risk levels, especially with a pension. Increasing risk if you're due to retire in the next few years would be a gamble.
I'd suggest better understanding and assessing the default SW pension plan first (is it a single fund?). What is its risk category, how has it performed versus its benchmark or a similar index, what are the on-going charges etc. In other words, is it any good?
Assuming that you still want to change having done that, looking at every available fund is coming at it from the wrong direction. It's easier to draw up a shortlist by selecting things like asset type, IA sector, management style (active or passive), maximum charges etc.
I'd suggest better understanding and assessing the default SW pension plan first (is it a single fund?). What is its risk category, how has it performed versus its benchmark or a similar index, what are the on-going charges etc. In other words, is it any good?
Assuming that you still want to change having done that, looking at every available fund is coming at it from the wrong direction. It's easier to draw up a shortlist by selecting things like asset type, IA sector, management style (active or passive), maximum charges etc.
C69 said:
Your current age and intended retirement date should influence risk levels, especially with a pension. Increasing risk if you're due to retire in the next few years would be a gamble.
I'll let you tell it to those who retired and/or crystallised last year when bonds (the less risky part?) took a dump 
Phooey said:
I'll let you tell it to those who retired and/or crystallised last year when bonds (the less risky part?) took a dump
My take home from that was that you want a degree of balance when considering a portfolio rather than bonds per se are bad. Also depends what the OP considers as adding risk - moving the bond:equity balance, or swapping all the equities for US tech stops as they're the only vaguely decent performers in the year to date.Gassing Station | Finance | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff