Any Pension / Financial Experts Out There?

[rjben]

Hi All,

I've had a pension with AXA since September 2001 making a gross contribution of circa £545 a month. In March 2007 the total fund value was £41K from a total contribution of £31.5k.

Can somebody give me an average yearly % performance figure? General performance sounds poor on face value, I tried to do this naivley but then realised that the interest would be compounded and charges added etc so gave up.

Can you also indicate if this is a reasonable performance? Thanks in advance to all those who reply but I'm really looking for a financial bods opinion on this.

Cheers all,

Rob

[rjben]

Thanks,

Do you have details of the company / fund you have?

Regards,

Rob

[darreni]

rjben said:

Hi All,

I've had a pension with AXA since September 2001 making a gross contribution of circa £545 a month. In March 2007 the total fund value was £41K from a total contribution of £31.5k.

Can somebody give me an average yearly % performance figure? General performance sounds poor on face value, I tried to do this naivley but then realised that the interest would be compounded and charges added etc so gave up.

Can you also indicate if this is a reasonable performance? Thanks in advance to all those who reply but I'm really looking for a financial bods opinion on this.

Cheers all,

Rob

Depends on the Fund/s your invested into Rob.
More infor needed!

[ATG]

I'm a bit confused by the total contrbution number you give and the average monthly contribution. There are 67 months btwn Sep 01 and Mar 07. If the total contribution was £31.5k, that's equiv to a monthly amount of £470 rather than £545. If the monthly average was £470, then the average annual rate of return to grow that to £41k is about 9.6%. No idea whether that is good, bad or indifferent, or indeed if the "total contribution" figure is net of some fees or something similar?? If the average monthly payment was closer to £545, then the average rate of return is going to be much lower.

[rjben]

OK - details as follows (19/3/07):

All fund units are of 'type accumulation'??

fund Units unit price total value

Managed 1238.24 2492.3p £30860
Ethical 5025.13 134.00p £6734
With-Profit 3152.44 100.00p £3152
Bonuses 185.75 100.00p £186


All dutch to me!

[rjben]

ATG said:

I'm a bit confused by the total contrbution number you give and the average monthly contribution. There are 67 months btwn Sep 01 and Mar 07. If the total contribution was £31.5k, that's equiv to a monthly amount of £470 rather than £545. If the monthly average was £470, then the average annual rate of return to grow that to £41k is about 9.6%. No idea whether that is good, bad or indifferent, or indeed if the "total contribution" figure is net of some fees or something similar?? If the average monthly payment was closer to £545, then the average rate of return is going to be much lower.

My actual contribution is £425. The gross figure is after tax relief I think?

Cheers,

Rob

[darreni]

rjben said:

OK - details as follows (19/3/07):

All fund units are of 'type accumulation'??

fund Units unit price total value

Managed 1238.24 2492.3p £30860
Ethical 5025.13 134.00p £6734
With-Profit 3152.44 100.00p £3152
Bonuses 185.75 100.00p £186


All dutch to me!

The units will all be accumulation (as opposed to income).
The bonuses only relate to the with profits fund. With profits funs are poor value & to be avoided IMHO.
The managed & ethical funds will carry a risk to them, in fact you may find that this years valuation is lower than last years despite you having made a further 12 contributions.

Dependent on your age, attitude to investment risk & other pension/retirement provision, i would want to see quite a few extra investment funds in that pension.
If you did this through an IFA, get them to review it. If its something you did yourself, see an IFA & ask them to suggest some alternitive funds based on your requirements/attitude to risk etc.

[rjben]

darreni said:

rjben said:

OK - details as follows (19/3/07):

All fund units are of 'type accumulation'??

fund Units unit price total value

Managed 1238.24 2492.3p £30860
Ethical 5025.13 134.00p £6734
With-Profit 3152.44 100.00p £3152
Bonuses 185.75 100.00p £186


All dutch to me!

The units will all be accumulation (as opposed to income).
The bonuses only relate to the with profits fund. With profits funs are poor value & to be avoided IMHO.
The managed & ethical funds will carry a risk to them, in fact you may find that this years valuation is lower than last years despite you having made a further 12 contributions.

Dependent on your age, attitude to investment risk & other pension/retirement provision, i would want to see quite a few extra investment funds in that pension.
If you did this through an IFA, get them to review it. If its something you did yourself, see an IFA & ask them to suggest some alternitive funds based on your requirements/attitude to risk etc.

Thanks for that!

I should mention that I have around 25 years to retirement and also have an investment property. What I really want to know is if this pension is doing 'ok' and if it's worth me uping my payments or transfering to another fund. That's why I wanted a rough growth yearly growth figure adjusted for compound interest.

Cheers,

Rob