If you have not reviewed your personal pension for some time you probably should. A pension review will be of particular interest if you have any of the following:
Pension Charges.
Over the past few years Pension charging structures have changed dramatically. Charges applied to new Stakeholder pension plans can be far lower than in the past. If you took out a pension plan some years ago you may now have a relatively expensive pension contract. A pension review may help possibility of transferring to a cheaper plan.
Pension companies are fond of using jargon to describe their charges. This is rarely helpful and difficult for the man or woman in the street to understand. The terminology includes - bid offer spread, initial charge, accumulations units, monthly plan fee, nil or reduced allocation period, annual management charge. This is the jargon applied to the charges to many pension contracts have - particularly those taken out before 2000. Some pension companies have changed their charging structure on older pension contracts but many have not. You could still be paying higher charges than you need to even if you are no longer paying into the pension.
A pension review can help clear these matters up.
Pension Review and Investment Performance
This is an important matter as at the end of the day the value of your income retirement will be heavily affected by how effectively your pension company makes your money grow. If you are unhappy with your pension company’s investment performance you need to review it. Many clients have pensions investing into a "Balanced Managed" fund which may be achieving limited returns. A pension review will enable you to consider whether these funds still suit your attitude to risk. Old style pension contracts, even those with well known pension companies may only small number of funds to choose from. Modern pension contract cans offer a wide range of funds to choose from to help spread your investment.
A pension review will provide an overview of your current investment performance and possible alternatives
With-Profits Pension Funds - A pension review priority
With-Profits Pension Funds were very common in the eighties and the nineties. Many companies still have large amounts of funds invested in with-profits funds. However, pension plans invested in with-profits funds need careful consideration. Many with-profits funds are now heavily invested in low risk assets such as gilts and cash. As a result these funds offer low rates of return. It seems reasonable to assume that some are unlikely to grow significantly during the longer term. Whilst some have continued to perform well others have not and if you have a personal pension invested in a with profits fund it really does need a review.
How a personal pension review works
We are a firm of highly qualified and experienced independent advisers. When we carry out a pension review we look at your current financial circumstances and your pension plan(s). We are able to gather all the key details about your existing pension arrangements. As part of the pension review, we look at the charges and investment performance of your current pension company. We then compare this to what is currently available from the current Independent Pension Market place. We compare the figures if all of the plans were transferred into the same policy with one charging structure. This could save you money or give you the prospect of gaining better investment performance. If this appears to be appropriate and suitable for you and your situation and you agree, then we will proceed with the paperwork.
To sum up our pension review service allows us to :
The Next Step for Pension Review
If you wish to conduct a pension review please do not hesitate to contact us on 01244 512247 or fill in the online form.
