Pensions

Does anyone on here have a clue about Pensions, and investing for the
future?

The reason I ask is that one of my previous Pension funds is being
wound up, I have a rather nice tidy sum that I can either leave where
it is until I retire (Legal & General), or I can transfer it to my
current plan (Norwich Union).

I can't decide whether to leave it where it is or transfer it, or even
if it would be possible to cash it in and put the money into a
high-interest account until I retire.

I know that the NU guy who I've arranged a meeting with will want me to
transfer the money into the current plan, but what does the FOAK think
would be best? Especially those that have a clue wrt to this sort of
thing.

--
Lesley
CBR600FW
SBS#11 (with oak-leaf cluster)
BOTAFOT#101A UKRMHRC#12
BONY#54P BOB#18
Real burds don't take hormones, they rage naturally

 

Were it me I'd leave it where it is, putting all your eggs in one basket
is never a great idea. That is unless the fund it's invested in is
hugely underperforming, you should take a look at the last few years
figures for both funds and compare how they're doing.

But seek *independant* pension advice.

FWIW, I've got 2 seperate pension funds, one of which is a personal
pension which also contains my S2P opt-out. [1]

[1] I know some people are decrying the idea of opting out of S2P, but
my take on it is I can leave the country, or retire earlier and at worst
get more of my money back.

 

SP emerged from their own little world to say

You can transfer it to where ever the **** you like.

not possible. It has to stay in a "pension fund". Although, there are
pension funds that only invest in short term cash investments: normally
favoured by those about to retire.

As ginge says. Seek independent advice and then decide on the level of risk
you are willing to take. Negotiate on commissions otherwise 5% of your
investment will disappear in a nice little Ducati for your "advisor".

 

Apart from a high-interest account?

You used to be able to 'cash in' funds in a pension, this sort of thing
was no longer allowed when I started working for Cargill, but I sort of
hoped they might allow something similar if it was a high-interest
account that I wasn't going to access until I retired.

I'm waiting for Ginge's reply to appear.

I used to have a financial advisor I could use, for free, but he took a
dramatic career change so that's out of the frame, I think.

--
Lesley
CBR600FW
SBS#11 (with oak-leaf cluster)
BOTAFOT#101A UKRMHRC#12
BONY#54P BOB#18
Real burds don't take hormones, they rage naturally

 

Thanks Ginge (once it finally got through!), food for thought, which is
what I need rather than someone lining their own pockets.

--
Lesley
CBR600FW
SBS#11 (with oak-leaf cluster)
BOTAFOT#101A UKRMHRC#12
BONY#54P BOB#18
Real burds don't take hormones, they rage naturally

 

I'm more than happy to say that the funds are in excess of 20k,
something of which I would struggle to meet in order to match between
now and retirement.

That figure has been reached between my own contributions, the former
employers contributions, and an 'investment' that they made in between
times that gave a *very* good return.

Given the current climate wrt Pensions and retirement, I would like to
see a very good return from this, and hopefully not work until I'm in
my grave.

Yep, and I'll do a bit of scouting for information locally, too.
Someone *always* knows someone when you work in a pub.

--
Lesley
CBR600FW
SBS#11 (with oak-leaf cluster)
BOTAFOT#101A UKRMHRC#12
BONY#54P BOB#18
Real burds don't take hormones, they rage naturally

 

SP emerged from their own little world to say

<Burnt mode>

No, no. 40 Superkings a day and a "last will & testament" in favour of HM
Pensions Dept.

</BM>

 

OI! I want to see the fucking money!

--
Lesley
CBR600FW
SBS#11 (with oak-leaf cluster)
BOTAFOT#101A UKRMHRC#12
BONY#54P BOB#18
Real burds don't take hormones, they rage naturally

 

I'd be cautious of leaving money with a firm exiting the pension selling
game, they've not got as much of an incentive to invest well.

I'd also look at the costs to leave the policy and the costs to enter a
new policy; even if you're bringing a lump sum in there could be a
reasonable 'admin fee'.

Completely agree about eggs and baskets. Equitable are cunts and so are
the Government for failing in their duty of regulating the regulator.

 

Bastard.

And it's Capstan Full Strength BTW.

 

Invest it in property, residential if it's your primary residence
otherwise Commercial

'Hog

 

Thanks to those incompetent wankers my old man's pension is about one third
of what it should be.

 

One of mine is too. Is it the time of year or summat? Hornby group.

Si

 

Is it really worth having more than one provider, though, if your pension is
invested in unitised funds rather than with-profits? I've got (counts) 4
plans of various sizes in various places and I can imagine things becoming a
pain in the arse if I collect any more.

Fully understand the reasoning behind having a diversified portfolio, though
- although on the current scheme (C&W company pension) I've just gone for the
bog standard "whatever" approach of an index tracking fund that transfers
slowly into bonds 10 years prior to retirement

 

I don't think so, this Pension fund has been on wind-down now for
almost 10 years, believe it or not. I know it was started before we
moved house and we've been here almost 7 years now. It's taken so long
as Mercers have been trying to track down some of the policyholders, so
it's been quite a long process.

The Pension fund was from BEOCO (formerly Bibby's) who were owned by a
german company called Bunge. [1] About 12 months after I left, Cargill
[2] (a US company) bought BEOCO from Bunge and this is where the
wind-up of the original Pension scheme began.

[1] Bunge changed the name from Bibby to BEOCO - Bibby Edible Oils
Company.

[2] Had I stayed at BEOCO I would've been working for a former employer.
--
Lesley
CBR600FW
SBS#11 (with oak-leaf cluster)
BOTAFOT#101A UKRMHRC#12
BONY#54P BOB#18
Real burds don't take hormones, they rage naturally

 

Many of them tend to invest over-cautiously, since they need to guarantee
some sort of payout for the last few pensioners.

They seem to have a few buyers lurking around for the with-profits business
now that the lawsuit has been abandoned, so there may yet be some light at
the end of the tunnel.

 

It's only my non expert opinion but what do pension funds invest in?
Property. Do it directly and cut out the middle man.

'Hog

 

You work for C&W? in what kind of capacity. I'm entertaining them for
some NI network ATM.

'Hog

 

I'm certainly not faulting your approach, but for the record the pension
funds invest in a broad spread of assets: quoted equities, gilt-edged
securities, property, unquoted companies which may go public, venture
capital, gold, oil, 'alternative' investments like wine and Old Masters -
and so on. The pensions 'crisis' arose, to put it simply enough not to
bore the arse off everyone, because, in no particular order:
1. In the 80s, after manufacturing companies had sacked huge numbers of
people, they decided to take 'pensions holidays'. They didn't contribute to
the schemes because they suddenly had far fewer employees to fund. This had
the not-uncoincidental effect of boosting their annual profits, of course.
2. This worked fine in a steadily rising stock-market through the 80s and
90s.
3. The funds went way overweight into equities, because of the rising
markets, and didn't balance their portfolios by investing in gilts.
4. Whe the stockmarkets nose-dived in 2000, the funds were suddenly
massively short of realisable assets. They were underwater on the equities,
with no balancing gilts to provide liquidity.
5. Everyone became far more demanding on short-term performance, so the
funds shied away from dull, reliable investments. Those which didn't lost
clients.
6. Gordon Brown 'stole' £5bn/year, by abruptly changing the tax rules for
pension funds.
7. Some of the really egregious failures of company schemes arose because
the scheme was massively over-invested in the shares of the companies
themselves. So, when the company failed - everything failed. Enron is a
spectacular example of this.
8. Arguably, a reviving stockmarket - as we have now - will go a long way to
unwinding the shortfall.

 

Well, Bulldog, so not core C&W but still part of the family.