Richard Smith – The Finance Zone Independent and Impartial Advice about Financial Matters

Abbey Life Personal Pension Plans Some further Guidance Richard Smith – Independent Financial Adviser

Following some further work I have carried out for some policy holders  of Abbey Life Pension and Investment Plans I am pleased to provide an overview  and  a brief guide to your options.

Abbey Life closed to New Business in 2000, prior to this they were not one of the greatest providers of Investment and Pension Products, investment performance was just about acceptable, and the level of charges within the plans was on the high side of higher than average, but certainly not the worst.

If we compare the find information and  statsistics (source FT.com/Lipper) you will see that the overall level of Ranking (this source Lipper) puts Abbey Life somewhere between 1 and 2 based on a good score of 4 or 5. This is based on the Managed Fund Performance. There is similar data and supporting evidence for the rest of the Abbey Life Funds.

Other reasons to consider:-

Charges – Most of the Abbey Life Pension Plans reviewed by us  in recent months carry a policy fee (a monthly non refundable fee) of £3.00 per month, however we have seen some of these as high as  £5.00 per month or more.

When compared with a modern Pension Contract these charges are certainly not the norm.Very few providers now charge a policy fee at all – likely saving £40 per year or so (x 20 years £800 give or take a few pennies).

What about other charges?

Abbey Life Pension Contracts made great play of Capital Units. These are designed to confuse and obfuscate the real level of charges within a Pension Plan

Capital Units  which were commonly used by many Life Assurance and Pension Providers during the 70’s and 80’s are now virtually outlawed by the regulator and certainly would not be allowed to be used in  a modern Pension Plan.

Capital Units could account for up to 80% of your first 5 years Pension Contributions which of course means you will have suffered guaranteed losses  on these plans  during this period, combined with poor investment returns you could expect your retirement to be substantially worse with a plan that levies Capital Units.

There are of course a range of other charges levied on your fund, Bid Offer Spread paid on new investments (every premium you pay will have this charge levied) in the main it is usually around 5% .

Abbey Life have been owned by Deutsche Bank since 2007 and the actual management of the funds within Abbey Life have been outsourced to Scottish Widows, who are well placed to do a better job than Abbey Life could. I have an interesting question for you. Why would a major European Bank want to purchase a Closed Life Assurance Business ( closed means that it no longer accepts new business) for a sum of £977 million? If you want the answer here it is:-

The business does not need to be serviced properly

It takes no management time to run.

It has very light touch in terms of regulation.

It is fantastically profitable given the level of charges levied within these plans.

The last sentence tells you all you need to know, by they way Lloyds TSB also badly needs the money (well it did then and more so now).

As the Business is now operated as Closed Fund we can expect the investment performance to start to worsen as the Funds Under Management Contract. A small fund, and reducing is harder to manage than  a large investment fund.

Do you want me to go on more, look the reality is this Abbey Life are one of the poorest performing, highest charging Pension providers in the UK. There some others that also need to be considered but that is not for here.

By taking some action now you could be increasing your Pension at Retirement by several thousands of points (often 10’s of thousands) by moving your plan to another provider, reducing charges and increasing investment performance. Potentially the direct cost you will be nothing, importantly there

You will also benefit from a more flexible contract along with a good level of advice from ourselves – Independent Financial Advisers.

The initial cost to you for a formal review of your Pension Plan will be Nil or Nothing. We need to fully review the plan before we can provide any advice in any case, this is always Free Of Charge.

I promised not to go on and on about Abbey Life Pension, however they are SO bad, and they really don’t care about you, if they did they would do better.

Please contact me today for a formal review of your options, no charge or obligation.

Please use the form below to obtain some details, to send me an email click here.

Some more links are here

Free Pension Review

A list of Poor Pension Providers (Including Abbey Life)

High Charge Pensions

For further information without obligation please use this box below and we will email you some important information and our Free Pension Report. We hate spam more than, therefore do not share or loan your details with any third party provider.

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