‘Abbey Life’ Articles
Written by richard on 23 February 2010
Pension Planning:
Over the past couple of weeks I have been inundated with a enquiries on two subjects relating to Pensions, and felt it would be worthwhile providing a bit more comment for you here.
Pension Charges
During recent years Pension Charges have fallen dramatically, gone are the days of old where a Pension Provider charged:-
A monthly plan fee (I have seen these as high at £5.00 per month)
An Initial Charge on Contributions – usually 5% as a minimum and can be as high as 80% during the first few years.
Ongoing Charges of 1.5% – 3.5% of the Fund Value
If we compare these with a modern Pension Contract with a single charge of 1.5% of the value of the fund initially you will understand why I urge everyone to review their plans.
Investment Fund Choices
Here is another ‘bug bear’ of mine. For many years clients only had one or sometimes 2 choices of pension fund. With Profits or Managed both of which were only just about acceptable.
During the 90’s things began to change with a far wider choice of funds being made available for individual investors to choose from.
It is now the norm for most modern pensions to have 50, 60 or up to 90 different funds available under a conventional pension plan. Now I am not saying that you should invest in this number of funds, but it does give you an extensive choice, which means your pension can be invested based on your needs and wishes and in accordance with your actual risk profile.
Now I can absolutely guarantee you, that if your plan is on one of my list of pension providers you will be invested in one fund only, this investment will not have been reviewed for many years and the overall performance will be well below expectation.
Rubbish Pension F A Q
Even when you call your provider for further information or guidance you will find that do not want to offer any help or unable to.
Thing is I am not psychic, but as an Independent Adviser having carried out thousands of Pension Reviews I have spotted a clear pattern.
Richard Smith
Abbey Life Plus Pension Review
Tags: Abbey Life, Hill Samuel, Pension Fund Choices, Pension Funds, Pension Planning, Target Life
Posted in Abbey Life, Equitable Life, News - Updates, Pensions - News | Comments Off
Written by richard on 15 February 2010
Fund research – As you may, or may not be aware, when researching the funds for the database I ignore the latest trends, new funds and “star” managers, and concentrate on analysing the actual performance achieved. So when attempting to pick the top performing funds it is refreshing to find an Investment Adviser that is getting it right.
Trustnet recently published their list of 122 “Alpha” managers, i.e. the managers who add real value to the investment process (list attached). Having checked the top managers on their list against my recommended funds it is nice to know that our clients money has 12 of the top 15 managers looking after it.
Now you can choose to take Investment from anywhere, but before you do ask the right question. My clients have and I can prove it.
Richard Smith
Posted in Abbey Life, Equitable Life, General Financial News, Home Buyers, Important, Investments, NPI News, Pearl Pension, Royal Sun Alliance, Scottish Provident, Windsor Life | Comments Off
Written by richard on 18 January 2010
More Ways To Find Out If You Have a Duff Pension Plan And The Action You Can Take To Solve It.
Over the past couple of weeks (yup I know we have just come past Christmas) I have been speaking to more and NPI Pension Owners. This is good news because many have been sadly lacking in advice for some time.
I have produced a list of Poor Pension Providers and these are here. Please fee free to look around the list and contact me should you wish to discuss (informally) any of them.
Abbey Life Pensions/Pension Planning Risk Profile/Investment Funds
For those of you that do not know me, I am a Pensions Expert, with a particular dislike of some of the poorer pension providers in the market place. My Abbey Life Pension Pages are here. And there is an option to find out some further information on this page.
This brief summary is an outline of one of the really big pitfalls and where most Financial Advisers/Banks and Building Society Advisers get it V E R Y wrong. Just look at what some Financial Advisers have been saying on one of their own forums.(Please note this is an external link)
Asset Allocation Rule – Don’t put all of your (investment)Eggs in one basket(or managed fund).
One of the vitally important parts of any Investment Planning (and this includes Pensions) is the correct Asset Allocation.
An explanation is below.
“The process of dividing investments among different kinds of assets, such as stocks, government bonds, property and cash, to optimize the risk/reward trade off based on an individual’s or specific situation and goals. A key concept in financial planning and money management” explained by Investor Words.com
Now even with some of the poorer Pensions Providers in the market place there is a range of available investment funds, however the quality of the advice received initially is often limited and usually there is only one fund chosen. For many of you with these Pension Plans (see list) Have a look at your own Pension Statement, one or two funds within the fund could indicate a poor deal indeed.
Your Provider may not have a range of funds that are remotely usable and this is often the case.
Which of course means that the Asset Allocation rule cannot be used correctly in any instance.
Lets consider the reasons behind this rule – Investment Risk.
There is no right or wrong level of risk; it is just personal preference. An acceptable level of risk to you may be unacceptable to others. As a rule of thumb, the higher the potential returns the higher the risk.
Your attitude to risk may change throughout your life and you should review your investments as this happens.
There are five main types of investment risk are:
Market risk – the risk that market-linked investments lose value when markets fall
Interest rate risk – the risk that investments will lose value when interest rates rise
Inflation risk – the risk that your investment will not keep pace with the cost of living
Credit risk – the risk that the provider may not be able to meet their obligations
Currency risk – the risk that your investment may be affected by changes in exchange rates. The level of investment risk your money is subject to increases if either, you invest in a single type of share, a limited geographical area or a specific part of the economy.
When I am making Pension Investment recommendations the above rules are used as part of the decision making process.
So how does this fit in with your current Pension Plan.
Has your adviser provided you with a range of funds to invest in?
Does your Pension provider even have a range of suitable funds to invest in (not forgetting issues like charges and administration standards)?
If you do have a range of invested funds when was the last time these were reviewed?
I fully understand that you would like some further informatin which is why I have produced a free report and outlining some of the issues here.
Please contact me when you require some further advise, or consider downloading our Pensions Review document, a free report outlining the important points.
Richard Smith
0845 226 9106
Similar Links
Abbey Life Pension Review
Free Pension Review
High Charge Pensions
Tags: Abbey Life, Colonial Mutual Pension, Home Buyers Guide, Investment Planning, Investment Returns, NPI Pension, Pearl Assurance, Pension Transfers, Poor Investments, State Pension, Windsor Life, With Profit Bonds
Posted in Abbey Life, Equitable Life, NPI News | Comments Off
Written by richard on 28 December 2009
The self employed rapidly becoming marginal in the world of pensions , under-provisioned and not seen by most recent governments and political parties, many it seems will arrive at pensionable age with very little income..
There are a couple of issues facing the self employed face when building up a retirement pot.
They are entitled only to the Basic State Pension, whereas employees manage to obtain both the Basic State Pension and an additional earnings related scheme now known as the State Second Pension (it was known as SERPs). The overall limit is capped at £151 per week (2008/09 Tax Year), which is equal to just over £7,800 a year.
Today (December 2009)the Basic State Pension is currently £95.25 per week or £4,953 per year. This is somewhat below poverty line levels and whilst anyone without private savings would be eligible for Pension Credit (provided of course this remains in place) which would take their income up to £130 a week (£6,760 per year) this is still not going to provide any kind of standard of living to aspire to. So the state isn’t giving much to the self employed and is only giving a little more to the employed).
Another issue they face is that by definition they don’t have an employer’s pension scheme on offer. In company pensions the contribution rates are typically split two thirds from the employer and one third from the employee, so the absence of an employer contribution makes a big difference. When it comes to contributions to private pensions, the self employed are lagging behind again. Even the attitude from the UK treasury via the Inland Revenue seems to be against the Self Employed.
The final outcome is that the lack of state or employer pension support means that the self employed are at risk of spending retirement with very little there is also a more than outside chance that they will be working long than planed.
For many self employed there is the option of selling the business at retirement and the cash from sale making up for the shortfall in conventional pension planning, however try selling a local firm of Plumber’s or Electricians and you will find the world not really being that interested. The same also applies to Freelance Journalists and a range of other occupations.
One of the first rules of investment planning is of course not to put all of your eggs in one basket and of course this applies to your business along with conventional stocks and shares.
I strongly recommend in the first instance you consider carefully the level of state support in relation to your Pension, and you can do this here.
You do have some choices, and planning is of course needed sooner rather than later.
In the first instance a review of your existing plans will be the starting point, and then some further reviews of the rest of your business planning and the making of a Retirement Plan in order to ensure your retirement is financially sound will be the best way forward.
Richard Smith
0845 226 9106
Related Links
Abbey Life Personal Pension Reviews
Allied Dunbar Pension Reviews (plus some others)
High Charge Pensions
Pension Survey Please Help
Tags: Abbey Life Pension, Barclays Life, Colonial Mutual Pension, NPI Pension, Pension Transfers
Posted in Abbey Life, Equitable Life, NPI News, Pearl Pension, Royal Sun Alliance, Scottish Provident, Windsor Life | Comments Off
Written by richard on 07 December 2009
Anyone born on or between April 7 1955 and April 5 1960, will see the minimum age at which they can retire increase with effect from April 2010. The effect of this is that you will only be able to draw pension benefits in 5 years time at the minimum age of 55.
So if you are approaching this retirement age you have a limited window in which to get some advice, make some decisions and move your planning forward. It is likely of course that any future change in government will move this retirement age out even further.
You must therefore take advice as soon as possible. The shocking number of people affected by this (some 4 million) will not able to obtain advice between now and April so sooner rather than later seems to be call from me.
The next question is should you look to take your pension benefits ahead of the rule change? Clearly there is no hard and fast answer here, except to say that probably yes for many that will be the right action. Securing early access to your pension savings.
You will need to take action and get some Pension Advice advice.
For those of you with Personal Pensions have a look at this list “Poor Pension Providers” Is yours on it? Please contact me immediately to discuss the options. There is some further information for you, along with a Free Report “Free Personal Pension Review“
Or you can contact me here [Contact-1]
Richard Smith http://www.thefinancezone.co.uk
Advice on Pension Planning Matters
0845 226 9106
Tags: Abbey Life Pension, Colonial Mutual Pension, Mortgages Advice in Copthorne Crawley and East Grinstead, NPI Pension, Pearl Assurance, Pension Transfers
Posted in Abbey Life, NPI News, News - Updates, Pearl Pension, Pensions - News, Royal Sun Alliance, Scottish Provident, Windsor Life | Comments Off
Written by richard on 24 November 2009
I have been busy of late helping many of you with very poor pension providers. Doing the things that they should be doing for you, and with this in mind I have just published a mini article which you may find of interest.
The link to this is here >>
Richard Smith
0845 226 9106
For those of you with Personal Pensions With Natwest or other High Street Names you may want to see this post.
Or any one on this list (Abbey Life Pensions included)
My Free Pension Report is still available
Tags: Abbey Life Pension, Investment Planning, Mortgages Advice in Copthorne Crawley and East Grinstead, NPI Pension, Pearl Assurance, Pension Transfers
Posted in Abbey Life, Equitable Life, NPI News, News - Updates, Pearl Pension, Pensions - News, Royal Sun Alliance, Scottish Provident | Comments Off
Written by richard on 10 November 2009
Equitable 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 Equitable Life Pension and Investment Plans I am pleased to provide an overview and a brief guide to your options.
Equitable 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 Equitable 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 Equitable Life Funds.
Other reasons to consider:-
Charges – Most of the Equitable 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? There are many that may apply and these are dependent on the specific contract,
some of these are outlined below.
Equitable Life Pension Contracts made great play of Capital Units on some of their contracts. 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% .
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 Equitable 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 Equitable 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.
Free Pension Review
A list of Poor Pension Providers (Including Equitable 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.
Tags: Abbey Life Pension, Barclays Life, Colonial Mutual Pension, Equitable Life Pension, Pearl Assurance
Posted in Abbey Life, Equitable Life, News - Updates | Comments Off
Written by richard on 10 November 2009
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.
Posted in Abbey Life, Pensions - News | Comments Off
Written by richard on 30 October 2009
CHANGE TO MINIMUM RETIREMENT AGE Important Update For Abbey Life Pension Holders (and others).
Some Abbey Life Personal Pensions have a very limited options in relation to the way that Retirement Benefits can be taken, effectively this means that if you do not make the choice to move your Pension on the Selected Retirement date you could end up with a Pension that is considerably worse than you could expect had you taken the benefits elsewhere.
The affected Abbey Life Pension Plans are:-
- Abbey Life Personal Pension Plan
- Abbey Life Retirement Plan
- Abbey Life Executive Pension Plan
- Abbey Life Pension Annuity Plan
- Abbey Life Personal Retirement Account.
There is a some action you can take in order to move forward with your Pension Plans, and an urgent review should be carried out with immediate effect.
Firstly you only have until 6/4/10 in order to draw benefits “earlier than 55” as the minimum retirement age is increasing to age 55 with effect from then 55 is the minimum age at which you can draw benefits after 6th April 2010.
This is important for many reasons, however given the level of charges under all of the Abbey Life Pension Plans, the almost dire investment returns from the available funds under management and this new change it is vitally important that you at least review your options with a suitably qualified Financial Adviser.
Key points to review are:
The level of charges within the plan.
Options at normal retirement date
Overall investment returns.
These areas need to be compared with the available plans in the market place currently and if appropriate a transfer of benefits made to another provider.
There are of course several other providers of Pension Plans that are equally as bad and some of these are detailed here.
For those of you reading that would like see my other posts on the subject of Abbey Life Pensions these are below.
Abbey Life Pension Plan Review Service
General Pension Review Service
Abbey Life | Allied Dunbar Pension | NPI Pension | Pearl Pensions | And others important action!
Please contact me should you wish to discuss any of your Pension Planning, in particular if your provider is on the list.
You can contact me here or call on 0845 226 9106
Richard Smith
Independent Financial Adviser
Want to be updated when this page changes send us your details below
Tags: Abbey Life Pension, Barclays Life, Colonial Mutual Pension, NPI Pension, Pearl Assurance, Pension Transfers
Posted in Abbey Life, NPI News, Pearl Pension, Pensions - News, Royal Sun Alliance, Scottish Provident, Windsor Life | Comments Off
Written by richard on 10 September 2009
Interesting month this looks likely to be. September often is. People are beginning to talk about a Double Dip recession as if it could be a possibility. Maybe they are right.
It will certainly upset most of the Estate Agents in the UK.
So what is my focus over the coming months.
Firstly Poor Performing Pensions with providers like Abbey Life, Scottish Provident and Allied Dunbar to name a few, there is more information in here in these links
Abbey Life Pensions
Other Pension Providers
Free Pension Review
On another point relating to Abbey Life Pensions, if you are approaching retirement some of the Policy Conditions are not that helpful so you should seek advice as a matter of priority.
Other matters include reviewing the fund choice of your Pension and Investment Plans to included ISA’s and Unit Trust Investments. In simple terms if you have not reviewed yours over the past few years September/October looks like it will be in your best months of the year so far.
Given we are facing further uncertainty you should be focusing on your overall spending, and giving your Budget a tweak in anticipation of Christmas which of course is not far away.
Wills are Estate Planning are always topical and you should consider updating/revising or amending yours. Inheritance Tax is one of the few that can be safely avoided.
Thank you for dropping by, please let me have any questions you have by using the form on this page.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Richard Smith
0845 226 9106
Posted in Abbey Life, General Financial News, Investments, News - Updates | Comments Off
