to think too few people worry about pensions ...

[redskyatnight]

Was chatting to a group of friends (and friends of friends) the other day when the subject of pensions came up.

Only about half the people there (all in their 30s and 40s) had any sort of pension. Quite a few of those said that they didn't pay in as much as they ought to.

Of the others, the reasons for not having one varied from - not wanting to think about it, assuming the kids would support them, relying on inheritance (!), wanting to spend their money now and let the future take care of itself etc.

Maybe I am unduly worrying (I was in the "have a pension fund but don't pay in as much as I should do" group) but I'm astounded that so many people have effectively closed their eyes to saving for their old age. The state pension isn't going to be much to live on, and can we really rely on other sources of income just materialising from nowhere?

I do appreciate some people genuinely have no money for a pension after essential bills, so am talking about the people who do have disposable income but choose to spend it elsewhere.

hmmm so I have this one pension worth £200 which is split into 3 funds and the annual management charge on EACH fund is 1%

So that's a total of 3% a year AMC

That seems a LOT

Is it normal to charge the fee on EACH fund?

mp, you should not pay a total of more than 1% of the value of the fund (being £200 this year) in fees.

If your £200 is made of £100 in fund A, £50 in fund B and £50 in fund C, you will pay management fees of 1% of £100 + 1% of £50 + 1% of £50.

Ahhhhhhhhh yes of COURSE

This fund is JUST handbag sized

When I read through the pensions notes, I just get the feeling it is all Evil

I will work out which fund is the least horrensou (I think it is my Norwich Union Stakeholder) and bung them together I think

and then I will start paying INTO THEM

now this thread has scared me shitless

OK I hvae one pension that was reasonable from 10 years ago

In the last two years it has lost 56% of it's value

FIFTY-SIX PERCENT!!!!!!!!!!!

It is no longer reasonable

You'll be advising all of us soon MP!

That 1-2% is an annual take, LeninGrad - they had a piece on this on R4 Moneybox last week - 1-2% over 30-40 years with compound interest amounts to a lot of commission

mp, when you say your fund lost 56% in 2 years, what was the date of the statement? Bear in mind UK shares are come up really strong since March this year. Go to www.trustnet.com to see how your fund performed over the last year.

My funds may very well have lost 56% between Sept 08 and March 09. Then again, I have been buying into them since 2000 and would have made some very nice paper gains in the meantime, which would have been cut back by the Lehmans debacle but has now re-gained some lost ground.

This is the nature of market volatility. You might not actually be doing too badly in relation to what you originally put in.

Leningrad, I think in you have lots of pension funds, it might be worthwhile to consolidate them into a few good funds, even if that might result in one-off transfer fees. You probably need a financial advisor to help select the funds.

I cannot monitor funds properly if they are all over the shop and the paperwork would drive me crazy.

BTW, you can set up an online account on www.trustnet.com (I don't work for them, promise) and put those funds into your online portfolio so that it becomes easy for you to check time and again.

As for jumping ship, a 2-3 dog years would do it for me. Try to switch between the same stable of funds to avoid transfer fees. Try not to be emotional about realising losses. Easier said than done, I know. The times I have done it, I realised I don't really think about it after the deed. Clean slate.

I am going to have a fun day attempting to find information about my dodgy pension schemes

So far, I've been on the phone to Legal and General for about 20 minutes, just holding

There is no hold music, just ominous silence

I am getting angry

mp, do the pension funds you hold have scheme administrators? The pension fund I hold from my employer is managed by another organisation that administers that employer's pension fund scheme, and will continue to do so even for employees that have left the company.

You would probably have much better luck getting in touch with the scheme adminstrator. Who has been writing to you about your pensions?

Leningrad, not sure what 'protected rights' means. Could it mean 'guaranteed value' in the context of a with-profits fund?

The pension statement should come with explanatory notes.

My fund is just the Legal and General Managed fund and I can't find it - I asked L&G if there was a more detailed name for it, but they said it was just that

DOH it's TOO HARD

mp, don't give up!

Is this the fund? L&G Managed Pn: I think 'Pn' means pension. It (blue line) is actually outperforming the benchmark index slightly (red line).

If not the right fund, there are a few L&G funds with 'managed' in their name. Scroll down this alphabetical list of funds

Leningrad, if you have duff performers, it makes sense to dump them if only to reduce the number of funds from 16 to a more manageable figure.

I choose funds based broadly on the geographical region: UK, global, US etc and whether they are actively or passively (tracker) managed. I don't tend to take a punt on too specific a sector except I do have a small amount in a UK commercial property fund for fun.

I personally like the idea of investing in tracker funds, provided the fees are lower than for actively managed funds. My FA was a bit sniffy and said that a passively managed tracker puts you at the mercy of bear markets, whereas an actively managed fund can at least try to earn fixed income over that period. Then again, a fund manager friend was also of your 'stick a pin' philosophy and you might as well minimise fees if there is no guarantee an actively managed fund will outperform the market.

There is no right answer!

Oh gawd, this is all too scary. I am firmly of the head in sand camp when it comes to this.

DH has a company pension and a personal pension. We spoke to a financial advisor who said that it was better for all the pensions to be in his name because he gets higher rate tax relief, and that if we divorced, I could claim 50% of the pension pot in any case. But I still can't help worrying. We probably don't pay enough into them in any case.

I am self-employed and put aside £100 a month which I am supposed to be investing in a maxi ISA once the stock market has calmed down a bit - the idea is that this is in lieu of pension arrangement so we have a range of investments.

But still - argghhh!

I agree, a pensions webchat would be good, but who should it be with?? Who do we trust on this issue??