very boring pension question yawn!

[justwantcheese]

thinking of starting a stake holder pension,who does the best one? are they easy to set up? can i put a lump sum in? thanks i can't find the information on the internet.

There are many companies offering stakeholder pensions - Aviva, Legal & General, Standard Life, Halifax, Scottish Widows etc. etc. They're not that difficult to set up either. One phone-call, they'll send someone round and job done. This is one comparison tool that has some good tips on how to sort through the options.

Defining 'the best' is difficult however. If you want to go on admin costs, that's not a bad place to start. Look for the fees attached to compare different policies. If safety is your top priority you'll be looking at reputable long established companies covered by FSA rules and regs. But if you want to know which pension will accumulate the most money by the time you retire, that's a crystal ball situation - no-one knows :)

I'd recommend that you talk to an Independent Financial Adviser to guide you through the choices and help you set it all up. They should explain the various risks and limitations. And they should offer you some other long term saving/investment ideas on retirement planning to accompany a pension - pays not to have all your financial eggs in one basket.

thank you that's really helpful.

You can put in a lump sum up to 100% of your annual earnings or £50,000 per annum (there is carry back too so a greater sum wouldn't be a problem). If you don't earn you can put in up tp £3600 per annum and still receive tax relief. Due to the tax relief you only actually pay the amount net of 20% tax (i.e £2880) and if you are a higher rate/additional rate tax payer you claim the further tax relief via a self assessment tax return.

Stakeholder pensions are the governments answer to pensions hence they don't work as well as non stakeholder pensions as the charges are capped and as we all know you get what you pay for. Stakeholder pensions offer a limited amount of funds and these are generally underperfoming as the companies cannot get good fund managers and administer the scheme for 1% that the companies are allowed to Charge for a stakeholder. A personal pension has better options and wider fund choice.
Speak to a good financial adviser here is the number of Mine. Mark 01656 661121