Starting a pension at 49 - SIPP or stakeholder?

[Floralruthue]

I need some kind of starting point right now please!
After several years of part time work only, due to bringing up a large family, and many years out of work altogether to care for and home school our disabled DD I am now ready to invest £400 a month in a pension. My previous workplace pensions amount to less than £1000 so I plan to invest for £20 years ( retiring at 70) and hope to be working full time within the next few years. I will receive half of my DH pension but want my own pot of around £70,000 to £100,000. I currently only earn £5500 a year due to my caring commitments so have no current workplace pension. I hope to work full time again in a few years time though.

My question is should I go for a SIPP or stakeholder pension? I’m thinking stakeholder as I have no knowledge of finance and do not want to spend time managing my investments. What would you do? Which stakeholder pensions would you recommend?
I have thought of getting advice from an IFA but as I have no funds I fear a lack of interest!
What would you do??

Following for similar advice. I have a small pension with The People's Pension from my last workplace. I like how transparent it is with online access to all details. No idea if there is better out there though.

I would look at the costs, including the costs of drawdown at time of retirement if you can find out that detail.
Some SIPPS can be costly, others are not. Mine costs 0.37% inclusive of the fund fee.
Just looking at a Legal & General Stakeholder pension and it has annual management charge of 1% up to £25,000 then 0.9% to £50k and then 0.8%.

Thank you nanny nick. Do you spend much time managing your SIPP? Are you happy with it? Those costs seems low. I’m concerned that it would cost a lot to have one managed for me but wouldn’t trust my own financial decisions! May I ask who your SIPP is with?

I would go for a SIPP but look after own investments. It's really not rocket science.

Stakeholders pensions were introduced some years ago with the intention of being a simple, straightforward product with a cap on charges (max 1.5% for first 10 years, falling to 1% thereafter) and limited range of funds to choose from. However, they have by and large been superseded by more competitively priced products, not least the workplace pension which has an even lower cap on charges (0.75%).

At the same time there have been developments in SIPPs, where there are now really 3 categories, the most expensive being a full SIPP in which a wide range of qualifying investments can be held (eg commercial property, gold, direct shareholdings) and the least expensive being a much simpler SIPP, with typical charges of around 0.35%pa plus further costs depending on the underlying funds selected.

The most important thing here is for you to actually get started with making contributions and claiming the tax relief to immediately boost the savings. Fund choice can seem a bit overwhelming if you're looking at a list of hundreds to choose from but actually that can be narrowed down pretty quickly if you understand your appetite for risk and look for funds that are designed to match that.

Thank you for this comprehensive explanation Sunseed.
I am looking at the Vanguard SIPP with it’s appealing 0.15% only charges.
Any SIPP recommendations anyone and how did you start your investing? Any useful websites and articles I can access to help me get started?

Podcast series all about pensions: meaningfulmoney.tv/season-11-pensions-masterclass/

I am using Vanguard with a LifeStrategy fund. It's a bit UK heavy, could be more globally diversified but it's nice and simple, set and forget.
I logged in this month to increase my regular monthly contribution by another 10%. So no I don't do much in terms of management, I just increase my direct debit every now and then - good habit to get in to as you won't notice small increases... once you do notice it then you can go back a step and know that you are putting in as much as you reasonably can on a regular monthly basis.

Vanguard SIPP:
A quick review of it from a UK financial planner.