advice re pension fund my father bought

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pinkyBear

Registered User
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Hi there,
I was wondering if I could get some advice - my father retired - he sold a family business some years ago and had some money to invest. 12 years ago he invested in a fund that after year one paid monthly dividend.

All was well, last year he decided to shop around - he spoke to a few banks and a broker. The broker and two banks recomended a simular fund. So my dad invested. He was also advised that this was a low risk fund.

Over a year has gone by 3 months ago my dad got a letter from this financial informing him that over the year his fund has decreased by 15%, my dad given that this was a 10 year fund was not undually worried.

My dad was due to recieve some income from this fund since June and hasn't, I have advised him to contact the company. However he is reluctant to do so.

At the moment he is barely surviving on the pension... Any advise would be appreciated...
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Are you sure that this was a pension product he invested in, as distinct from some other form of investment product?

Can you post the name of the fund?
 
Sorry yes it was an investmant fund - I think the previous one was with Caladonian. I will try and get more info over the week end.
Cheers.. P
 
Hi LD - it is an Irish life investment fund - what exactly I dont know and I dont want to appear to be prying.
Cheers,
P
 
Hi Pinky,

It seems there are two issues here. The fact that the fund dropped over the past year is presumably due to global equity and other investment markets doing similarly. If the choice of fund was appropriate for your father's requirements and risk profile from the outset, this possibility would have been explained to him.

I'm a little bit more confused by the fact that your father was expecting an income in June but hasn't received it. If he didn't get any notification of why this income wasn't paid to him, he should contact Irish Life. You say that he's reluctant to. Why the reluctance?
 
Hi LD cheers for the reply - we were both aware that the current market would affect the value of the fund, this neither of us (I have been helping my dad organise his finances over the past few years..) are too concerned as it will go back up.

The reason he wont contact them is because if the fund has decreased so much and he continues to draw an income from it he is afraid he will run out of money. For now he has decided to try and live on the pension alone.

I have managed to persuade him to contact the bank, so hopefully he will get some explanation..
Cheers,
P
 
pinkyBear said:
Sorry yes it was an investmant fund...
Click to expand...

I think this is an Investments query.

Pinky - I agree that if your father can afford to cancel the income while markets are down, he's avoiding selling units at a low price. But I'd still be concerned that the company appears to have done this without instructions from, or notification to him, which shouldn't happen. It's probably an administration error somewhere but I don't think there's any harm in checking it out.
 
Hi Clubman, it is advice on an investmant fund my dad bought which is his pension.

Pinky - I agree that if your father can afford to cancel the income while markets are down, he's avoiding selling units at a low price. But I'd still be concerned that the company appears to have done this without instructions from, or notification to him, which shouldn't happen
Click to expand...
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Thanks for the advice LD, I am not entirely sure how these things pan out, I am concerned at the lack of communications with my dad regarding the decision, my dad was even worried had he invested in a bogus fund.

Cheers,
P
 
Hi pinkyBear,

Can you tell us a little more about why your father decided to abandon a product that would have appeared to be going 'well'?

Do you know what percentage of the fund he was drawing down each year and whether he got back his original investment, at the end of the 12 years?

He would have had to cash this bond in to replace it with the new one and I am just curious as to what reasons, the bank/advisor offered, that would make them think that it was 'better' than what he had already?
 
Hi there,
Prior to this he was getting about €1000 per month (approx 5%) with his first investment, the over all performance of the fund was OK - the fund had not really grown over 8 years but he had recieved an income. he wanted to shop around - he had been with Caladonian for 8 years and when we looked into it the fund he chose, (this had been recomended by 2 banks and 1 broker)...

P.
 
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