Advise on Eagle Star Advice PRSA

I am in full time employment and have a couple of paid up pensions from previous employment. Over the last 5 years I've been contributing to the SSIA which is up in August. I now want to set up a PRSA and an independent adviser has recommended an Eagle Star Advice PRSA Regular Non AVC. Charges quoted are 2.75% contribution charge and 1.5% per annum management charge. Has anyone else any experience with this PRSA? Are these charges standard? Also, I'm considering making a lump sum contribution from my SSIA. I earn over 50k gross so am I right in saying I won't qualify for the government pension/SSIA incentive? Many thanks in advance.

I have a personal pension with eagle star (not PRSA) and it has a 5% bid-offer spread and .75% [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]management charge. So the PRSA seems much the same but you probably find cheaper elsewhere.

I have to say that Eagle Star have good fund managers and always rank high in the end of year charts (and I know past performance is not the same as future performance!). They have a pretty decent range of funds so you can split your contributions into diffferent risk levels and there's a good website where you can track your funds.

Why did your adviser recommend them?


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Hi Learner.

I would also be a fan of Eagle Star for PRSAs.

We would usually set-up with no charges whatsoever - other than a flat fee at the start e.g. €200 or more depending how much advice you wanted.

The only charge then would be the 1% investment manager fee which they charge to your fund value each year.

So, the deal being offered to you is ok, but if your contributions are - or will be in the future - very large then a % of contribution fee is always bad value.
However, if you're only putting in for example €2k a year then it seems to be not a high charge.

Also - if you earned > €50k in the year before SSIA matures (for example for 2005 if SSIA is maturing before end this year)...then you cant get Government top-up...but do note that contributions get a better relief (in form of tax-break) than this anyway, especially seeing as (it seems) you're a higher-rate tax payer.

Capital1 said:

We would usually set-up with no charges whatsoever - other than a flat fee at the start e.g. €200 or more depending how much advice you wanted.

The only charge then would be the 1% investment manager fee which they charge to your fund value each year.

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Who are you? Can you post contact details - since LA Brokers (I think it was) stopped doing 100% allocation/1% annual fee, cheap PRSAs seem to be a bit thin on the ground...

Leave me confirm that this is exactly the deal that we have with Eagle Star...which I will do Tuesday morning (I do not work on Sales side so this is not my usual territory and I do not want to be accused of false promises!)...and I will post my contact details before close of business Tuesday.

But, if you want to look into us, the company that I work with is Capital Consulting - [broken link removed]

Thanks for the replies. Are the prsas you're referring to askalot and Capital1 standard prsas or non standard? Can anyone tell me generally what the difference is and what would be the advantages of going for a non-standard PRSA?

Capital1 said:

But, if you want to look into us, the company that I work with is Capital Consulting - [broken link removed]

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Thanks a million, Capital1! I'll certainly have a look at you guys - play your cards right and you could join the hallowed roll of AAM honour that includes Rea and Prima....

Hi Learner - the PRSAs that I am talking about are STANDARD.

A NON-STANDARD will usually have access to certain funds that would not be available to STANDARD, they will usually cost more...and this is because the funds available may be more complicated structures (involving borrowing or syndicated property deals for example) - so the additional cost may or may not be worthwhile, comes down to personal choice.

The Eagle Star Non-Standard PRSA does not open up access to many extra funds - 2 or 3 at last count I think.

They recently added their Matrix range of funds to the Standard PRSA offerings, so their Standard PRSA offers access to a relatively large and diverse number of funds, compared to most other PRSA providers.

You can check out the list of funds available under their Standard and Non-Standard PRSAs [broken link removed].

Hi capital1 , can you confirm the standard prsa deal you mentioned is with eagle star and post contact details.
thankyou

Hi geyser sorry for delay but I wanted to confirm with Eagle Star that deal we offered is available for PRSAs and it is.

If you have any questions, or would like any further info about their PRSAs and the range of funds please send such queries to info@cccorporate.ie and we will get back to you.

Thanks