Did the 15 year old Quinn Life freeway funds (now Irish Life) get the .5% AMC loyalty reduction

Hi,

Quinn life Freeway funds were a very popular option on askaboutmoney some 15 or more years ago for simply and cheaply tracking stock market indexes, especially for small recurring investments.

They promised a .5% reduction in charges on funds after 15 years.

Had anyone seen this promise fulfilled by Irish Life?

Sean.

This question was mentioned in another thread - but a conclusion was not reached on the thread https://www.askaboutmoney.com/threa...-funds-now-looked-after-by-irish-life.187244/

a good question,I have a Quinn Life/Irish Life fund with a lot of years,I normally just look at the return which over the years has been ok if not exciting, but far far exceeded the bank rates
I would be interested to know if they reduced charges though.

Pat

The annual statement from Irish life gives the charges for each fund, if your account is more than 15 years old you could check that and see if they were reduced?

I receive a reply from Irish Life

"After year 15, the fund management charges will reduce by 0.5% from year 16 onwards."

i.e. the lower fees commence on the 15th anniversary of the policy start date.

So it looks to be confirmed. Still waiting to see if anyone actually has experienced the reduction in fees.

What is the charge reducing from?

The charges vary, depending on the specific fund. They vary from 1 to 1.5%, if memory serves (don't have the documentation in front of me).

SBarrett said:

What is the charge reducing from?

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Fund Name Fund Management Charge
Biotech QLD 1.20%
China QLD 1.50%
Clean Energy QLD 1.50%
Emerging Markets QLD 1.50%
Euro Bond QLD 1%
Euro QLD 1%
Irish QLD 1%
Japan QLD 1.50%
Latin American QLD 1.50%
North American QLD 1.20%
Technology QLD 1.20%
UK QLD 1.20%
Most of these are now converted to IL Indexed Funds but still use the old QLD titles

Steven, how do you see these charges compared to other funds on the market for smaller investment amounts? (in light of no low cost ETFs being available to investors)

I would also like find out if people think that it is worth continuing with the Quinn Life funds. Mine will reach 15 years in a few years time and does the reduction of 0.5% in the AMC make it attractive for regular payments index tracker type funds?

Started Quinn Life accounts around 2007 and secured agreement re management charge reductions reductions from year 11 rather than year 15 as was on the brochure. Quinn Life was keen for us to open the additional accounts at the time. Correspondence from Quinn life confirming existence of this arrangement. Irish life not recognising the Quinn Life arrangement, as we are beyond year 11 at this stage.

Hi
Anybody reach the 15year limit yet?
I opened mine in may 2006, so a bit more to wait....
I opened it , while self employed, under a ltd. Company but am now considering shutting down the company and have to see what my options are?

I am wondering also, if after 15 years, you put more money , is it all then charged at the lower rate? Or just the amount that's there for the 15 years? Not even sure if my question makes sense

chargeschecker said:

Started Quinn Life accounts around 2007 and secured agreement re management charge reductions reductions from year 11 rather than year 15 as was on the brochure. Quinn Life was keen for us to open the additional accounts at the time. Correspondence from Quinn life confirming existence of this arrangement. Irish life not recognising the Quinn Life arrangement, as we are beyond year 11 at this stage.

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I have a similar experience, where they are not honouring a commitment QL gave me.

Total balance would be at the new rate. New money would qualify immediately.
I guess they will just close the funds once they become less profitable as more reach 15years.

hadit2here said:

Hi
Anybody reach the 15year limit yet?
I opened mine in may 2006, so a bit more to wait....View attachment 5138
I opened it , while self employed, under a ltd. Company but am now considering shutting down the company and have to see what my options are?

I am wondering also, if after 15 years, you put more money , is it all then charged at the lower rate? Or just the amount that's there for the 15 years? Not even sure if my question makes sense

Click to expand...

I wrote to Irish life last week. They may not honoring the reduction in fees at 15 years. Their correspondent did not have documentation saying that they shoud be reduced. They requested further paperwork to investigate this.

Does anyone have a PDF of the original Quinn Freeway Brochure that could be used as evidence? Thank you

drdiarmaid said:

I wrote to Irish life last week. They may not honoring the reduction in fees at 15 years. Their correspondent did not have documentation saying that they shoud be reduced. They requested further paperwork to investigate this.

Does anyone have a PDF of the original Quinn Freeway Brochure that could be used as evidence? Thank you

Click to expand...

Here you go

spacegerbil said:

Here you go

Click to expand...

spacegerbil said:

Here you go

Click to expand...

Re Quinn life Freeway funds, which were taken over by Irish Life, I started investing in october 2002 as a Personal Pension Bond.Some years ago,
I queried the promised loyalty half % reduction in the fund charges with Irish Life. In my yearly benefit statement from 2018, there appears a figure under Plan Bonus, which was explained represented the loyalty bonus. However, they obstinately refused to alter/reduce the stated origional fund % charges appearing on my annual statement, which I thought peculiar. Impossible to know whether I am receiving the promised full half % reduction in the fund charges, from year 16 onwards.
I subsequently asked for an actual figure stating the total annual fund charge deducted from my funds. Was told it would be too difficult to calculate.
So much for transparency. Interested to hear of others experience.

This is insane.

You bought the contract on the understanding that the AMC would be reduced to either 0.5% or 0.7% at the beginning of year 16, depending on which fund you invested in.

Irish Life have to honour that. They bought the book of business knowing the pricing structure and would have factorted that in to the price they paid.

The reply communications you are receiving from ILAC are really vague - 'not honouring' 'may not be honouring' and 'loyalty bonus'.

If there isn't a 0.5% 'loyalty bonus' (to the value of 50%/41.66% of the annual charges figure on your annual statement) from year 16 onwards, start screaming at ILAC about it. If that doesn't work, log a formal complaint. If that doesn't work, go to the Ombudsman. Go to the press.

ILAC (and some other product providers) still sell policies (eg AVCs) that give a contractual committment to reduce the AMC after a certain period of time. Are these not going to be honoured?

If you have a pension product you can move it to a (probably) cheaper product now via a discount broker. The savings/investment stuff is not so simple, as there would be considerations about the exit tax that you would have to get advice on.

Gerard.

www.prsa.ie

drdiarmaid said:

I wrote to Irish life last week. They may not honoring the reduction in fees at 15 years. Their correspondent did not have documentation saying that they shoud be reduced. They requested further paperwork to investigate this.

Does anyone have a PDF of the original Quinn Freeway Brochure that could be used as evidence? Thank you

Click to expand...

Investors in the QL funds should a have received a document 'Policyholder circular with respect to a scheme for the transfer of part of the life assurance business of Quinn-Life Direct Limited to Irish Life Assurance plc'. The circular was issued on 1 June 2012.

On the policy transfers the circular states in Section 2 “4 Will my policy be the same after the Transfer? Yes There will be no changes made to your existing policy terms and conditions. Your policy will retain the same benefits”.

This is being honoured.

The information is not on the annual statement but, if you have online access to your policy go to 'Investment History' and you will see 'Unit Addition' with a monetary amount added each month to the value of 0.5% of fund value.

Gerard

www.bond.ie

I can also confirm this, by letter of apology from irish life today. They said that some of their newer staff are not familiar with these plans. Evidence of the unit additions were also included in the correspondence.