Leave pension or move to PRB

[coolaboola12]

Hi all
Have a pension with Irish life from an old employer invested in a passive equity fund that's doing well. I was thinking of moving it to a PRB and had a chat with a financial advisor today. She told me that the fees on a company policy would be higher than a PRB, this is the opposite what I would have thought as the company was a large multi national

The pension is with Irish life, the advisor wants to charge 150 euro to go through the different PRB options, am I being had ? Should I just leave it where it is

 

[coolaboola12]

My current charges are 0.65% with no extra charges, she doesn't seem to believe that there isn't other charges.

 

[Dave Vanian]

The pension is with Irish life, the advisor wants to charge 150 euro to go through the different PRB options, am I being had ?

I can understand why a broker might want to charge a fee for providing you with a detailed comparison of all the available options. There would be a lot of work to compile such a report and you might decide to do nothing.

She told me that the fees on a company policy would be higher than a PRB

I'm wary of this sentence. She said "would be" which suggests she didn't have the details of your particular Irish Life fund at the time. There is absolutely no standard charge on a pension fund. It depends on the scheme and can vary from below 0.4% for bigger schemes to over 2% for the worst offenders. So making a broad statement like "the fees on a company policy would be higher than a PRB" without having the actual facts available to her is nonsense.

 

[Dave Vanian]

she doesn't seem to believe that there isn't other charges.

It would be very easy for her to check.

 

[coolaboola12]

It would be very easy for her to check.

Yeah I told her the fund charge was 0.65% and she said she was 100% sure there would be an AMC on top of that as Irish life are very expensive. I dug through the policy this morning and it says the AMC is 0.65 and there are no other charges.

 

[Dave Vanian]

Yeah I told her the fund charge was 0.65% and she said she was 100% sure there would be an AMC on top of that as Irish life are very expensive. I dug through the policy this morning and it says the AMC is 0.65 and there are no other charges.

She seems to be fond of making claims that are not supported by facts. If it was me, I'd be inclined to show her the facts and remind her of her claims. But doing so wouldn't achieve anything much for you except perhaps to force her to admit that her claims were wrong.

 

[coolaboola12]

She seems to be fond of making claims that are not supported by facts. If it was me, I'd be inclined to show her the facts and remind her of her claims. But doing so wouldn't achieve anything much for you except perhaps to force her to admit that her claims were wrong.

Yeah I'm just going to leave the policy where it is, thanks

 

[Fortune]

I can understand why a broker might want to charge a fee for providing you with a detailed comparison of all the available options. There would be a lot of work to compile such a report and you might decide to do nothing.



I'm wary of this sentence. She said "would be" which suggests she didn't have the details of your particular Irish Life fund at the time. There is absolutely no standard charge on a pension fund. It depends on the scheme and can vary from below 0.4% for bigger schemes to over 2% for the worst offenders. So making a broad statement like "the fees on a company policy would be higher than a PRB" without having the actual facts available to her is nonsense.

If it's a retail scheme with Irish life, it'd possibly be more expensive. If it's through Irish Life Corporate (or whatever they're called), I'd say it'd be cheaper.

Having read subsequent posts, I'm guessing it'd be in the cheaper category.

 

[GSheehy]

It's possible that she may have been referring to the CIVs/OOCs that may be on the ILAC passive equity fund. That would make them more expensive than the 0.65%. I've never seen ILAC disclose their CIVs/OOCs but maybe it's possible to send a direct request to them and ask what those fund specific charges are.

It's possible to buy (or be sold) a PRB that has a lower AMC than 0.65% IFF the fund is substantial enough.

It's reasonable enough to charge €150 for the time spent sourcing a PRB, from a menu of providers, with a lower AMC than what you have because you may not buy it from her, even though it's cheaper. It happens.

I'd be giving her the benefit of the doubt.

 

[coolaboola12]

It's possible that she may have been referring to the CIVs/OOCs that may be on the ILAC passive equity fund. That would make them more expensive than the 0.65%. I've never seen ILAC disclose their CIVs/OOCs but maybe it's possible to send a direct request to them and ask what those fund specific charges are.

It's possible to buy (or be sold) a PRB that has a lower AMC than 0.65% IFF the fund is substantial enough.

It's reasonable enough to charge €150 for the time spent sourcing a PRB, from a menu of providers, with a lower AMC than what you have because you may not buy it from her, even though it's cheaper. It happens.

I'd be giving her the benefit of the doubt.

Yeah that's fine but my point is that she was full sure my fund was charging an AMC on top of the 0.65% but in fact it isn't, the 0.65% is the AMC and there are zero other charges

My fund is 120k, hardly big enough to be getting extra good terns