Hi galwegian44,
I would agree with Conan that a Directors pension is the more flexible option for you in relation to maximising contributions. His comments re Life Co. or self administered pensions are likewise very sound, I would add that for a self administered pension there can be a issue, where for smaller pensions the minimum annual charge can make self administered schemes more expensive until you have crossed an effective breakeven size. Any decent adviser can work out these numbers for you.
I think you are doing absolutely the right thing by talking to several advisers in relation to your pension planning, though you need to recognise that any bank employee is in effect a tied agent and can never be considered as being independent. If I were you this is roughly how I would approach the issues you are looking at;
1) Firstly I would do the boring but vital financial planning exercise; an adviser should do this for you but if you are comfortable doing the numbers yourself than that is also an option. Decide what level of income in retirement you need or are aiming for. Quantify what income will be provided from all current pension benefits and see what the shortfall is. Now look at your funding plans/capacity for the pension you are setting up. Quantify what rate of return after costs you will require to meet your pension fund target at retirement. This gives you your target or required rate of return. Once you have that you are better placed to look at various investment options and rule out unsuitable ones. If for example you only need a 4% per annum growth rate on your new pension, then this should frame your investment decisions. You may not need to take on higher risk/return investment options.
2) Get your adviser to provide details on the cost structure of both self administered and insured options. You will be looking to ascertain what net allocation rate you receive on all contributions ( i.e is there an entry charge), what the on going annual management charge is for the various funds/investment options and if there are any early exit charges and/or any other charges. Again this is reasonably straightforward to provide. All advisers should be able to clearly lay out the cost structure options and the various pros and cons.
3)The harder piece is the important and often neglected piece, i.e how do you suggest/recommend that we invest to meet the 4% (or whatever target you have ) return after all costs, required to deliver the required amount at retirement to provide the income you require. In our view an 80/20 rule probably applies i.e 20% of the outcome will be driven by the cost structure but 80% will be driven by then investment performance. We have done our own analysis of the historic net investment performance of all the main life company offerings and found that for the same asset class e.g Eurozone equities there was a surprisingly large performance difference over 5 years i.e there was an over 4% per annum differential between the best performing and the worst. This is historic data, clearly no one can be certain the differential will be repeated but I would certanly at least want to see the relative performance numbers for all the various providers.
Recently we have the innovation of fund platforms being offered where we can now access the best fund managers from across the world. If you have the time I would look at these options as well. If as you say your priority is simply to protect our capital this step may not be required in your case.
4) Once you have decided on your plan, funding levels and suitable investment strategy, you then need to choose who to transact the pension with. If you are clear on all of the above and dont need/require advice then shop around for the lowest cost execution only offering. If you feel that you do need advice and help with the analysis and investment piece, then I suggest you talk to several firms, preferably all independent and not tied agents. Ask several adviser firms to provide you with both terms and investment recommendations - the best way to get price/value discovery. Then you can assess what is good value and which investment approach makes the most sense for you.
I know this is a bit extra work, but in the long term it could be time very well spent on what is an important issue. There are plenty of good independent advisers who post on Askaboutmoney and you can look at those posts if you want a starting point to identify advisers who should be able to help and add value. If your decison is to work with an adviser make sure to clarify with the adviser as to what services they offer, the charges involved, their qualifications and credentials and how they can add value to you.
Regards Vincent