pension options?

L

legend

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looking for advice on what to do next?...

background... have a company pension through an ex employer worth approx 20k...

recently became self employed as a proprietry director and started a directors plan which is worth approx 10k.. (BOI Life)

due to work expanding...have been advised to go limited company status for tax purposes...

wondering what are my best options with regards to pension provision going forward ? 36 next birthday... all advice welcome
 
You probably need independent professional advice in this case.

In general the options for a fund that is part of an ex-employer's occupational scheme are:
  • Leave it invested in the scheme
  • Transfer it to another occupational scheme
  • Transfer it to a standalone buy out bond/pension retirement bond
  • Take a transfer or personal/AVC contributions net of tax if you had less than 2 years membership (including vesting time transferred in if applicable).
 
You really would have two main choices now that you have set-up a limited company, presuming you plan to stay involved as a director of this company for most if not all your working life:

  • An insured pension arrangement - an Executive Pension basically with one of the major insurance companies OR
  • A self-administered pension arrangement - your own legal entity (much like your company) that can buy a whole range of assets from stocks and shares to commodities and direct proeprty investments
Whichever one of these you go for, you could transfer your ex-employer's pension into it to give it a kick-start.
 
I think that Legend is satisfied with the response to his query but I was wondering what is the going rate for the setting up of a SSAPP (Self-Administered Scheme)? It is just that I went to one place and it seems very expensive to do when all they are doing is filling in forms with the information that you provide them with.

Is there any low-cost provider of that specialise in that area? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
hi Fed

I am not sure what the going rate is.

One deal I have come across is a €2.5k set-up fee and a €2k annual fee thereafter...it is more than filling up forms, a separate legal entity needs to be created and revenue approval for the entity needs to be obtained.
 
As far as I remember the self administered schemes are only viable when you get into serious money...perhaps Liam or Capital CCC can confirm (or refute) this?
 
Well I gather that the contribution would need to be north of €20k per annum...more importantly the other thing that I understand is that the investor should have a specific investment objective.



"As far as I remember the self administered schemes are only viable when you get into serious money...perhaps Liam or Capital CCC can confirm (or refute) this?"

Maybe Liam would know?
CapitalCCC seems to have been banned.
 
That's news to me...I always found him/her a very helpful contributor with good knowledge of the pension business.
A shame
 
Well it says "Banned" under any of his/her posts so I presume he/she must have been banned for something, unless it means something else

Anyway, hopefully someone can give more information about the cost of setting up a SSAP?
 
I appreciate all the comments but I am still none the wiser about the charges and providers of the service. Around 2 - 2.5k seems to be the start-up cost for it and then 1% per annum costs. People seemed to think that this is very expensive but from my reading it is the case that normal pension are just as bad if not worst. PRSA are 1.5% per annum with costs for each lodgement into it and no doubt normal private pensions are just as bad.

I have to say that I don't think that SSAPP's are just for the super-rich but such a large up front fee separates the men from the wannabes. It involves alot more effort to keep up with performance but maybe thats what you need. Is there really a point in letting your retirement be managed by some fund manager who is only after lucrative fees and doesn't really care bout your money? By a large upfront cost, it at least focuses the mind!!!!
 
I suppose you are right South but I was more looking for a few more opinions to get a better idea of the charges involved as it seems to be an area that not too many firms are involved in. This could explain the high charges as there is not so much competition.

I think as well that nobody really spoke about a firm that specialised in it or the name of anybody involved in setting them up meant that I asked the question again. Thanks for the info anyway....
 
One other quick question, if a SSAPP is linked to a firm and the firm goes bust, I know that the creditors/liquidators cannot touch the SSAPP for payment of outstanding bills but can you decide to link it to another firm easily enough?

An example I suppose is if you wanted to close down a business and move into another area, can you in effect transfer your SSAPP with you or is it legally fixed to the firm that it was created against?
 
Hi fed it could be transferred to another occupational scheme (even if that were a new SSAP) but revenue approval would be required before the transfer could proceed.

If anything untoward were apparent, it may be difficult to get such approval.
 
Or the new company could agree to take over the administration of the existing scheme. This would have to executed by means of Deed of Substitution of Principal Employer & Trustee.
 
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