pension valuation

[viztopia]

My father has a pension with Standard Life. He has recently received free shares from this company which was a welcome bonus.
In relation to the pension with Standard Life i would like to know the following; ( i suppose these are general questions about all pensions)
1) Could he get an up to date valuation on the pension and if so who does he approach, the pension broker or standard life direct
2) Secondly, could he transfer the current value of the pension to another pension fund if the standard life was performing badly. I know that this may be a bad idea in general but he is looking at investing in a self administered pension.
3) finally, my fathers accountant referred my father on to the pension broker and my father has been topping up his pension by considerable amounts in the past couple of years (around €20,000 per anum) Basically what i am trying to get at here is there any way that i could find out if his accountant has received any commisions on pension contributions as he has not disclosed this to us and i would rather not ask him.

 

[F. Kruger]

1. He can request the valuation from either. If the Broker has access to Standard Life's Broker website then they will be able to get the information instantly which will include projections at normal retirement age.

2. He could transfer but, judging by your post, I would say that he is fully invested in with profits and that (at this stage) may not be a good idea. Standard have their own Self Administered product which is competitive.

3. If the Accountant is 'a regulated entity', either through his own representative body or directly by the Financial Regulator, then the Broker can pay him/her part of the commission but the client would have to be made aware of this. This was not the case prior to 2001(?). Your father should still be getting full disclosure documentation with each increment that he is investing.