Personal Retirement Bond - Providers & Charges

[Dearg Doom]

I'm trying to decide whether to leave my old company defined contribution pension within the company scheme or transfer to a buy out bond. The charges aren't particularly high in the company scheme (0.65% annual fee), but the actual underlying investments aren't particularly clear. Does anyone have any details to share on Personal Retirement Bond providers and their charges? Better yet, can anyone reccomend a provider? Ideally I'm looking for something that provides some index tracking options.

 

[Guest126]

The usual providers, such as:

New Ireland
Irish Life
Friends First
Eagle Star
Standard Life
Canada Life
etc...

The deal that you can get depends on what you hammer out with them or what your broker hammers out with them...I reckon you can get 0.75% and no other charge for a fixed fee up front, if your transfer value is, for example, over €50k.

 

[Azriel]

"...the actual underlying investments aren't particularly clear..." -this comment appears to be the source of the problem. The scheme annual report should clarify the position?

Typically you will find a cheaper deal (and cheaper is key as you are looking at index tracking options) by remaining within the company scheme.

 

[Dearg Doom]

Thanks for the responses. Azriel is right in saying that the lack of clarity in the investments is more the problem than the costs and what documentation I've been provided with doesn't proide the level of detail I want - the only comment is 'The fund adopts the average country allocation of all the pension managed funds in the Irish market'. I'll have a look then providers listed by CapitalCCC and see where I get to from there. Thanks.

 

[Azriel]

To me that sounds like a description of a Consensus managed fund (Irish Life have the best known such fund, but many providers now offer something similar). These funds are index trackers, with the proportion being invested in Ireland / UK / US etc determined by the "average country allocation of all the pension managed funds in the Irish market"

 

[Guest126]

Your company plan should have a "Member Guide" and this should give you further information on your investment options under the pension arrangement (even if you are no longer an employee of company).