Prime Time on public service "Union appointed avc providers Vs Notional Service"

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=Tetragon;747615]Had a consultation with a Cornmarket rep today ..... more confused than ever before.

Any 'independent' financial advisors in Cork?
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google it

The Cornmarket 'cash fund' mentioned above .... is this a good or a bad way to go?
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Imho cash is the way to go until thing calm down. But not with cornmarket due to their high charging structure.

With bank stocks etc. as they are .... will AVC funds be decimated?
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All pension funds have taken a hammering over the last year or so but you haven't started yours yet so i dont think it will effect you too much.

I
can retire at 56 on 33/80 pension .... but only if AVC's can supplement the shortfall ... 16 years away ..... am I being over optimistic or will AVC's be a total washout?
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AVC's are your only option if you want to retire early. The markets will recover they always do.

The Cornmarket guy left a lot of questions unanswered ..... he seemed to pose his own questions .... which he had no problem answering .... my queries still remain unclarified.

aaaaagh .....
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Forget cornmarket or any of the other union appointed avc providers unless you want to pay through the nose for your avc.
 
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I set up AVC with cornmarket in January, was also talked into joining Midas which i'm trying to get out of. Who do I go to continue with AVC but get out of Cornmarket??
 
Write to Cornmarket, they have to follow your instructions.

They are the only ones who can take an AVC from your salary,but you can go to any provider of financial products and do a similar type scheme.

Remember then your on your own and have to claim back the tax(easy! )
Pick funds... made to sound easy,but very important.
Finally review when your salary increases so it keeps pace with salary inflation.

Search my posts for my quest for an AVC!!

Good Luck
 
It comes down to the old argument about how to beat the market.

When you invest in the stock markets (which is what PRSAs do), your benchmarks in terms of performance are the various market indices.

There is no effort involved in investing your contributions in a market index.

Proprietary funds hope to beat the standard indices, and charge you a premium for investing in their particular blend of stocks/bonds that is supposed to do better than a default option of simply investing in an index fund.

If your advisor's funds beat the market index by more than it costs you to take the advice, you win. If not, you lose, or at best, break even. It stands to reason that, by taking 5% of your AVC in fees, the fund manager is upping the ante in terms of how you must judge the performance of the funds s/he invests your hard earned money into. In other words, your break even rate just got raised.

Despite being actively managed, however, the majority of funds fail to beat the market.

Our Irish PRSA/AVC system, to me, seems to queer this pitch by trumpeting the tax relief you get just by investing in these funds. They tell you, hey, every €100 you invest gets you €46 in tax relief, so it's only costing you €54. You can make large losses on the fund performance and still come out ahead when you consider your tax relief.

To me, this sounds like tax relief subsidising the (under)performance of professional investment managers. Which is why an execution-only product, even very casually invested, can offer far better value.

Cornmarket sells AVCs, of both the Advice and Execution Only variety. I'm not sure what the take-up for the Execution Only product is.

It's a tough time for the markets, and people are hurting, whether they took out Advice or Execution Only AVC Pensions.

If you're paying a premium, you need to ask yourself can you do better by just investing in funds that track the markets.
 
Tetragon said:
The Cornmarket 'cash fund' mentioned above ....
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I'd be careful about switching existing funds to cash at present. Equity funds are very low now and by switching you are crystallising your losses.

Unless you plan on switching across just as the markets turn but this is nigh on impossible to predict.

For new contributions there is an argument to buy into medium or higher risk units at present whilst these are historically low... again, no one can predict this so you'll have to make your own call on it.
 
BillyM said:
They are the only ones who can take an AVC from your salary,but you can go to any provider of financial products and do a similar type scheme.

Remember then your on your own and have to claim back the tax(easy! )
Pick funds... made to sound easy,but very important.
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This would then be an ordinary pension provider?
 
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