Public Service AVCs with Marsh (Set up 5% and 1% mgt charge) competitive?

[Champ]

Hi,
I'm back to work now in the Public service for the last 4 yrs and contributing to the company pension scheme. As I am now in my 50's I have been advised to top up with AVCs until I retire. I have a small pension payable anytime from the age of 50 onward, from my former employer but I would like to leave that in place to supplement my "new" pension.
The AVC are being set up by Marsh and the ins. company involved will be Hibernian. The set up charge is 5% and a management charge of 1%. Can anyone tell me if this is competitive. I have no idea what are normal charges in these cases. Is this the right thing to in any case i.e. top up with AVC. Would a PRSA be a better option?

 

[Expert79]

The charges for a PRSA are the same as the charges quoted to you for the AVC, however these are the maximum charges and lower charges can be negotiated with a broker. It seems however that you are part of a group AVC arrangement and thus you may not have the option to negotiate on charges as they may have been already agreed. If this is the case then you are free to go to a broker to set up your own standalone PRSA AVC, and try and negotiate a better charging structure. However the margins on PRSAs are very tight so if you are only going to contribute a small amount then it will not be worth the brokers time to do the PRSA for less commission, obviously you are in a stronger position if you are going to make a significant contribution (which you should be doing at your age anyway!