Standard Life GARS Fund

Freelance said:

The 2015 article values GARS at £44bn. The 2018 article values it at £20bn, with effectively zero growth over the previous few years, suggesting a very large outflow. Driven by widespread concern 5 years ago ??

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Standard Life and Aberdeen merged 6 years ago, and there was lots of news of outflows from GARS and Aberdeen funds at that point

GSheehy said:

That would be mid 2012 ?

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There are two aspects to this

Calling it out ex-ante as being most likely a poor investment choice - but without any real evidence to support the position.

Then, once enough data is available, to provide an ex-post analysis confirming your original thesis

@Marc Yes you used hindsight in 2012. But you used it well. With hindsight GARS had done well enough but you argued convincingly that this was not at all statistically significant. You deserve the Boss' pat on the back.

GSheehy said:

They wrote less SP pension business in 2019 than they did in 2009 (a market share drop of 14% to 6.7% over that period).

Every PRSA provider has had a spike in PRSA business this year. I'm pretty sure I heard one of the providers say at a presentation that their average premium had increased from €20K pa in 2022 to €80K pa in 2023.

The SLAC (special offer) commission was woefully generous. I was trying to figure out their break even on their RP PRSA (the one that paid 20% commission) and my best guess was that they'd not break even until year 8/9, but clawback was only over 5 years.

Will be interesting to see if their offering next week continues on those terms.


PS: For anyone that's reading this that's actually in the GARS Fund, the fund you're going to be switched into on closure on 31/10/2023 has a TER of 0.47% pa less than the GARS Fund.

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I am in the Gars Fund - no current IFA - I am in limbo at the moment and don't know what to do. I only found out about this yesterday and I have not received any letter from SL/Abrdn regarding the proposed merger! Any advice?

@tomo_pension

Fund closes 31/10/2023 and money will be switched to MyFolio Market 1 Fund then, if they don't hear from clients

Nothing to stop you switching funds now.

They will be writing to you, I just don't know when.


Gerard

www.bond.ie

GSheehy said:

@tomo_pension

Fund closes 31/10/2023 and money will be switched to MyFolio Market 1 Fund then, if they don't hear from clients

Nothing to stop you switching funds now.

They will be writing to you, I just don't know when.


Gerard

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Thanks Gérard. I did contact abrdn and they said I should receive documentation shortly. I'm not sure whether to auto switch into the proposed merger fund....I'm in limbo as mentioned and lost around 20k from my 200k pot since 2015.

@tomo_pension

I'm not sure what the procedure is within SLAC for what they call 'orphan' policyholders (no advisor attached to the plan) but I think you need to talk to someone or do some more research yourself on what outcome you'd like from this. SLAC won't advise you but they'll deal with you directly as an execution only client.

First question, are you paying more than 1.35% AMC for this fund?

I'm petty sure that you would be eligible for a 1% of original investment bonus on the 10th anniversary so just keep that in mind.

You could do a risk profile questionnaire to see where you sit and then match that with an appropriate fund listed here

You could also do an agency transfer of the plan to an advisor (with the advisors prior agreement) of your choice and pay a fee for some advice on what to do.

I'd do the switch now but I'd be looking at a different fund (based on my risk profile and time I'd be willing to leave it there).





Gerard

www.bond.ie

....

I have still not received any documentation from SL even after they promised me I would receive something 2 weeks ago.

I have just discovered this...


As over the long-term the abrdn Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund hasn’t been performing as we expect and because of changes in the team managing the Fund, we’re closing our links to it and replacing it with the BNY Mellon Real Return Fund. This investment option has a similar investment approach and risk profile.

This means customers will see a change in the name from the SL abrdn Global Absolute Return Strategies Pension Fund to the SL BNY Mellon Real Return B Pension Fund and from the SL abrdn Global Absolute Return Strategies Life Fund S1 and S2 to the SL BNY Mellon Real Return Life Fund S1 and S2 respectively. They’ll also see a change in the fund descriptions.

The charge customers pay for the Fund will increase as a result of this change.

These changes will take effect from 09 November 2023.

@tomo_pension

You're in the UK? This is an Irish discussion forum.

This came up on a search of that new fund.