Vanguard and Royal London enter Irish Pension market

Steven Barrett said:
It was misreported by the Independent. Vanguard are not coming here on their own. They are operating through Standard Life.
Click to expand...
That's interesting and definitely good for consumers to have more choice [for transparency, I should add that I work for Zurich].
 
Hello, I am new to this, 51 and only starting a pension. I'm interested in Vanguard and I cannot find who offers Standard Life Vanguard execution only service? That link to article doesn't work for me albeit I'm not very forum savvy.
 
@Fiftynites

You contact, say, two/three brokers and specify that you want to buy Name of Pension Product via Standard Life on an execution only basis and you specify which Fund you want to invest in and ask what the total/all charges will be for the level of contribution that you want to make.

IMHO it's best to do this by email and to insist on replies by email so that there's a permanent record. If something can't be explained in an email it's highly unlikely that it can be explained in a conversation.

The temptation with phone calls is to ask questions that go outside the specifics of what execution only is so there should be no need for calls.

If you end up with a product, company or fund that you didn't specify then that's not execution only, it's an advisory service.

Gerard

www.prsa.ie
 
Last edited:
I just received a quote from a broker (they were involved in setting up my company's pensin with Zurich).

Initially they wanted a zoom meeting, which I declined. Told them I prefer to communicate by email.

Explained what Standard Life Investment fund(s) I wanted and as per GSheehy post above, told them I want an exection only service. Asked for total charges for a €200p/m contribution.

He got back to say they typically charge €199 fee (but will waive this given my connection to the company pension scheme they halped set up... )

Overall account fees for a policy of this type would be:

(1) Allocation rate of 99% (1% Government levy is deducted).

(2) Standard Life management fee of 1.5% per annum.

Is this good value? 1.5% managemrnt fee for a passively managed index seems high in my opinion.

One of the funds I specified was the Standard Life Vanguard Global Index Fund.

As per their own documentation theie Annual Management Charge is 0.95%.


It's page two on the document ini the link above (it won't let me copy and paste".

Why the difference? I will ask him this question myself but would like some input before I query him..

Thanks
 

That's that brokers 'price' for executing the transaction without advice. They're going to build in a margin and it's included in the 1.5%.

Was there any mention of early exit charges?


Gerard
 
You mention a 1% government levy. Is this a pension product or an investment subject to exit tax? There's a few things here that aren't adding up.
 

This looks very much like a regular savings plan and not a pension product. If so, the 0.95% annual charge would only be available if the broker was getting no commission at all. Standard Life pay for broker commission by increasing the annual charge. Ask the broker how much commission they're getting and see what you think.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

Here's what I got back from him:

"In relation to AMC, the base AMC for the Vanguard range is 0.9%, however, Standard Life pay us a set-up fee towards to costs of opening the account for clients & build this cost into the AMC then which brings it to 1.5% total.

The 1.5% fee is payable fully to Standard Life, we receive no ongoing fees.

For investments above €500+ per month, they have a more attractive charging structure."

Fortune said:
You mention a 1% government levy. Is this a pension product or an investment subject to exit tax? There's a few things here that aren't adding up.
Click to expand...

My understanding from the Standrad Life site is that this is an investment product. It is listed under their investments tab.

It's a pity that I canot deal diect with Standard Life and am being forced to pay .5% AMC to the broker when it's an executin only service.
 
Defacto said:
My understanding from the Standrad Life site is that this is an investment product. It is listed under their investments tab.
Click to expand...

If you were contributing to a pension plan, the charges could be lower. Regular savings plans have higher charges than pensions as Standard Life have to calculate and pay the Exit Tax and the duration of the investment tends to be far shorter with savings policies than with pension policies.

Defacto said:
It's a pity that I canot deal diect with Standard Life and am being forced to pay .5% AMC to the broker when it's an executin only service.
Click to expand...

Based on what you've posted above, the broker is getting paid a once-off commission for setting up the plan at the start and nothing thereafter. You could ask the broker if they'd be willing to charge you a once-off fee instead, and if they agree then the additional 0.6% annual charge could be eliminated.
 
Last edited:
There's nothing stopping you going directly to SL.

And additional charge of 0.6% for the entire life of the contract doesn't seem like good value to you to cover an initial payment to the broker. I wonder would it work out cheaper for you if they took their charge from your 1st year's premiums rather than from the fund?
 
Last edited:
Fortune said:
There's nothing stopping you going directly to SL.
Click to expand...

Will Standard Life add an element of commission to a product if you approach them directly? Not a rhetorical or smart question. I genuinely don't know. Other life/pension companies won't undercut brokers if a customer approaches them directly. I don't know what Standard Life's policy on that is.
 
All you can do is ask. From looking at the application form on their website, it seems there's more than one commission route. A different option might give rise to the same commission payment, but potentially at less cost to the customer.
 
It's been a while since I looked at SLACs commission structures so someone else can correct this if it's a wrong interpretation.

Funded initial commission (which can be clawed back) is paid for via an additional plan charge. In the example above this is 0.60%.

So, if your contribution to this savings plan was the minimum of €125 per month then this translates to a total payment to the intermediary of €225, upfront.

Highly unlikel that SLAC would accommodate that level of contribution on a direct basis. The vast majority of intermediaries don't know that they are willing to deal direct with customers on an execution only basis. To me, they're becoming a niche player who are really only interested in large lump sum contributions, be they new business or by transfers from other providers.


Gerard

www.investandsave.ie
 
Fortune said:
There's nothing stopping you going directly to SL.
Click to expand...
Except they don't have a direct sales team and won't deal with the public directly.

I am blue in the face saying this, you can't ring up Nike and order a pair of runners off them directly. Like it or not, it is the same with financial products. There is someone who does all the compliance paperwork and the insurance company just sells the product.

A €200 a month savings plan isn't going to pay the advisor much. You are better using Ger's online execution only service with Zurich. He's has everything set up to process these cases.


Steven
http://www.bluewaterfp.ie (www.bluewaterfp.ie)
 
I contacted Standard Life's direct client service a few months ago (found their email on their website) and they were happy to facilitate an execution-only service for me (a regular person, not a broker and definitely not rich). They sent me the application forms and other documentation. This was for one of the Vanguard Global Index Funds (the 80/20 one). They quoted me 0.95% AMC, allocation rate of 101% for regular contributions above €500/month, but I don't think they offset the levy for lump sums or smaller contributions. Early encashment charges apply. Also the SID document mentioned a maximum transaction charge of 0.1% though I didn't quite understand if that applied to me - then I got lazy / busy with other things and forgot to look into this more, so I still have yet to set-up an investment with them.
 
Last edited:
PS: Forgot to mention this was for a regular saver product, NOT a pension. Though I also need to look into AVC-PRSAs next.
 
I would normally agree with you, but the poster above is getting bad value on the commission option offered (allegedly for execution only) so going to SL direct would possibly give a better deal. This is more like going to adidas.ie to pay full retail for some Stan Smiths that the local Lifestyle Sports are charging a premium on.

Their website has contact details for a direct sales channel: https://www.standardlife.ie/contact-and-help/contact-us
 
Did anyone contact SLAC to find out the exact terms that they offer on an execution only basis?

Will they faciliate any product in their range or is it a limited offering?
 
Last edited:
GSheehy said:
Did anyone contact SLAC to find out the exact terms that they offer on an execution only basis?

Will they faciliate any product in their range or is it a limited offering?
Click to expand...
I presume you mean standard life? A couple of years back they were offering all their products execution only, but I haven't kept details of the pricing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register