My wife is working for an Irish Subsiduary of a UK based company. They don't offer a company pension but will contribute to pension if you set one up yourself. Contibutions they will give are 5.5% <40yrs, 8% > 40yrs. They even offer this contribution to include herguaranteed 14%/annum bonus.
I have a company pension with my job, but we haven't got a clue what kind of pension we should set up for her. Would a PRSA be the most logical option or should we go to someone like Acorn. They seem to have one of the best performing pensions on the market(maybe I'm wrong!)
Investment Manager League Tables at 31st March 2006...Acorn Life 17th, 14th, 14th, 12th, 5th, 11th, 8th all out of about 17 over a range of different periods, so they are not exactly number one.
Hmmm. I've just gotten Acorn's Projected Benifets and charges.
Just added first 5 years based on paying €150/month.
I haven't really compared these charges to other providers in any great detail but they do look quite steep
Quite steep has to be one of the best understatements I've seen in a long time!
Get her to set up a low-cost PRSA instead - she'll pay max. 5% of contributions and 1% annual management fee, and should really get a better deal even than that.
Charges have a massive impact on performance in the long term, and should be (one of) the main criteria in choosing a pension provider.
There are loads of threads on here about PRSAs - take the time to do some research rather than just going for the first crowd you hear about.
In your example, their charges amount to over 25% of your wife's projected contributions over a five year period. Enough said - don't even waste your time with them, let alone your money!