Pension recommendations

[redrock7]

What pension companies would you recommend for a small business self-employed person like myself, who is looking to start a pension?

I've been considering PensionBee and Penfold. Does anyone have experience of either of these companies and would you recommend them?

Are there any other companies that you would recommend?

Thanks in advance.

 

[DontAsk]

Hargreaves Lansdowne

 

[mattk]

It depends what you want. PensionBee are a basic pension provider where you choose a pension plan which is a package of investments.

HL, Fidelity etc. are platforms where you can choose how to invest. These include direct equities (stocks), funds etc. The fees are usually a bit lower.

I have a SIPP with HL and a S&S ISA with Fidelity. They are much of a muchness IMO.

 

[GLAbusiness]

Best way to identify what you need is to talk to an independent financial advisor, who will talk you through the options, assess your attitude to risk and advise on product selection.You will not get that sort of advise on a forum

 

[Gettingthereslowly]

Depends on how much you are looking to invest. Most of the IFA’s I approached when starting out didn’t want to know me (£100 per month pension contribution). They are only interested in bigger fish.

If you’re looking to save smaller amounts/new to pensions have a look at Vanguard. They are low cost, good range of funds, easy to set up/deal with.

Remember the pension is only the wrapper for your money.......you still have to decide where to invest it. E.g individual shares (not recommended for small amounts/novice), funds (there are thousands to choose from, covering specific sectors like mining or technology, also different geographic locations e.g Uk focussed or US or Emerging markets). Depending on your circumstances, holding it as cash in the pension might be the most appropriate. It can be baffling.

If you are new to all this, read up about global index trackers (Vanguard do them, so does fidelity and HL as mentioned above)

 

[Darren_Ssc]

Second the above re Vanguard. Regular charges will eat away a lo of your profit so makes sense to go with a low cost provider. With Vanguard you can only invest in funds though, with general platform such as HL or AJ Bell you can also invest in shares. Depends how safe/adventurous you want to be?

 

[John Hemming]

The big issue behind this is not so much which platform to use, but how the decisions are going to be made as to what underlying instruments to invest in. I personally am a stock picker, but I accept that this is not good for everyone.

Once you have made that decision then you can look at which platform to use. I am not sure HL are the best value.

There is also a question as to whether investing in a pension is better or worse than putting money into an ISA. The pension is probably better, but that is not necessarily the case. A flexible ISA enables borrowing money from the ISA during the tax year as long as it is returned at the end of the year.

 

[UK Contractor Accountant]

From the Martin Lewis Site

Some of the cheapest firms

Some companies give you information/brochures on their pension funds, though this is not technically advice, so you don't pay for it. There's no set-up fee, although there will be other ongoing charges.

These companies are Cavendish Online, BestInvest, Commshare, Close Brothers, Chelsea Financial Services, Fidelity, Hargreaves Lansdown*, AJ Bell* and TQ Invest.

Note: The firms mentioned above all offer decent deals, though it may be possible to beat them - it's not a definitive list.

 

[redrock7]

Thanks for the information. I looked at Hargreaves Lansdown FB page but there were lots of complaints about their customer service so that puts me off them straightaway.
I'd say I want to be low-medium risk with my pension. Does anyone know much about Penfold?

 

[DontAsk]

Regular charges will eat away a lo of your profit so makes sense to go with a low cost provider.

But be careful you are not just getting what you pay for. Higher fees for a better fund manager can pay off in the long run and this type of investment is for the long run.

A flexible ISA enables borrowing money from the ISA during the tax year as long as it is returned at the end of the year.

You make it sound like you have to repay it. You can simply withdraw money form any ISA whenever you want (unless it's fixed term with conditions, of course). The flexibility gives you the option of paying back in without breaking the annual ISA contribution limit.

 

[WaveJumper]

Have a look at IG Smart Portfolios

 

[Darren_Ssc]

...but there were lots of complaints about their customer service so that puts me off them straightaway.

You may find this is a common trait amongst the low cost operators since much of their systems are automated and work well most of the time. Human resources are expensive and this why they are able to operate with thin margins.

On the wider subject of customer complaints in general, the vast majority of customer contacts will be trivial matters that could usually be solved with a bit of common sense or simply reading words that are already in front of one's face. Take most bad reviews with a pinch of salt.

 

[John Hemming]

You make it sound like you have to repay it. You can simply withdraw money form any ISA whenever you want (unless it's fixed term with conditions, of course). The flexibility gives you the option of paying back in without breaking the annual ISA contribution limit.

Which means keeping tax relief on any income from that money and/or capital gains on that money. It is possible to borrow money from a SIPP for commercial purposes, but a lot more hassle.

At the moment, for example, there are reasonably secure investments (the soon to renamed diversified energy company for example) that can pay about 10% interest (although in an ISA you don't get the US withholding tax returned). Having that without tax is something many people would find useful.

 

[John Hemming]

I'd say I want to be low-medium risk with my pension.

This is perhaps your key driver. Risk, however, is a complicated thing.

 

[redrock7]

I've been looking at fees that the pension providers charge. PensionBee charge one fee of 0.5% or 0.7% for two of their main pensions (tracker or tailored).

Vanguard are 0.15% plus fund costs.

Fidelity are 0.35% plus fund costs.

In your experience, will Vanguard and Fidelity's fees end up being more or similar to PensionBee?
Is 0.7% a fairly low fee as it's a single fee?

 

[mattk]

PensionBee's fees will be lower. For example, one of my largest holding is Fundsmith:

https://www.hl.co.uk/funds/fund-dis...sults/f/fundsmith-equity-class-i-accumulation

The fee is 0.95% plus HL's platform fee of 0.45%. However, the returns on Fundsmith more than outweigh the higher fees.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

one of my largest holding is Fundsmith:

Well done on that one.

 

[Red Wood]

Have a look at IG Smart Portfolios

IG has their place for CFDs and Spread betting. My opinion is to stay away from them for anything else.

Fidelity or H&L gets my vote.

 

[Red Wood]

Well done on that one.

Agreed, fundsmith is great, take a look at Barings ASEAN frontiers for a bit of a hedge too.

 

[redrock7]

I think I'm going to go for PensionBee for my pension. It seems a bit more straightforward than some of the others. What do you think?

 

[Sarika Dhaniya (Sarah)]

If you are thinking of smaller pots then all are self-select options. But I would recommend to have an advice for bigger pots say 50k and above. Have a look at Finsbridge Financial Planning.

 

[DontAsk]

If you want an advisor then you should go to unbiased.co.uk rather than some random advisor recommended on a forum.