TLDR: Do I need an IFA to manage my pension with an 'off the shelf' pension scheme, or can I do it myself and avoid his fees?
Quick question for those who have an independent personal pension:
my employer has recently started doing a pension with a matched 1% (woo hoo!). It's a small company, so it's not their own scheme but something selected by the company's independant financial advisor from another provider (Scottish Life). However the fees are quite expensive as far as I can tell.
1: First year 20% of your total payments to the independent financial advisor
2: Ongoing £3.50 per month to the IFA
3: If your pension deposits go up (i.e. you get a payrise, or you choose to increase your %) the IFA gets 20% of the increase
4: there is an ongoing charge from the pension company (in this case 0.9%).
All my previous pensions have been with the bigger company schemes, so these charges were pretty much hidden from me (and the larger matched % offset any fees).
Having looked at the Scottish Life scheme on MSE etc I can see the 0.9% fee and understand that is what they charge, but is there anything stopping me from taking a policy out with them directly? Do I need to do much? Can I do that and avoid all the IFA fees?
I understand how pensions work, but I have no interest in learning the intricacies of which funds to use.
Cheers for your advice!
Quick question for those who have an independent personal pension:
my employer has recently started doing a pension with a matched 1% (woo hoo!). It's a small company, so it's not their own scheme but something selected by the company's independant financial advisor from another provider (Scottish Life). However the fees are quite expensive as far as I can tell.
1: First year 20% of your total payments to the independent financial advisor
2: Ongoing £3.50 per month to the IFA
3: If your pension deposits go up (i.e. you get a payrise, or you choose to increase your %) the IFA gets 20% of the increase
4: there is an ongoing charge from the pension company (in this case 0.9%).
All my previous pensions have been with the bigger company schemes, so these charges were pretty much hidden from me (and the larger matched % offset any fees).
Having looked at the Scottish Life scheme on MSE etc I can see the 0.9% fee and understand that is what they charge, but is there anything stopping me from taking a policy out with them directly? Do I need to do much? Can I do that and avoid all the IFA fees?
I understand how pensions work, but I have no interest in learning the intricacies of which funds to use.
Cheers for your advice!