Pension fund performance - do you monitor yours, how is it doing, do you actively change it?

What a stupid move. They are now very expensive for low value accounts and also not the cheapest for high value accounts even for their own funds. Pretty mind boggling considering the competition is moving the other way with regards to fees.
 
Already requested the sale of the measly few hundred quid I'd invested in a S&S ISA I opened only a matter of months ago. I'll get the money out and then close out the account.
 
Is it worth moving my sipp out of vanguard? My sipp is about 25k with them

Seen invest engine mentioned
 
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Azza said:
Invest Engine don't have a SIPP transfer function currently.
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Yeah just seen that.
Maybe t212 will start it up soon.
Shame invest engine don't have theirs up! Should have started with them.

I actually have 30k in my vanguard sipp.
 
Moving funds/assets from one platform to another normally takes a few weeks, I really want to see a breakdown on the costs of under 32k and over 32k.

I won’t be surprised if other companies follow with increased charges of their own.
 
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Yes, my understanding is this change is effectively penalising investors with less than 32k across their platform. If you have anything above, the same per investment management charges still apply which are unchanged.
 
It's likely to happen across the board - Other providers will follow.

It's simply a case of being unable to service/make money at the lower end of the market.... Same in IFA world etc - Regulator has forced so much stuff onto companies/IFA's etc that there is a massive gap being created at the lower end of the market now for advice / services etc.

They 100% didn't want to do it, I know as I've a good friend who works there and fairly well up, but he said getting £15 on £10,000 ISA holding for instance simply doesn't cover the basic costs of offering the service/platform/wrapper/app etc etc. Let alone any "profit"
 
booyaka said:
They 100% didn't want to do it, I know as I've a good friend who works there and fairly well up, but he said getting £15 on £10,000 ISA holding for instance simply doesn't cover the basic costs of offering the service/platform/wrapper/app etc etc. Let alone any "profit"
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That doesn't make sense to me. Fees are not fixed they are a percentage so whilst a lower fee is earned on smaller accounts which may not cover the 'costs'*, on larger value accounts the percentage fee will more than cover the costs.

* I question the costs of maintaining an online mostly automated platform as well, it's very low per customer and does not scale per customer either once you have many thousands.
 
That's my feeling too. It's supposed to be low initial fee to draw people in with the knowledge that they will increase their profits from you later down the line. My pension provider take a nice lump off me every month now for very little in return.
 
putting your pension into your work pension scheme is by far the better option, as long as it allows you to manage the funds yourself and the funds are actually good funds.

I have over double the amount of assets in my work fund and they charge me half the amount that vanguard do currently. With similar funds.. dev world and emerging market.

If we take a step back and consider the actual new vanguard charges costs, it’s a minimum of £4 a month, I get charged £15.50 from my bank for all those lovely banking services that I don’t use. £4 won’t even get me a coffee…

Will I despise paying for it? Will I look at alternatives? Yes.. but there’s far more costly investment platforms out there.. the only “free” options are invest engine and t212 who are “newbies” and small fry when compared to some of the “too big to fail” platforms..
 
danlightbulb said:
That doesn't make sense to me. Fees are not fixed they are a percentage so whilst a lower fee is earned on smaller accounts which may not cover the 'costs'*, on larger value accounts the percentage fee will more than cover the costs.

* I question the costs of maintaining an online mostly automated platform as well, it's very low per customer and does not scale per customer either once you have many thousands.
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You can NOT "cross costs" with a smaller client / larger client if that makes sense....Even client has to be treated individually on their own circumstances....

So if one smaller client gets you £15 a year on the £10k ISA and another gets you say £150 on the £100k ISA holding, you can't simply say that these two clients "average" are £165/2= £82.50 each.... Doesn't work like that.

Each client is in an individual - It's simply a numbers game these days.... If like any business, a client is not "profitable", then why keep them.

The new costs are simply trying to make a break even point somewhere - obviously they have done their numbers and £32k is the break even point.

Same in any business - why keep a client on the books if it's "costing" you money....

It's a tough world out there, and in financial services, you simply can not keep clients on the books if they are costing you money....
 
booyaka said:
Same in any business - why keep a client on the books if it's "costing" you money....

It's a tough world out there, and in financial services, you simply can not keep clients on the books if they are costing you money....
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How is it costing them money? The marginal cost of each client on the platform will be next to zero.
 
danlightbulb said:
How is it costing them money? The marginal cost of each client on the platform will be next to zero.
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yes probably - from a cost point of view - but they need to make a profit...

They will have loads of people paying £50 a month in etc - that will maybe "cost" them very little but in terms of profit/long term on 0.15% these clients are unlikely to ever make them money/profit.

Take that example above - first year £50 a month - on £600 annual money in - they will get 90p (charged at 0.15%).... Second year £1200 - £1.80 (yes I know it's monthly charged / growth / compounding etc etc etc but this was just a simply basic example)

How is that a client you want?? Where's the profit in those clients?

£32k is obviously a break even point based on their calculations - They aren't going to introduce charges for sub £32k accounts without understanding they are going to loose some people elsewhere.

Business is business - money needs to be made and it's clear they have a point where they need to change things around.

Others will follow...
 
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For those who are thinking of jumping ship… (see what I did there lol)

Invest engine are currently non-profitable and are operating at a loss, you may find fees are applied sooner or later.
 
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