Best AVC and Best Financial Broker currently available in Ireland - 2024?

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TestLink

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I am currently working in Civil Service. I would like to start an AVC to reduce the tax I pay and if possible retire early.

Which is the best AVC currently available in Ireland?

Which broker is the best and cheapest option, for joining this AVC? Corn Market / National Pension Helpline / Any other? Which firm would you recommend?
 
National Pension Helpline is not a broker. It's a web-marketing company. They use the website to generate enquiries and then they pass these enquiries on to a broker for a fee. It's been pointed out here on Askaboutmoney before that some of the information posted on the website is wrong.

Cheapest option will be an execution service like www.labrokers.ie or www.prsa.ie but they don't give any advice so you need to know exactly what you want and what you're doing.
 
Dave Vanian said:
National Pension Helpline is not a broker. It's a web-marketing company. They use the website to generate enquiries and then they pass these enquiries on to a broker for a fee. It's been pointed out here on Askaboutmoney before that some of the information posted on the website is wrong.

Cheapest option will be an execution service like www.labrokers.ie or www.prsa.ie but they don't give any advice so you need to know exactly what you want and what you're doing.
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I would need some advice. Who would be the best and cheapest broker?

There are some negative remarks regarding Corn Market in this site. I am too with FORSA. But I dont want to waste my hard earned money by putting it in an under performing pension fund and pay high fees/charges.

I have read Merrion Investment Management fund is the best performing pension fund in Ireland. is this true?

Any advice welcome.
 
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TestLink said:
I would need some advice. Who would be the best and cheapest broker?
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If you're looking for professional advice, cheapest and best are rarely the same thing. I assume by "best" you mean highly qualified, experienced, knowledgeable and with high ethical standards. I doubt if someone who fits those criteria will also be selling their services for the cheapest price. I think you need to decide which you want - cheapest or best.

TestLink said:
I have read Merrion Investment Management fund is the best performing pension fund in Ireland.
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One of Merrion's funds may have outperformed others in their peer group over a particular period of time in the past. That doesn't tell you much unless you happened to be invested in it for the historic period where they did well.
 
Ok, Can you please suggest a "good" broker then? Also if any one could suggest which fund I should invest in to get the best return.
 
TestLink said:
Ok, Can you please suggest a "good" broker then? Also if any one could suggest which fund I should invest in to get the best return.
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I don’t wish to be facetious, but if I knew which fund was going to give the best return, I would be posting this sipping a Margarita on the beach in the Bahamas. The “best fund” depends on a number of factors, including your attitude to investment risk and your investment term (how many years to retirement).
It’s easy to say what fund produced the best return in 2023, but that doesn’t mean it will also produce the best returns in 2024, or 2025.
If you have a reasonable number of years to go to retirement (investment term), then an all-Equity fund is probably the best (say an Indexed Fund). If however you only have a short period to retirement, then a less risky fund may be better,( just benefitting from the tax relief).
When you say you need “advice”, you don’t specify what type of advice. Is it to calculate how much you might invest in AVCs (ensuring you don’t exceed Revenue limits)? Is it to recommend an investment strategy?
Cornmarket are very familiar with Civil Service pension structures and AVCs related to same. But they charge an “advisory” fee. You could get their advice (and pay their fee) and then seek to replicate that on “an execution only” basis.
Perhaps if you posted more information:
Age
What Civil Service Scheme you are in (eg Pre 1995, Post 1995 or newer Single Public Service Scheme)
Salary
Service by retirement age
Possible level of AVCs
you might get more tailored advice.
 
Conan said:
I don’t wish to be facetious, but if I knew which fund was going to give the best return, I would be posting this sipping a Margarita on the beach in the Bahamas. The “best fund” depends on a number of factors, including your attitude to investment risk and your investment term (how many years to retirement).
It’s easy to say what fund produced the best return in 2023, but that doesn’t mean it will also produce the best returns in 2024, or 2025.
If you have a reasonable number of years to go to retirement (investment term), then an all-Equity fund is probably the best (say an Indexed Fund). If however you only have a short period to retirement, then a less risky fund may be better,( just benefitting from the tax relief).
When you say you need “advice”, you don’t specify what type of advice. Is it to calculate how much you might invest in AVCs (ensuring you don’t exceed Revenue limits)? Is it to recommend an investment strategy?
Cornmarket are very familiar with Civil Service pension structures and AVCs related to same. But they charge an “advisory” fee. You could get their advice (and pay their fee) and then seek to replicate that on “an execution only” basis.
Perhaps if you posted more information:
Age
What Civil Service Scheme you are in (eg Pre 1995, Post 1995 or newer Single Public Service Scheme)
Salary
Service by retirement age
Possible level of AVCs
you might get more tailored advice.
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Age: 49
Pension type: Single Public Service Scheme
Salary: 55,000

Prefer to retire in 6 years time
Main aim of joining an AVC is to reduce the tax I pay

I would like to get an unbiased advice. That is why I am not sure which broker to contact.
 
Protocol said:
Before considering AVCs, you need to establish whether it is possible to retire and claim the work pension at age 55 in the SPSPS.
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I think the maximum I could get is 25% without tax cut. As I mentioned my main aim is to make use of the tax cut, by joining an AVC.

My wife gets 55K and I also get 55K salary which is jointly assessed. So most of my salary is assessed at 40% tax, means major chunk is gone as tax.

Also any firm cheaper than CornMarket who only charge a once off fee for their advise?
 
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TestLink said:
Age: 49
Pension type: Single Public Service Scheme
Salary: 55,000

Prefer to retire in 6 years time
Main aim of joining an AVC is to reduce the tax I pay

I would like to get an unbiased advice. That is why I am not sure which broker to contact.
Click to expand...
Hello there,
I too am 'new entrant' & member of SPSS.
Cornmarket are the only broker (AFAIK) that can set up deductions from source. I'm with them for that reason. I'm not overly happy with New Ireland fund I'm in but I'll stick with it for now.
 
Sunnygirl69 said:
Hello there,
I too am 'new entrant' & member of SPSS.
Cornmarket are the only broker (AFAIK) that can set up deductions from source. I'm with them for that reason. I'm not overly happy with New Ireland fund I'm in but I'll stick with it for now.
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I don't use it myself, but I know public sector colleagues who have their AVC deducted at source through IPF so there may possibly be some alternatives to Cornmarket.
https://ipf.ie/avc/
 
Sunnygirl69 said:
Cornmarket are the only broker (AFAIK) that can set up deductions from source. I'm with them for that reason. I'm not overly happy with New Ireland fund I'm in but I'll stick with it for now.
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If you set up an AVC PRSA with a provider of your choice, you notify Revenue of it once, Revenue increase your tax credits and from then on you get the tax relief via payroll anyway.
 
Dave Vanian said:
If you set up an AVC PRSA with a provider of your choice, you notify Revenue of it once, Revenue increase your tax credits and from then on you get the tax relief via payroll anyway.
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I didn't know that Dave, just a once off effort with revenue & then AVC deductions at source?
Sorry for being completely clueless but could u step me thru it....
Is there a particular revenue form?
Then I contact payroll?
Then I just choose provider etc myself.
 
Sunnygirl69 said:
It's IPF who sorted all this for me & put me with Cornmarket. They are the Forsa approved provider of choice. I'm HSE worker BTW.
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I went to a lunchtime talk from IPF at work recently, but there were a number of red flags for me as I felt the allocation rate was very low and there was no choice in terms of funds. From memory I also think the AMC was quite high. Overall the only benefit was the deduction at source.
 
I contacted few brokers in 2019 but didnt go with any. Is it still the same or any change?

Company: Corn Market
Setup Fee: 400
Annual Fee: 1%
Policy Fee: 0
Contribution Charge: 0
Bonus money at retirement: 0

Company: IPF
Setup Fee: 0
Annual Fee: 7% of annual contribution towards AVC Policy Fee
Contribution Charge: 0
Bonus money at retirement: 5% of total fund amount
 
I had my AVC with Irish Life, set up by Cornmarket for €595 once-off. AMC 1%. But had no say in what fund it was in, just high, medium or low risk options.

I hwas not happy with it's performance so recently switched to Standard Life, set up by Liam Ferguson who gets his fee from Standard Life. AMC 0.9%. Can pick your own funds, I'm doing 100% Standard Life Vanguard Global Stock Index Fund
 
TheJackal said:
I had my AVC with Irish Life, set up by Cornmarket for €595 once-off. AMC 1%. But had no say in what fund it was in, just high, medium or low risk options.

I hwas not happy with it's performance so recently switched to Standard Life, set up by Liam Ferguson who gets his fee from Standard Life. AMC 0.9%. Can pick your own funds, I'm doing 100% Standard Life Vanguard Global Stock Index Fund
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Thanks for the lead. Was there any setup fee charged?

Any one else here using Standard Life? Seems to be a good option.
 
Sunnygirl69 said:
I didn't know that Dave, just a once off effort with revenue & then AVC deductions at source?
Sorry for being completely clueless but could u step me thru it....
Is there a particular revenue form?
Then I contact payroll?
Then I just choose provider etc myself.
Click to expand...

You start the AVC-PRSA.

Once set-up, the broker/pension firm will send you some sort of document.

You submit that to Revenue.

They adjust your tax credits.

No need to contact Payroll
 
TestLink said:
Thanks for the lead. Was there any setup fee charged?

Any one else here using Standard Life? Seems to be a good option.
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No fee for me, he gets it from Standard Life for sending the business their way.

Only downside is my HR hadn't a clue how to set it up to be deducted directly from payslip. They only have experience dealing with Cornmarket it seems...so I pay in via direct debit and I've to claim a tax credit back from Revenue
 
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