Standard Life MVA

Titans clash over with-profits

Standard Life's head of with-profits marketing David Hare will clash with Skandia co-founder Paul Bradshaw over the future of with-profits in the first of a series of financial services debates to be held on Wednesday, October 30.

The debates, hosted jointly by Money Marketing and the Financial Services Forum, will take place in front of an audience of IFAs and financial services professionals at Bloomberg's offices in London.

Hare will propose the motion that with-profits remains a good option for the 21st Century investor, with Bradshaw opposing.<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> For details about attending, contact Marie Armoogum on 00 44 20
7943 8040.<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->

Source : MoneyMarketing

Re: Titans clash over with-profits

<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> ...David Hare will clash with Skandia co-founder Paul Bradshaw...<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->

Obviously the world of personal finance isn't immune to sporting style hyperbole! :rolleyes

With Profit Funds

Whether you are for against with profit funds I am sure all woud agree that there is a degree of disquiet among advisors and members of the public in relation to with profit funds.

It is noticeable that much of the debate is being conducted using theoretical facts and figures.

Surely it is appropriate to insist that industry regulators would involve themselves in this matter? If there isnt a problem it is wrong that consumers are being turned of these products by such speculation. If there is a problem it is wrong that the regulator would sit on its hands and do nothing to inform the unwary.

Much debate in the Insurance industry in recent years has focussed on disclosure - the consumers right to information. Whilst this has traditionally focussed on intermediary remuneration surely the same principle applies to regulators. If you have information that is relevant to the consumer why not disclose? If you dont have such information - are you properly regulating?

If regulation is ever to be seen to have a consumer focus surely now is the time to act?

Regards,

Aidan

SLAC Equity Holding

Standard slashes equity holdings
John Stones

Standard Life has dramatically changed the shape of its with-profits fund, according to its annual life and pension investment report. The equity-backing ratio of the £35bn fund has been cut from
71 per cent in September 2001 to around 53 per cent.

The company says the current growth of units in its with-profits fund is 4 per cent a year, a fall of 0.5 per cent on the previous year. The top 10 holdings in the with-profits fund in order of size
are: BP Amoco, Glaxo SmithKline, Vodafone, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Shell, Treasury bonds, AstraZeneca, Lloyds TSB and Barclays.

At October 1, the asset allocation of the with-profits fund saw cash at 15 per cent - up from 1.6 per cent in 2001 - and UK equities at 41.7 per cent, down from 56.6 per cent. The ringfenced stakeholder with-profits fund largely mirrors the make-up of the main fund but, as it is relatively new, has not been able to buy property fast enough to match the weighting in the main fund.

Director of corporate affairs Gordon Arthur says: "We felt it appropriate to reduce the equity backing so we were still overweight but not so that is was not such a big position. It brings us more into line with our peer group."

Source : Money Marketing UK

SL MVA

STANDARD LIFE NEWS

Announcement today that SL have increased the MVA up to 20%.

Im guessing at another skim of our (member's) terminal bonuses come Feb 2003.

dogheadius

Standard Life With Profit Fund

Does anyone know whether the new higher mva penalty applies in Ireland? I've heard conflicting reports. Also has the Irish fund reduced its equities like the UK fund?

The Irish Independent recently carried a really bad review of Standard Life. Do policyholders have anything to worry about?

standard life endowments

Galwayman

Check out the Motley Fool board - pretty depressing for those of us with endowments. I wish I'd surrendered last year - would have got about 10K more. Terminal bonuses will be cut by a min of 10% in February. I've got 8 years to go and I just dont think the markets will recover quickly enough to pay off mortgage so I will probably surrender soon..

Standard life

Todays Financial Times

Standard Life have lost their Standard & Poors
Triple A Rating.
This was always one of their strong selling points and it is a pity to see them loosing it.

cashing in your policy

Galwayman - eight years to go and you're thinking of cashing in - I wouldn't do it if I were you. Hang on until the end, it should be a last resort to cash in.

Even if returns are lower in eight years, I doubt very much that there will be much around to beat the returns you will make on your endowment.

Re: cashing in your policy

apologies

that last posting should have been directed to gwangwangwan and not galwayman.

...

Hi,

This thread may be of interest to members of Standard Life




regards

G>

surrender

Moonlight

We will definitely be surrendering our SL policy this week while we still have some of the 1990's boom years profits included. Standard Life will be cutting (terminal)bonuses again, probably by 10% in May. Until recently, our endowment was doing well and I would have agreed with you to stay the course. However, I now think it extremely unlikely that 8 years is long enough to pay off the amount we orginally needed for the mortgage. There is also a strong likelyhood that terminal bonuses will be scrapped altogether if current market conditions persist for much longer. S. Life bet the farm on the stock market and has lost big time - it just doesnt have the reserves left for us endowment suckers.

gwangwangwan

Standard Life Directors Pay

Chief executive Iain Lumsden was paid £743,000 last year. This includes salary of £467,000, £16,000 benefits including car, £136,000 performance-related bonus and £124,000 as the cashable part of a long-term incentive. He has accrued a further £402,000 longterm incentive and an upgraded pension entitlement of £301,000 a year.

Deputy chief executive Sandy Crombie was paid a total of £586,000, including a performance-related bonus of £122,000.