At what point do Self Administered Pension Schemes make more sense?

shipship

Registered User
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I have a PRSA with Irish Life paying 1% PA fees (real costs are likely high)

I'd love to access to the likes of Vanguard who have significantly better investment options.

As far as I can make out, Davy is the only computer that offers this option through their execution only pension but this comes with its own costs.

I'm just wondering if there's any alternatives? And at what point it makes sense to switch from Irish Life?
 
The 1% fee covers Irish Life's costs, not Vanguards. If you set up a self admin scheme, you have to pay for the operation of the scheme plus Vanguard or whoever.

They make sense for people with pensions of €75k+. If you are making monthly contributions, you need to be paying €1k a month too.

For Global Index Equity funds, Standard Life have Vanguard, Zurich have Blackrock and New Ireland have State Street. The Irish Life Index Equity fund is their own creation with their own benchmark, which they can't even replicate (the rest are measured against the MSCI World).


Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie
 

Thanks for the reply, yep I understand that the 1% is the management fee for the fund. I was just curious when the fixed fees of a SAPS + vanguard fees begin to be lower than the 1% Irish Life management fees. Looks like I'm at that point so I'll begin looking into Standard Life. Thanks.
 

You don't need to go down the self admin route to get cheaper than 1% AMC, there are loads of contracts out there for personal and executive pensions that are lower.


Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie
 
Isn’t there a Friends First Executive Pension at 0.40%?

In my experience, a decent SSAP costs circa €1,500 and a cheap Global ETF circa 15bps.

On that basis, I’d be looking to have about €400,000 before considering that route.
 
Isn’t there a Friends First Executive Pension at 0.40%?

In my experience, a decent SSAP costs circa €1,500 and a cheap Global ETF circa 15bps.

On that basis, I’d be looking to have about €400,000 before considering that route.

You have to pay a set up fee for an executive pension too. And if you go direct, you get the direct sales team. The cost of a Global ETF applies to both insured and SSAP as well. The likes of Vanguard or Statestreet charge about .025% in an SSAP. You can get a bit cheaper through an insured product as they have economies of scale. So it comes down to the ongoing running costs of the scheme and investment choice. As we are back in a property boom, people want to buy property through their pension. Personally, I think Apple, Amazon and Google can make me more money and with less hassle than a 1 bed apartment in Lucan.


Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie
 
I agree Steven. I prefer the liquidity and diversification, especially when most of us are up to our oxters in Irish property anyway.

As an aside, if I had a Euro for every time I’ve come across a person who is being stitched up by his broker, I’d be a very wealthy man. I looked at something for a client of yours recently and I must commend you for the way in which you conduct your business.
 


Thank you