AVCs and county council pension

[baffled]

i have been on a career break for 5 years and am only working 2 days a week for the moment. I want to top up my pension but seems I have the choice of only one financial company through my union. The charges seem excessive to me ie. 5% per year for first 5 years plus bid/offer charge of 5% per year plus e3.09 per month plus management fee of 0.65%-1%. It seems to me the fund would have to earn a huge amount per annum just to break even!! Are there any other alternatives? Am I limited to one company because I have a public service pension?

 

[oysterman]

You don't have to go through your union's AVC arrangements (which seem typically expensive).

Go to a fee-based broker and set up a PRSA AVC.

This can be done on an execution-only basis for a couple of hundred Euro - full investment and generally 1%pa fund management charge.

There are a number of threads on which this has been discussed in recent months.

 

[ajapale]

Im not sure about the exact rules of the Local Authority Superannuation Schemes but it should be possible to 'Buy Service' in the scheme. You may be able to buy the five years service as a once off lump sum payment from your savings (and manually claim the tax relief appropriate to your tax band) or you could make payments through payroll over several years.

Do you intend staying in the Public Service until normal retirement age? How many years service did you have before you took the career break? How many years service will bring you up 65? What is your likely career trajectory (i.e. is it likely that you will rise to the top of the organisation or perhaps you are likely to stay at the same level for the foreseeable future)

I know of some local authority engineers who did relief work in Africa and were facilitated with the 'Buy Service' arrangements.

You should talk to the trade unions and also talk to the Human Resources Department. Before you do that search AAM for similar questions.