Ethical pension

[JKForde]

Hello there, I have a recently opened Zurich PRSA but am concerned about the investment strategy of the fund with respect to ethics and specific company holdings. I don't have enough in there yet to allow me to self-administer (like Standard Life offer) so am wondering if there are good ethical managed pension funds out there. Thanks for any info

(I did do a search of this forum for any relevant results but kept getting a strange error)

 

[LDFerguson]

Several companies offer ethical pension funds, including Friends First's Stewardship Fund, Aviva's SRI (Socially Responsible Investing) range and New Ireland's Ethical Managed Fund.

I believe that Standard Life will be launching a PRSA product with self-directed options in the next few months. I won't have full information until the launch but I don't think it will require huge contributions or funds.

Liam D. Ferguson

 

[JKForde]

Cheers for the fast reply Liam and for the heads up on SL's new PRSA product; I was aware of those other SRI and ethical funds (I thought they were ordinary funds and not specifically pension products) but when I looked at them concluded that they weren't ethical enough for me! (am looking for an active, deep strategy, wholly accepting the potential loss of earning prospects by reducing the 'vice' & the higher fees).

Dolmen do a Green Effects fund based on the NAI Index but no specific pension option and am aware of other ethical funds (Jupiter Ecology, Aegon etc etc.) but unsure what the process is to switch from the Zurich PRSA either completely or partially into one of these without being hammered by Capital Gains, value loss etc.

Maybe just leave as is...!

 

[LDFerguson]

From what I can see on their website, Dolmen's Green Effects fund is not available for pensions. I don't think any Irish pension provider offers access to the Jupiter or Aegon funds either.

So aside from the pension funds I mentioned, if you want to invest in the Green Effects, Jupiter or Aegon funds, you do so outside of your pension, so no tax relief on contributions.

Cheers, Liam