Irish Life - Exit charge doubled last week

F

Friendlyguy

Guest
Hi all,

I need some help. I have a pension fund with Irish Life SINCE 13 Q years. I changed a bit early beginning 2007 all my money from Indexed Global Equity into Capital Protection Fund. Today I am glad that I did do so. The Global Equity is nearly 40% down since last June where my Capital Protection is up a few cents. Saved me a lot of money. Now, I will never hit the low of the market but soon ( couple weeks) it is time to change back into Global Equity. I asked about their condition yesterday and was told on the telephone that I will have to pay an EXIT CHARGE which is since last week 2% of my holdings. I was told that this charges was increased from 1% to 2% last week.

My questions:

Why do i have to pay an EXIT CHARGE at all as I am changing funds within the pension scheme and not exit the scheme?

Where can I find anything about it, I do not find the term and condition of the fund?

If such condition is it ok, can Irish Life increases the charge by 100%?

Is there somebody who can help me, please?
I think I pay already for changing the funds by paying the spread on both funds. I was told always that |i can change the fund 6 times without paying any charge, what is that now??? It is a hughee charge.

Thanks a lot for any answer!

FG
 
The exit charge to which you refer is probably an MVA(see below). MVAs can be applied to all funds at any time during the course of the plan except, at normal retirement age. The guarantee that the price of the fund will not fall only applies on events such as retirement or death.

This is an actively managed fund, which invests in cash deposits, some equities and fixed-interest assets and is guaranteed not to fall in value.Please note that a Market Value Adjuster (MVA) of 10%* is currently in operation on the Capital Protection Fund (previously called Exempt Guaranteed Fund). This MVA is the reduction in the fund value applied at present when a non-demographic claim or fund switch/transfer is made. This rate is liable to change and you should check with Irish Life.
*rates correct at 21 October 2008
Click to expand...
 
Hi,

I'm a bit shocked by GSheehy's post because I have just read a brochure "Your Guide to Irish Life's Personal Retirement Bonds". This lists a large range of unit-linked funds in which the bond can be invested and it says that the investment can be switched between funds:
"The first six switches in any year are free."

The list of funds includes a Capital Protection Fund.

It also includes a Property Fund.

This seems to completely contradict the "exit" charge of 1% / 2% in the original post and the 10% MVA in GSheehy's response.

It also omits any mention of the possible delay (6 months) in moving funds from Property Fund, as described in an earlier post: http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=82929

I would appreciate any guidance on how to get a true picture of the restrictions and costs of transferring between funds from a retirement bond provider, and whether / how to use product brochures. I had thought that I could buy a pension bond now with a conservative allocation to investment funds and to change the allocation later. (I do plan to take independent professional advice.)

(Background: My position is that I need to find a home for the transfer value of my pension with my previous employer because the pension fund is closing. My options are to buy a pension bond or to transfer to my new employer's pension scheme. But that's for another thread.)
 
Quick follow-up to my previous reply:

I just found the following Irish Life brochure (via the Best Buys key post) and it does flag special conditions attaching to some funds, including both the Capital Protection Fund and various property funds.

[broken link removed]

The info in this does not quite match the brochures I got in the post (its Consensus Lifestyle strategy is to put 25% in the Capital Protection Fund before retirement, whereas my hardcopy brochure says 35%). But it seems reasonable current, since it says "Tax rate is current as at January 2008."
 
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