Looking for advice on pension as we probably need to change providers.

J

Janeymcjaneface

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Saying I don’t know what to do doesn’t even start to cover it. I would be so grateful for any help anyone can provide.

I currently have a PRB with Davy - performance and fees have been pretty awful. I’m also in an occupational scheme through Mercer MT but I’m only in that about a year.

My husband has a PRB and a PRSA with Davy, again fees and performance crap. We also have an investment account with Davy. I know, I know.

We know we need to change providers but we are really struggling to figure out what to do, who to talk to and how to keep costs to a minimum. We don’t need complicated investment portfolios - we’re looking to track global/emerging markets etc.

With respect to the PRBs, as far as I understand it the eg have to stay in PRB structures but we don’t want them with Davy anymore. Do we need a broker to help us transfer to someone else or how to we go about this? My workplace provided a free one to one with Mercer and of course they’re happy to take all the funds in but I don’t know how to establish whether that would be a good idea. The broker did confirm that we wouldn’t be able to access the type of fee structures that apply in the MT.

For the PRSA we’ve looked at pension check and it looks like Irish Life Horizon might be a good option but again don’t know how to access this.

Should we engage someone for once off advice and would they be able to set up the transfers and if so what might that cost? How do you find the right person to talk to? Feel a bit burnt by our experience to date so I’m pretty wary. Also reluctant to pay for ongoing advice as the costs seem to be enormous over the lifetime of the arrangement? Is that fair?!

Finally there’s the investment account. This has performed bizarrely well given that it was supposed to be kept in low risk assets so that we could access it at short notice. Might it be best to leave that with Davy? As far as I can make out there will be a taxable event if we cash in the investments now and move the funds.

I find it absolutely impossible to get to grips with the charging structures for any of these arrangements and to work out whether the headline charge disclosed (say 1.98% on the PRB) covers everything or if there’s actually other fund related charges also. How does anyone do this??

Thanks to anyone who can input on any of this mess!
 
In my opinion this could do with a Money Makeover but I'm sure that some others will differ.

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At the very least you need to clarify details such as your ages and when you would like to retire, what the charges are on your existing pensions, what they're invested in, what the "investment account" is, what charges apply, what it's invested in and whether or not it's a pension.
 
Can I ask what a money makeover is? We are both late 40s, want to retire at 65.

The disclosed charges on the PRBs is 1.98% but I expect that just Davy/intermediary charges and there may be fund charges also? I need to check the PRSA.

The PRBs and PRSAs are approx 80% invested in various equity funds and the rest in bonds, gold and property.

The investment account is a trading account with Davy invested in three or four different funds.
 
Janeymcjaneface said:
The disclosed charges on the PRBs is 1.98% but I expect that just Davy/intermediary charges and there may be fund charges also? I need to check the PRSA.

The PRBs and PRSAs are approx 80% invested in various equity funds and the rest in bonds, gold and property.
Click to expand...

If you are willing to use an execution-only broker, you should be able to reduce the charges on the three pension policies.

I see one EO broker charging 0.75% on PRBs.

PRSA Ireland | PRSA.ie

Low Cost Pensions Ireland Zurich LIfe The Value Pension Website Execution Only PRSA AVC PRSA Pensions www.prsa.ie
www.prsa.ie www.prsa.ie
 
When you have a few moving parts I always see value to getting advice around your options.

You have a PRB and a scheme through Mercer. There may be advantages to transferring the PRB into that scheme such as lower charges but that takes away the flexibility to mature pensions at different stages - all the benefits in the Mercer plan would need to be taken together, where having the PRB separate allows flexibility of timing or staggering your retirement (from 50 onwards for the PRB). The fund choice in the scheme may not have the index trackers you mention.

For your spouse with a PRB and PRSA you are potentially looking at 15 years to NRA with lower charges which will make a material difference.

Depending on the amounts involved you may get an advised model for approx 1% per annum all in or as per previous post - EO pricing below that

www.shefflinoneill.ie
 
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