Clarity of Pension advice. . . . . . .

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I have had numerous meetings with people locally who have contacted me because they had an experience with a door to door Pension salesman from a specified Pension provider. Some of the following are quotes used by people I have met:

  • “This salesperson does not listen to what we were saying and only wanted to discuss specific things that were encouraging us to take out a policy”

  • “I found this salesperson very pushy. They stated that their Pension company had the best investment funds and the cheapest charges in the industry”

Charges

A Pension policy where there are significantly high up front charges in the first few years are not always the cheapest or cost effective in the long run. In many cases there are certain bonus’s linked to these plans, but many people might not meet the criteria to benefit from these bonus’s that can distort the quote you receive.

I have sat down with several people who had been contributing to this Pension plan and after a couple of years are shocked with the value. There was one client who was shocked to learn that it stated on his Pension statement that these savage early charges would also apply to any potential increase he makes to his pension in the future.

Fund Performance

On any given month, many of the top Pension providers can say that they have one/some of the best funds in a specified field. This does not make them the best Fund manager in the market. For example a company may have a fund that did well from a specified timeframe (exactly 5 years) right now, but another company may have better fund performance figures over a 10/15/20 year period.

Confidence in saving for your Pension

If you are not fully confident or convinced by what a salesperson is saying then you should always consider getting a second opinion. A person who can only sell a pension , investment or Life assurance plan from the one company is only able to discuss these products in how their company has instructed. Different Pension providers have different charges and most of them nowadays do not do up front charges because many people might have to stop and start Pension payments as their situation changes.

Not sure? Give me a call . . . .

If you are not sure of what you are being sold or told, please do not hesitate to contact me.