We are not authorised to give specific financial advice and so
cannot recommend either a type of pension plan or a pension
provider to you. If, however, you are looking to save for your
retirement via a stakeholder or personal pension, then The Money
Advice Service's independent comparative tables may help you decide
on a pension provider.
1. You should start by first going to The Money Advice Service's Comparative
Tables.
2. Then select "Compare Pensions". You are then asked for a few
details, including:
- Your current age;
- The age at which you intend to retire; and
- The amounts you wish to pay or transfer into the pension
plan.
3. The figures entered will be used to:
- Calculate the charges over the term of the plan; and
- Display the products which can accept that level of
contribution/ transfer
4. After inputting a contribution or transfer figure, you need
to select the button marked "Show me Stakeholder and Personal
Pensions" at the bottom.
5. The table then presents a list of products meeting the
criteria you have entered. Any firms that have chosen not to
participate in this comparative table will also be listed as
"non-participant". These firms typically do not sell products
direct to members of the public and you would need to consult an
adviser first and have them arrange the purchase of the policy.
6. The table itself has a lot of headings but it is possible to
expand certain parts for an explanation (these are all
labelled).
7. Note that to view the investment funds available under a plan
or to find the contact details for the company providing the plan
you need to click on the product name (this is underlined) under
the column "product name".
Here are a few general points on the table:
- Clicking on the underlined product name takes you to the
product details page. This details product terms such as:
- The available investment funds
- The number of investment switches allowed
- The firm's contact details
- Other basic terms of the plan
- Please note that table does not cover the full terms and
conditions of the policies listed. Official policy documents should
always be obtained and read in full. As an example one insurer
offers a discount on charges for funds above £25,000 and a
further discount once the fund reaches £50,000. Other
companies will instead reward large funds with the addition of free
units, instead of reducing charges. This level of detail is
not contained in The Money Advice Service table.
- The charges figures shown in the table are based on an
illustrated fund chosen by The Money Advice Service. The available
fund list also details whether other available funds have a higher,
lower or equal charging structure to the illustrated fund. If you
were to pick investment fund(s) with a higher/ lower charge then
the charges figure would be higher/ lower than that listed by the
table.
- The Money Advice Service tables do not provide an
illustration of the projected returns provided by a personal
pension plan. There is however an online tool that allows you to
estimate the return from a personal pension or other type of money
purchase plan. It is simple to use and it also has the facility to
calculate the growth of an employer's contributions as well as any
other existing funds that you may have. This can be found here.
- If you are not clear on the differences between standard
personal pension plans and Stakeholder plans then this guide may
help: Stakeholder
Guide
Q & A's
Some companies do not have a direct sales force and so these
firms will not sell a product direct to a member of the public. If
you do not have an adviser you cannot approach these firms directly
i.e. you will have to appoint and pay a financial adviser or meet
with one of the firm's own representatives. If you do not wish to
use an adviser at all then the key thing to look out for is the
column in the table marked "Available From". If you see the letter
"D" in the column then this means that you can approach the company
directly (i.e. without an adviser) and thus avoid paying fees for
advice. The only charges payable will be those on the policy
itself.
There is no statutory requirement to use a financial adviser
when transferring from an occupational pension scheme. The
Financial Services Authority (FSA) does however recommend that
advice is taken due to the complexity of some occupational schemes
and also the risks involved but it does not insist on advice being
given. Nevertheless, many firms however are reluctant to accept
such transfers, without advice.
Some firms do however accept "execution only" business. The FSA
defines this as "a transaction executed by a firm upon the specific
instructions of a client where the firm does not give advice on
investments relating to the merits of the transaction'". The
decision as to whether to offer this option lies with the firm in
question.
Note also that a Stakeholder pension scheme cannot refuse a
transfer from another UK registered scheme.
We are aware of no such independent table. Also we are unable to
provide a list of firms offering such policies.
SIPPs and SSASs are provided by insurance companies, pensions
consultants and fund managers, among others. A full list of
providers is available from their industry body, the Association of
Member-Directed Pension Schemes (AMPS). On the AMPS webpage
click on "Members" first and then you will see an option marked
"Members providing SIPPs" and also an option marked "Members
providing SASSs".
Contributions rules can be quite complicated and there are a few
limits to be aware of. We have a detailed overview of contributions
rules here:
Contribution Levels and Tax Relief
Unfortunately we are unable to give investment advice. We do
publish a basic overview however that details the type of funds
available and the general features of these funds
here.
You should be able to find such details by requesting a brochure
from the insurance company in question. Some insurers may even put
this information on their own webpage. Otherwise you can find
detailed fund information in financial publications or on various
fund comparison webpages. Unfortunately we cannot recommend any
particular publication or webpage for this purpose as they are all
commercial entities.
Yes there is no minimum age limit for setting up a Stakeholder/
personal pension plan. The key thing to note is that contributions
on behalf of minors are limited to £3,600 per tax year as
they will not have any earned income. Also for tax relief purposes
the contribution is treated as if paid by the child. So if, for
example, a higher rate taxpayer parent makes a contribution on
behalf of their child then this will only qualify for basic rate
tax relief, i.e. the net contribution could be £2,880 and
this would be grossed up to £3,600 with basic rate
relief.
