Pension stuff, how's it all looking ? HAve you prepared ?

[Count Steer]

TBH it doesn't tell me much other than the brief interlude of Truss/Kwarteng stoofed the bond market.

Apparently a goodly chunk of my pension pot which had been gradually transferred into 'low risk' was tanked by the dynamic duo

One of my 'safe' pots went south quite impressively too. Fortunately I'm not planning on drawing on it for a while so there's time for a bit of claw-back.

(Apparently, back a while, it was bonds that did for Equitable Life too).

[Dodgy69]

What were the launch dates? (It's been cropped).

TBH it doesn't tell me much other than the brief interlude of Truss/Kwarteng stoofed the bond market. I assume that 'aggressive' has higher charges than the 'defensive' too. a) It's a v short time frame and b) it's (obvs) what's happened in the past and 'previous performance yadda yadda...'

In other news, apparently lots of people forget to change their pension nominee when they split up. That must be fun when you find your partner's pension is heading off to the ex!

They launched October 2015. The guy I spoke to said what I expected, aggressive is more risk and defensive is less. Looking at their table, aggressive has done very well, even since 2020 and the world went tits up.

Feb 22 - Feb 23 aggressive lost 0.8 defensive lost 4.2. How's that work then.?

[Horse]

TBH it doesn't tell me much other than the brief interlude of Truss/Kwarteng stoofed the bond market.

Apparently a goodly chunk of my pension pot which had been gradually transferred into 'low risk' was tanked by the dynamic duo

One of my 'safe' pots went south quite impressively too. Fortunately I'm not planning on drawing on it for a while so there's time for a bit of claw-back.

Ditto.

My [limited] planning is having a rethink

Luckily, Filly will still be working for a while.

[Count Steer]

What were the launch dates? (It's been cropped).

TBH it doesn't tell me much other than the brief interlude of Truss/Kwarteng stoofed the bond market. I assume that 'aggressive' has higher charges than the 'defensive' too. a) It's a v short time frame and b) it's (obvs) what's happened in the past and 'previous performance yadda yadda...'

In other news, apparently lots of people forget to change their pension nominee when they split up. That must be fun when you find your partner's pension is heading off to the ex!

They launched October 2015. The guy I spoke to said what I expected, aggressive is more risk and defensive is less. Looking at their table, aggressive has done very well, even since 2020 and the world went tits up.

Feb 22 - Feb 23 aggressive lost 0.8 defensive lost 4.2. How's that work then.?

Defensive tends to be safe stuff ie bonds but Truss/Kwarteng managed to bomb the value of bonds, which was pretty impressive ie not normal. Pension managers tend to move towards 'safer' investments as you approach taking a pension. Blunderwoman put the skids under that. Hopefully it won't happen again, but never say never.

Aggressive funds can gain/lose value rapidly ie they tend to be more volatile. Generally they'll do well in a rising market but one has to ask if that's where we're heading. Concensus seems to be slow growth...maybe. Hedge your bets and go for balance would be my 2d.

[Dodgy69]

Yeah, he said aggressive was in stocks and shares and defensive was more bonds. I just don't get their performance table considering the last few years of global turmoil. The risky ones losing less than the safer ones.

It's a funny old game.

[Count Steer]

Yeah, he said aggressive was in stocks and shares and defensive was more bonds. I just don't get their performance table considering the last few years of global turmoil. The risky ones losing less than the safer ones.

It's a funny old game.

The main thing about very defensive funds is that they aren't suppose to lose money (inflation apart) but you wouldn't normally hold everything in one for a long time, just feed in as you approach retirement.

This was more important when you had to go the annuity route. The last thing you wanted to risk was the stock market cacking it's pants the week before you transferred it all into an annuity.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Stocks in particular were...complicated...during and after the pandemic. Yeah they took a beating immediately on lockdown but then some of them went nuts. It's all been a bit mad since really.

Don't bother trying to make much sense out of the last 3 years!

[Count Steer]

Oh, and finally, aggressive/actively managed funds tend to have higher management charges. They should really show performance after costs in order to compare properly. If they did that people might find index trackers more attractive but then they'd earn less in charges (which they take whether a fund goes up, down or sideways. ).

[Cousin Jack]

Whar it all boils down to is bankers taking bets with our/your money. Sometimes we gain, sometimes we lose, but the bankers win every time. Some bankers even pretend to understand rhe market, they lie!

[Dodgy69]

Update...my pension fund managers are shite.

Nearly 18 months in now and it hasn't grown a penny. Infact, today it's down 12k, it has been down 24k. Do I stick or twist into something that will make me money. Seems to me these diversified portfolio's managed for you don't like an unsettled climate, but I reckon an unsettled climate is what we've got for the foreseeable.

Any thoughts ???

[Count Steer]

Update...my pension fund managers are shite.

Nearly 18 months in now and it hasn't grown a penny. Infact, today it's down 12k, it has been down 24k. Do I stick or twist into something that will make me money. Seems to me these diversified portfolio's managed for you don't like an unsettled climate, but I reckon an unsettled climate is what we've got for the foreseeable.

Any thoughts ???

Is that in the 'defensive' funds? If so, that's what got stuffed by the financial wizards that got into 10 and 11 Downing Street for a few weeks and decided to turn the financial world on its head. It's been an 'interesting' year or so but you're paying them to know how to deal with it. A good fund manager can make money in a downturn but tbh nobody alive has seen what just happened before.

I might be inclined to give them 6 months while you work out what you will do if you take the money out (watch out for account closure charges too). Can you or whoever you put the ££s with do better? Have a look at fund performance over the same period of stuff like Fidelity funds - the data is all out there. Have their comparable funds done better? Lots of funds have taken a bit of a cold bath but the 'low risk' bonds market got completely stuffed by the financial kamikaze twins in a few weeks. (Now she has the nerve to give 'honours' to the genii that helped her do it).

[Dodgy69]

It was in a defensive portfolio but I spoke to one of there advisors and it's now in a growth but doing just the same. It is a personal pension so moving it may need some thought.

No fee's to move it but where to. There's still tax free cash in there and the rest taxable. They always say its volatility and over the long term gains are made. Thing is, I want it making money now.

They do a podcast every morning on YouTube and you can leave comments. Seems everyone's got the same opinion. They take annual fee's and lose our money. Gains one day, loses the next. I'd of thought decent fund managers should have the resources to make some Gains even in uncertain times. Happy days.

[Mr. Dazzle]

They say 5 years is the sort of timescale to look at. Checking it every day to see if it's gone up/down is a good way to drive yourself potty.

FWIW pretty much every pension fund has been taking a kicking.

[Count Steer]

They say 5 years is the sort of timescale to look at. Checking it every day to see if it's gone up/down is a good way to drive yourself potty.

FWIW pretty much every pension fund has been taking a kicking.

True. Also, while markets are down, hopefully they buy in so you get a bigger bounce on an upturn. It is a bit though when you see it stoofing.

[Horse]

Update...my pension fund managers are shite.

Nearly 18 months in now and it hasn't grown a penny. Infact, today it's down 12k, it has been down 24k. Do I stick or twist into something that will make me money. Seems to me these diversified portfolio's managed for you don't like an unsettled climate, but I reckon an unsettled climate is what we've got for the foreseeable.

Any thoughts ???

Is that in the 'defensive' funds? If so, that's what got stuffed by the financial wizards that got into 10 and 11 Downing Street for a few weeks and decided to turn the financial world on its head. It's been an 'interesting' year or so but you're paying them to know how to deal with it. A good fund manager can make money in a downturn but tbh nobody alive has seen what just happened before.

the 'low risk' bonds market got completely stuffed by the financial kamikaze twins in a few weeks. (Now she has the nerve to give 'honours' to the genii that helped her do it).

My pension savings had all been automatically transferred to [previously] safe funds.

They lost about 1/4-1/3 of their value.

The advice I had was:
- if you don't need the money now, leave it where it is
- hope that the value will increase
- monitor the value, take a view on what is acceptable

Luckily for me, I had some years in a final salary scheme.

[Potter]

Markets go up and down.
But historically they always drift up if you can wait.

Although sometimes it can take a while, if you’d have been invested in an S&P tracker in 1999 then after the dot.com crash it would be 13-14yrs until your money got back to what you put in, then if you waited another decade into mid-Covid you’d have been quids in.

So it all depends when you need it and if you can afford to wait.

[Potter]

FWIW my market’s portfolios and pensions are all down on average about 15%. I knew it was a risk though, so I can wait and use other funds until (hopefully) they pick up.

[Count Steer]

the 'low risk' bonds market got completely stuffed by the financial kamikaze twins in a few weeks. (Now she has the nerve to give 'honours' to the genii that helped her do it).

My pension savings had all been automatically transferred to [previously] safe funds.

They lost about 1/4-1/3 of their value.

The advice I had was:
- if you don't need the money now, leave it where it is
- hope that the value will increase
- monitor the value, take a view on what is acceptable

Luckily for me, I had some years in a final salary scheme.

The double whammy on that is those funds were traditionally where the money went as you approached the point that you were going to need them and they're slow growth so will take a long time to recover (particularly in a period of high inflation).

I'm OK with my final salary scheme pension but the amount my other 'Lifestyle' pension lost was eye-watering (25-30%). It might recover in time to pay nursing home bills but, because I can manage without it anyway I may pull it and stick it in income/growth funds.

For comparison my self managed 'plucky little portfolio' of FTSE 100 'income shares' (income reinvested) is just about wiping its face, even Vodaphone which has plummeted since I bought on a high, has paid good dividends which repaired some of the damage. (Total share value is down but the accumulated dividends have allowed me to buy more shares so if things turn up I'll be ).

[Bustaspoke]

FWIW my market’s portfolios and pensions are all down on average about 15%. I knew it was a risk though, so I can wait and use other funds until (hopefully) they pick up.

I'm in the same boat as everyone else,my pensions are down & I had a low risk ISA that was making nothing.
I got the ISA swapped to another fund & now it's making money.When going through this process the FA showed me a graph of my under performing ISA & there's 3 dips in it's value,1st dip Brexit,2nd dip Putin invading Ukraine,3rd dip Liz Truss.I'm not sure how the markets factor in a Liz Truss but at least that problem's solved,the other two issues might take a while...

[Ant]

I'm having to give some thought as to whether to carry on piling the money into my pension or reign it in. I don't actually know how well it's doing or not. I put something stupid like 26% into it, so I really ought to be having a look.