Pension Funds

NoseyMike2010

Hi,

Just about to start a pension. What pension funds are people investing in at the moment. What penson funds have people invested in recently. Who should I talk to to discuss pension funds?

Noseymike2010

Kennie1

When you start a pension you would normally be advised which fund would be the best based on a risk to reward assessment which would be completed by your pension advisor for a Personal Pension/PRSA. If you are in a Occ pension you would need to contact the trustees and get them to organise a presentation by the scheme advisors.

No two people are the same when it comes to retirement planning so to give advise on which type of fund is the best is futile on boards.ie also the lenght of time to retirement is a critical measure for recommending a fund.

homer911

To give you some idea, attached is a quarterly price trends spreadsheet from Zurich of the 4 funds my employer's pension fund trustees let us invest in. - We have to choose the split for our contributions, no advice provided by anyone.

Hindsight is a marvellous thing!

NoseyMike2010

interesting.

Think is I am about 2 years into a pension. I am wondering if I should gamble or play cool. What should I gamble on?

tinkerbell

You need to talk to a qualified financial adviser. Nobody here can advise you without knowing your financial situation.

sportzstar

I got laid off there before Christmas and have a fund to transfer from Mercer to whatever my group new employers are with (finding out next week).

I'd get in touch with the pensionsboard.ie or Citizens information. I was using http://www.irishtimes.com/money/pension-funds/ as well for a bit of research.

homer911

sportzstar wrote: »

I got laid off there before Christmas and have a fund to transfer from Mercer to whatever my group new employers are with (finding out next week).

I'd get in touch with the pensionsboard.ie or Citizens information. I was using http://www.irishtimes.com/money/pension-funds/ as well for a bit of research.

Dont rush into transferring your old fund - indeed if its a DB scheme and you are moving to a DC scheme, you are are more than likely better to leave it where it is - you should get some pension advice before making this decision

homer911

NoseyMike2010 wrote: »

interesting.

Think is I am about 2 years into a pension. I am wondering if I should gamble or play cool. What should I gamble on?

You are not providing sufficient information - is this a company scheme, a self administered fund or a PRSA? If not self administered, what investment options do you have?

Pensions, in my view, are not for gambling with - if you want to day trade or manage an invesment portfolio, then by all means have funds for this, but your pension is a long term investment and should be treated reasonably conservatively

hwfs.ie

Nosey mike,

Depending on what type of pension you are setting up will depend on the funds availible, if it is a company pension with trustee's the fund choice will be limited to the choice the trustee's select. Certain factors need to be taken into account to determine your risk profile.

The key thing to any pension is diversification by balancing risk and reward through diversification, you should be able to:
• Participate in market gains.
• Minimise the effect of market downturns in any one asset class.
• Achieve consistent and steadier returns over the long-term, rather than ‘chasing winners’.
• Reduce the risk profile of your portfolios.

hwfs.ie

Nosey mike,

Depending on what type of pension you are setting up will depend on the funds availible, if it is a company pension with trustee's the fund choice will be limited to the choice the trustee's select. Certain factors need to be taken into account to determine your risk profile.

The key thing to any pension is diversification by balancing risk and reward through diversification, you should be able to:
• Participate in market gains.
• Minimise the effect of market downturns in any one asset class.
• Achieve consistent and steadier returns over the long-term, rather than ‘chasing winners’.
• Reduce the risk profile of your portfolios.

NoseyMike2010

My pension is with Standard Life. I have no idea which funds to pick! Blackrock is one type of fund.

hmmm

The first thing I look at is fees. Fees kill pensions and long term investments.

When selecting a fund you will have to decide how much risk you are willing to accept. Generally when someone is younger, they can take more risk because they have more time to recover if things go wrong.

That's not to say if you're young you should be investing in crazy stuff, but perhaps you will want to have more equities than bonds as an example. It's a bad idea to chase returns i.e. just because a fund returned 10% last year doesn't mean it's going to do the same this year.

Personally I have most of my pension in a fund which is broad based, low fees index tracker. A relatively small amount is then invested in some higher risk funds. There's also a few bonds in the mix.

bailes

NoseyMike,

It really is a very personal decision and any pensions advisor would need to conduct a proper fact find or personal questionnaire before offering any advice or recommendation. the problem with pensions is that a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. you need to look out for

1. Past Fund Perfomance
2. Allocation rate
3. Annual management Charge

Spotzstar,

Hold your horses and don't rush into anything you have a few choices that you should explore before moving everything to your new employers scheme, you might be better off with 2 pensions.