Self directed pension plans

I have a Davy Self Directed PRSA for about 5 years. I moved to this from a institutional retail fund after years of poor performance in the good times which in no way reflected the growth in the markets and drops in value to my fund which mirrored drops/crashes in the market. After years of bullshit and incompetence I made the switch and have done pretty well and would recommend this approach for like minded people

You need to go through an independent broker to get in. Mine was a IFA who I guess I had to persuade I was up to looking after myself in this regard. I think there is a minimum pot they require but I don't think it's that much

I pay fees on each transaction, buy & sell, these vary depending on the exchange and than a 1% annual fee

You then have total control over what you buy and sell except you are limited to stocks/etfs/bonds that are on their trading platform. If something you want to buy but isn't available through the very clunky online trading platform you can ring the trading desk and see if they can make it available for you

Davy are complete boomers when it comes to crypto and won't let you trade the BTC efts. A BTC EFT went live in Amsterdam in August and Davy refuse to open this up in the platform to "protect their customers". When speaking to Davy support they don't distinguish between bitcoin and alts

So on the one hand you will have freedom and control to manage your investments but on the other you will have to navigate this ridiculous paternalistic attitude - BTC up around 80% since August. They are inconsistent as well as you can trade Coinbase and Micro Strategy which are 100% crypto companies. Obviously they know better than Blackrock etc

I have read the comments about trading style in this thread and really its up to yourself. I have actively traded in the five years except for one. The one year I was not getting in and out, taking profits - limiting losses, was the year I lost money. You can be conservative and it can all go to ****. On the otherhand I can look back at some of the first trades I made and if I had just left them alone I would be better off. But I really enjoy actively trading. I'm a retail trader, nothing like a pro and I'm doing well. I am assuming we are in for another year of growth but the peak is, if not on the horizon, just over it. If I get out somewhere between 1-20% off the top valuation of my pot when the crash comes I'll be happy. 20-30% down won't be a disaster.

There is no chance my pot would be anywhere near the valuation it is now if i remained in the retail fund and when the crash happens it would plummet in value and the fund managers will shrug and take their fees anyway

Great discussion, especially since we have @Jim2007 with years of experience in the field.

I don't think we will get to a consesnus, but let me ask a question.

If I am better of with having a managed PRSA than a self-directed one, because I don't have access to prediction calculators, don't want to spend hours tracking latest news and build models to estimate impact on my PRSA value, is all of that really done in managed PRSA?

Are brokers actually sending personalized predictions with suggestions to switch from one fund to another or to split into two funds? How often does it happen? Every month, 3 months, 6 months?

Or is it the case that they are taking the additional AMC and contribution fee for sending me the yearly brochure presenting results for the last year?

I spoke with a few brokers during this year and no one mentioned anything like that. They also did not show any predictions for the fund they have picked for me, not mentioning any diversification (I suggest this fund based on the questionnaire - that is it).

I will not call out names, but I spoke with two brokers from "independent" offices (having a variety of different funds from major players like Irish Life, Zurich, Aviva) and two from the major players. Was I not informed properly about the service level or it just does not happen?