Dominic Browning, Managing Director
Posted by Dom Browning
05/10/23
News, Resources, Insight and Opinion from Browning Financial Planning

Reviewing your company pension funds

Dominic Browning, Managing Director
Posted by Dom Browning
05/10/23

Auto-enrolment (where employers and employees have to pay into a company pension) has been in place for quite some time now and seems to be a success.

This means that your company pension funds can become quite substantial in value and can sometimes even exceed the value of your home.

Increasingly our clients ask us to review the funds they are invested in in their company pensions. Quite often they are in poor value-for-money default funds and this can cost them thousands of pounds in lost returns over the long-term. Alternatively, they might be invested in “dog” funds (simply funds which have consistently poor performance) or are investing in the wrong assets.

Financial Advisers have typically made a note of a client’s company pension details including the funds invested in, but never advised on these assets. Since the value of the company pension will have a significant effect on whether a client runs out of money in retirement or not, we think reviewing these funds is just as important as reviewing the funds we look after in our model portfolios.

So, we are introducing a new service where, for a one-off fee, we will give you feedback on your current company pension scheme funds. We ask you to provide a list of all the funds available and will give you advice on what we consider to be the best funds available.

Our fee is 0.5% of the fund value, with a minimum fee of £250. This is a one-off fee for a one-off service. There will be no on-going review of the suitability of the funds selected and if at a later date, you want us to review your funds again, you will need to contact us again to request a review, which will be chargeable.

More News, Insight & Opinion
Capital Gains Tax Increase

The rate for basic-rate tax-payers has increased with immediate effect from 10% to 18% and the rate for higher-rate tax-payers will increase from 20% to 24%. Continue

Pensions and IHT

From April 2027, unless the Government changes it mind, the value of your personal pension will form part of your estate when you die. Continue

Two Big Questions

Someone quoted that "money isn't the most important thing, but it's up there with Oxygen". Continue

Sideways Disinheritance

People often worry about their children losing their inheritance due to the costs of care fees. However, whilst this does happen in some cases, the real killer is “sideways disinheritance”. What is this, you may ask?  Continue

LIFETIME ISAs

We are very happy to announce that our chosen platform Fundment are now offering Lifetime ISAs. Continue