High charges for old-style pensions are ‘scandalous’

Saturday 19th February 2011, 3:00PM GMT.

Meeku Patidar

MANY Islanders with private pensions would be ‘disgusted’ if they realised how much they pay out in charges, says a leading pension expert.

Meeku Patidar, managing director of Spearpoint Retirement Services, said that the high charges associated with old-style pensions are nothing short of ‘scandalous’.
He said that Jersey residents still own thousands of pension contracts worth tens of millions in old-fashioned products.

‘Many of these policies remain with insurance companies that are either continuing to overcharge or delivering sub-standard investment performance. Sadly it is usually both,’ he said.

Mr Patidar said that it was not uncommon to find that initial entry costs were as high as ten per cent of the regular contribution, although he said these can be as high as 20 per cent.

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1
s

February 19, 2011 at 9:43 pm

scandalous indeed, i had an aviva (norwich union) pension for over 14 years, and it was worth only what i had put in, would have been better off leaving the cash in the bank, i have now transferred it into company scheme. the charges were outrageous and i dont know how they get away with it. i would never take a personal pension again, better off investing yourself, a total con.

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2
D Mc S

February 20, 2011 at 5:57 am

Mrs Mc S and I both put £50k pa(the max that is tax deductable each year) into our self-administered retirement annuity contracts. Once set up the cost is zero for each annual contribution and running cost are around £600 pa.plus broker fees, but most importantly, we can chooose how the funds are invested, and in the last two years we have made returns of nearly 60%

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3
C Le Verdic

February 20, 2011 at 1:26 pm

I’d better go and see if Mr Patidar wants my money instead, then.

This looks suspiciously like another of these advert articles to me.

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4
Hamish de Carteret

February 22, 2011 at 7:49 am

The best investment for anyone from the UK who is Jersey resident is to make UK state pension contributions. They only cost around £300 a year and buy 1/30 of the final pension. – much better than speculation on private pensions.

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