Most of the enquiries to The Pensions Office which relate to existing pension arrangements such as personal pensions, director and executive pensions, AVCs and FSAVCs are prompted at least partly with dissatisfaction with the investment performance of the existing scheme.

Understandably, if a pension scheme member has seen very poor investment returns on the pension fund over the years he or she will at some stage question whether this under-performance might only be temporary of if it can be avoided by transferring to an alternative arrangement.

Other parts of this site consider the, importance or otherwise, of past performance as a guide to likely future investment returns. You may wish to read our thoughts and comments on this matter.

Even more importantly, though, it saddens The Pensions Office to note that the vast majority of the pension policies we review are invested in a single fund. Sometimes this is a single equity fund but, much more often, the investment is in a managed fund.

Most people seem to think that managed funds are invested in a range of different types of asset, possibly including property, fixed interest investments and cash, as well as equities. In fact, most managed funds are very heavily invested in equities - typically at least 75% - with only relatively small amounts invested in other assets. Thus there should be little surprise that most managed funds behave in a very similar way to equity funds and, therefore, they have fallen almost as fast as equities over the last couple of years (but will rise almost as fast as equities in better years).

Near-total investment in equities is an appropriate pension investment strategy for only a small proportion of people. The Pensions Office almost invariably recommends a broader-based and well-structured investment portfolio.

According to the requirements and circumstances of each individual The Pensions Office recommends a bespoke investment portfolio which balances potential reward with restricted risk. We select pension providers with competitive charges and recommend investment funds which have produced consistently good returns and, in our opinion, are likely to continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

How can this structured process and approach work for you?