Where to get impartial advice…..and not just from The Pensions Office!

The Pensions Office has, for a number of years, been a regular subscriber to a bespoke with profits research facility from AKG, a specialist firm of actuaries and consultants to the financial services profession.

This extensive and detailed research covers many aspects relating to the financial aspects of all with profits funds in the UK. These include company financial strength, fund background and risks (including ongoing liabilities for previous rash guarantees and bonus additions), bonus payment philosophy (including Market Value Reduction factors), asset allocation and future prospects for investment growth. This is an invaluable part of our overall research before we make any recommendations to clients.

We also subscribe to a number of leading weekly and monthly financial services publications which have frequent articles, reviews and surveys relating to with profits funds. We have found Money Management and Pensions World to be particularly useful over the past ten years or so.

The Internet is a further excellent source of information, research and comment from leading financial services journalists and commentators. CityWire is a good example. 

A number of with profits fund providers issue press announcements and other reports relating to their with profits funds. Some of these are posted or e-mailed directly to The Pensions Office but we also regularly watch all with profits companies’ web sites. This ensures our knowledge and understanding of movements and trends in each fund is kept completely up-to-date. 

A lot of information can be derived from assessments of the large numbers of individual with profits enquiries regularly flowing into our offices. These are particularly useful where we need to question a with profits insurance company further on any issues. 

Finally, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) are excellent sources of detailed information.

In summary, there really isn’t much The Pensions Office does not know about every with profits fund….or can’t quickly find out.

So, if you are invested in a with profits fund and want to know whether you should ‘cut and run’ or ‘stay and pray’…….