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Where Taxpayers and Advisers Meet

Choosing a trustee to run a pension left to me by my father

dominoman
Posts:60
Joined:Fri Jan 15, 2016 6:41 pm
Choosing a trustee to run a pension left to me by my father

Postby dominoman » Mon Sep 07, 2020 1:28 pm

My father died a year ago leaving a sizeable pension to 3 of us children. It's currently run by a pension trustee and invested in a mix of stocks and shares, plus some bonds. The way it works is we contact the trustee with what we want to invest in, they do some due diligence and then invest the money. We're really unhappy with the slow service (over 6 months to get us set up) and the high level of charges, so want to change trustee and broker.

I'm really looking for some advice.
1. Has anyone used a pension trustee they would recommend?
2. The broker (Charles Stanley) charges us far too much to trade (over £600 dealing charges for a single £100k trade, not including stamp duty). Can anyone recommend a broker that deals with pensions/trusts?

Any other advice?

Thanks

pawncob
Posts:5090
Joined:Wed Aug 06, 2008 4:06 pm
Location:West Sussex

Re: Choosing a trustee to run a pension left to me by my father

Postby pawncob » Tue Sep 15, 2020 12:25 pm

Never trust recommendations on the net. That said, I use Hargreaves Lansdown for several trusts. Their charges are competitive (but not the cheapest), especially if you don't use Unit Trusts.
With a pinch of salt take what I say, but don't exceed your RDA

iwmtaxadvisor
Posts:45
Joined:Wed Sep 09, 2020 5:12 pm
Contact:

Re: Choosing a trustee to run a pension left to me by my father

Postby iwmtaxadvisor » Tue Sep 15, 2020 3:09 pm

Problem:
You are irritated by the slow service and high fees. The implication is that you are not significantly fussed about anything else, say, performance.

Dealing with slow service:
(i) The CFA Institute says you should have an investment policy statement: in it you would define the benchmarks you demand for account delivery, service response time, performance and risk. Your trustee is the one who writes the IPS but all the beneficiaries can push his or her hand and force it. The important point is to document what is acceptable and make sure that independent professionals agree it is reasonable.
(ii) Check the pension deed or bypass trust to see if you have the power to replace trustees. If you do, give your trustee 12 months to make the benchmarks. If you don't tell the trustee (after making the IPS) that you want his retirement and support to appoint a new trustee. He or she will by then understand that if it can be shown that he did not act with care and diligence (as defined by the IPS), you can apply to have him reimburse the fees he has charged.
(iii) Set up a beauty parade of the three best other trustees, give them the IPS, tell them to work to that, pick one you like.

Dealing with high fees
(i) External asset managers are firms that manage money but work through whichever private bank or stockbroker their clients want to use. They should have picked up enough expertise to match a client's feature preference list to the market and arrange a beauty parade. Find one of these and ask for this service.
(ii) Some of the external asset managers negotiate discounted fees for their clients with brokers like Charles Stanley. After checking, I can say that CS actually can do a 100k deal for 345 plus stamp duty, with a human broker, and execute a limit order within this fee. What matters is the broker you work with. The relevant point is maybe you don't have to move, and second, you can negotiate.
(iii) Do not permit any entry fees if you do choose another broker. I mean, 500 is fair enough to move the portfolio but not 3% like IFAs charge. The IPS will be enough to get straight in, no portfolio design advice required.

Is it worth getting advice:
Search: "wikipedia 'external asset manager'" One of these should be able to figure out what you want and set up a beauty parade.

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