There has been a distinct drop in popularity for personal pensions in recent years. Many policies are closed to new business, but still, millions of pounds sit in the unloved schemes.
Perhaps the increase in interest surrounding self-invested personal pensions (Sipps) and the surge of occupational pensions schemes thanks to auto-enrolment is to blame for the lack of interest. Because there are still so many millions of pounds invested, the market has a lot of importance, and there are many who bought their schemes years ago who will be interested in seeing how their pot is accumulating.
There are several closed personal pensions books, leaving many providers without incentive to provide performance data since they are not looking to attract new business. For these companies, the with-profits data shown is from Form 59 on their annual FSA returns.
The majority of companies that provided us with data last year have done so again this year, but as with any year there have been exceptions. Friends Life did not participate again for the second consecutive year, claiming the survey was “not relevant” to the firm.
Aegon claims it has “resource issues” so was also unable to participate this year, similarly Scottish Widows had time constraint issues in filling the survey - both firms’ data comes from Form 59.
As with any MM survey, it is sent out more than a month in advance of writing and two months before being sent to press, with extensions given where possible. We hope to see all companies back in the survey next year as the personal pensions survey is one of the longest-running MM survey and is used by many advisers to compare performance.
Lower interest
Interest in with-profits seems to have diminished in recent years. Table 1 shows results for with-profits personal pensions, after all charges, over 5, 10, 15 and 20 years for regular contributions of £200pm gross for policies maturing on 1 January 2014. Performance data for firms that declined to complete the survey are as at 1 March 2013, and come from Forms 59A and 59B of their latest FSA returns.
