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Pensions are not unlike any other form of long term planning, as your circumstances and working life ebbs and flows like the tide a short review of where you are now, and some focus on where you want to be is all that is required.

There are always issues with pension providers, and of course the invested funds.

Perhaps the two most important factors with all Personal Pension Planning are:-

Charges – the level that is levied by many providers in the market place are often very much higher than you could achieve by moving your Pension funds elsewhere, you would not hesitate to move your Mortgage if the rate charged by your lender was higher than could be obtained from elsewhere.

Asset Allocation – the first rule of any investment planning is “don’t put all of your eggs in one basket” – a good range of well performing funds combined with lower charges will do wonders for your overall pension planning.

As always with Pensions you may find it difficult to do this on your own, however with much information in the public domain it is becoming easier to do.

You only have to search the internet for Pension Funds or Pension Fund Comparison and your will see that there are a range of sites offering good levels of information which will put you in the right Ball Park.

From there on in it is a simple matter of comparing what you have, with what you could have and you will know what move you have to make next. Simply this, if your Pension Funds are not performing as well as others you will need to make some decisions and soon.

On the subject of charges, it is not uncommon for Pension Providers to be charging a Monthly Plan Fee of up to £5 per month, an annual management fee of 1.75% that’s another £175 for each £10,000 of investment, along with a Bid/Offer spread that is over 5% – and is payable on every contribution you make.

This is compared with modern Pension charges as low as 1% – that’s it the whole charge.

You should therefore review what you have in place and consider carefully your options and if appropriate take some advice from a suitably qualified adviser.

Richard Smith is a UK Based Independent Financial Adviser.
http://www.thefinancezone.co.uk

Article Source: Regular pension reviews will leave you cash-rich