Royal London pension plan

[johnstevens77]

My son has recently gone to work in The States. Before he left his employer had enrolled him into a Royal London pension plan and although he is no longer able to make any contributions he has kept the plan as it is.
The plan type was: Retirement Solutions Group Personal Pension Continuation Plan, which has been changed to an individual plan which Royal London will reinvest in their default Balanced Lifestyle Strategy (Drawdown). If he doesn’t think this is right for him, he can choose his own investments. The plan matures in 18 years time.
I worked overseas and was never eligible for a pension plan, my income is from my HYP and Investment Trusts so I have very little idea what this is all about.
Thoughts anyone?

[johnstevens77]

[The plan matures in 18 years time.
Sorry, the date should be 2050, that is 32 years, not 18.

Thoughts anyone?[/quote]

[Alaric]

I worked overseas and was never eligible for a pension plan, my income is from my HYP and Investment Trusts so I have very little idea what this is all about.

I'd imagine it's pretty standard stuff. Employee and employer set aside money during employment in a scheme run on their behalf by Royal London. This gets invested, probably in funds run by or on behalf of Royal London. When the employee leaves service the resulting funds would be set aside until the employee can retire and collect the proceeds. Royal London's marketing name for this is "Retirement Solutions Group Personal Pension Continuation Plan". The funds are invested in a fund marketed under the name of "Balanced Lifestyle Strategy (Drawdown)"

Where your son gets into specialist areas will be how this interacts with his liabilities to pay US tax. At a guess, this only becomes an issue if he's still a US tax payer when he wants to take retirement benefits out of the plan.

[johnstevens77]

Alaric
Thanks for that. I looked up that "balanced portfolio" plan, it is 70% global managed. 4.5% commodity and 17.5% property whith the balance as cash and bonds; not what I would choose to invest in and the 1% annual charge plus trading costs would surely eat into the eventual return. My question then is, could he choose to invest his balance in investment trusts outside of Royal London's, E.G. CTY or TMPL or is he obliged to use RL's funds? He is not realy interested in managing his own portfolio with individual shares even if that were allowed. He also has an ISA for retirement outside of RL, invested in investment trusts.

john

[Alaric]

My question then is, could he choose to invest his balance in investment trusts outside of Royal London's, E.G. CTY or TMPL or is he obliged to use RL's funds?

He would have to ask that of Royal London. I could suspect that he's in a closed platform. Ordinarily to manage it himself, he could set up a SIPP with a provider of his choice and transfer from Royal London. Being based in the States might well add extra complications to this route.