What is the best PRSA - Lowest fees

AlanG

Hi,
Looking to get a PRSA but my company doesn't have much information on them. Can anyone advise on which PRSA has the lowest fees and which gives the best overall value.

Is PRSA the best option if I am planning on moving jobs this year or are there better regular pension schemes.

I have come accross http://www.labrokers.ie/ who offer low fees but am not sure about them. Any advice would be welcome.
I am a PAYE worker paying 42% and will be starting off putting about 2000 per year in to a pension.
Thanks

masterK

I used LA Brokers for my SSIA, they had much reduced fees for on investment SSIA's. The only real involvement they had was at the start and they were pretty good to deal with.

As for the cheapest fees, as far as I know the fees are pretty standard across the board as this was a condition of the PRSA scheme. You should probably be more interested in the overall performance of different companies, check out www.moneymate.com, it's also worthwhile having a look at some of the reports the Financial Regulator has produced on PRSA's and also have a look at www.askaboutmoney.com before making any decisions.

madramor

AlanG wrote:

Hi,
I have come accross http://www.labrokers.ie/ who offer low fees but am not sure about them.

I use labrokers for investments and I cannot recommend them enough.

They are a brokers so they setup the product with the pension company, so you are getting the same pension but a better deal.

D'Peoples Voice

AlanG wrote:

Hi,
Looking to get a PRSA but my company doesn't have much information on them. Can anyone advise on which PRSA has the lowest fees and which gives the best overall value.

I looked at the very various bid offer spreads, management charges, allocation rates, policy fees, and felt that the Nil commission Standard PRSA offered by Irish Life direct to customers off the street was in my opinion very competitive.

That in addition to their recent fund performance( I know past performance is not a good indication of future performance) and their telephone banking(that is you can ring up at any time and check your balance much like a bank account) were benefits for me.
The one drawback was their choice of funds, but as I have taken out other unit-linked investments, I didn't mind too much having to go for one of their default funds.
As for the level of service, need I say more than that they were once owned by the Government. Yes that's right, former civil servants! So don't expect a quick turnaround. Although to be fair they were still quicker than the time it took the Depart of transport to send out the credit card sized driving licences.

AlanG

thanks for that everyone - think I'll go with Irish life through labrokers. Got the info from them and seems like the best bet.

D'Peoples Voice

AlanG wrote:

thanks for that everyone - think I'll go with Irish life through labrokers. Got the info from them and seems like the best bet.

I don't know if LA brokers charge commission, so you should end up with a competitive quote.
Can you confirm if LA brokers earn their crust through sales targets, in other words, if LA brokers sell X amount of one Life Assurance Co's policies, the Life Assurance Co pay them EUR Y.
If so, then it's all good for the consumer, TO AN EXTENT, because LA brokers won't want to spread their policies across too many companies and never reach a sales target with any company in particular.
Therefore they may try to squash everyone to go with the same Life Assurance Co, regardless if they are suitable.

I don't know, I'm just saying, you should check it out.

betterthanyou

D'Peoples Voice wrote:

I don't know if LA brokers charge commission, so you should end up with a competitive quote.
Can you confirm if LA brokers earn their crust through sales targets, in other words, if LA brokers sell X amount of one Life Assurance Co's policies, the Life Assurance Co pay them EUR Y.
If so, then it's all good for the consumer, TO AN EXTENT, because LA brokers won't want to spread their policies across too many companies and never reach a sales target with any company in particular.
Therefore they may try to squash everyone to go with the same Life Assurance Co, regardless if they are suitable.

I don't know, I'm just saying, you should check it out.

LABrokers are an execution only brokers so they don't recommend companies.
So the above does not apply to them.

labrokers charge a fee of €70 to set up each policy.

Invested X in a policy they setup, which saved me 3.5% and .5% per year.
I then wanted to invest further money and asked them to set up another policy, the same as before.
They told me that I could simply add the money to the previous policy, at the same rates, as that is how they set it up.
So they lost out on my setup charge.

http://labrokers.ie/

What I saved: Eagle Star Matrix Fund

                                Allocation Rate     Annual Management Fee
normal broker                    100%                  1.5%
LABrokers                        103.5%                1%

elephantz1

Didn't have a clue about PRSA's so I got in touch with a company called InsureMe.ie and the friendly girl who took my call Lesley Anne provided some useful info. Good luck

It looks like an 'execution only' service that they offer. So that begs the question, why would you buy a product on an execution only basis if you "Didn't have a clue about PRSAs..."

There is a good list of discount brokers here http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=20477

elephantz1

Fair point GerardS, however, you assumed I bought from Insureme.ie. I never bought - still researching options. Thanks for link.