Saver Policy

tapjlk6

has this happened to anyone else. 10 years ago we took out an Elite Saver Policy in the hope that we would have a nice lump sum now.
Last October we checked the value of our policy.It had just broke even (equal to what we paid in). Today we checked its value to our horror it has lost 1/6th of its value.
This was a wake up call for us and should also be one for anyone who has similar savings plans.
Now should we leave it and hope it makes up its loss or should we cash it in?

portomar

could you direct us to who looks after this fund for you? incidentally, the fact that you refer to this as a "Saver Policy" makes me think you didnt really expect it to be an investment??

tapjlk6

hi there Portmar,
It was an Elite Saver Policy from New Ireland Assurance. We took it out with one of their brokers in our area. He advised us that if we paid a direct debit every month rather than going through their brokers it would make money for us in ten years.
At the time I explained to him that I wanted something that would get me a return of 10% to maybe 25%

portomar

tapjlk6 wrote: »

hi there Portmar,
It was an Elite Saver Policy from New Ireland Assurance. We took it out with one of their brokers in our area. He advised us that if we paid a direct debit every month rather than going through their brokers it would make money for us in ten years.
At the time I explained to him that I wanted something that would get me a return of 10% to maybe 25%

well theres 3 issues here

1) Theres a number of people asking similar questions about their investments. basically, as im sure you're aware, equity markets have severly tanked recently, and you're fund it seems isnt immune. the main argument is whether or not you believe the worst is over in equity markets and that shares will soon start to pick up again. basically if you take your cash out now you risk pulling it at the bottom of the market, however, what we may have at the moment is a process whereby after the big fall of late february, equitys have (relatively) stabilised, and will fall with another plunge soon enough.

2) basically if your account is a few years old they have seriously dropped the ball, as theyve failed to make money in a bull market. if it was only open a while, most funds would have lost money rather than broke even.

3) there is possible misselling here, but we need to sort something out first. did you mean 10-25% over the duration of the term or per year? 10% over a ten year period would be achievable with only a tiny amount of risk. any account looking for minimum 10%, in my opinion, shouldn't be in a position to lose 1/6th of its value in that period. my point is, you may have been sold a higher risk product than you were looking for.

portomar

sorry, just realised you said "10 years ago" in post 1, :eek: :eek: :eek:

how in the name of christ have they managed to lose money over that time!??
how have they been able to not make money in the last 10 years and then lose 1/6th of it in the last few months. get STRAIGHT onto the financial regulator. my god, sorry for your troubles man. im going to do some maths here, sorry if it makes you feel sick, but it may at least make you call your lawyer and deal with these BROKErs

ok lets take ten grand, in euro for easiness and todays interest for same reason

year 1 - €10,000 x 4.0% x 10 years=

€14,802.44

thats a return over ten years of... anyone? hands up?

calculated that here:

http://www.moneychimp.com/calculator/compound_interest_calculator.htm

tapjlk6

Thank you for your reply Portomar,

1) The account was opened 8.5 years last October.

2) I was hoping to get 10 - 25% over the term.

We were hoping to get a better return than you would get in the Bank or Post Office. We were not interested in any risky ventures just a modest profit.
We always had instalment savings in the Post Office before this. With that you saved for a year and after 5 years you got principal plus 50% back.

portomar

tapjlk6 wrote: »

Thank you for your reply Portomar,

1) The account was opened 8.5 years last October.

2) I was hoping to get 10 - 25% over the term.

We were hoping to get a better return than you would get in the Bank or Post Office. We were not interested in any risky ventures just a modest profit.
We always had instalment savings in the Post Office before this. With that you saved for a year and after 5 years you got principal plus 50% back.

i believe you have a case for misselling. by definition, any fund that can lose 1/6thof its value in that space of time, is, in my opinion medium to high risk.in my example, as you can see, you would have made circa 40 percent in a high interest deposit account, and you were looking to make less than that. give the financial regulator a phone, they're technically on your side so they'll be honest with you.

PDelux

It's good you're highlighting it.
I think it's totally understandable though given the type of people who are looking after these funds.
I have my pension with the same crowd, and I remember questioning why AIB and BOI were in the top 10 holdings, this was before the crash in the ISEQ. And guess which was the worst performing pension fund last year? exactly - New Ireland. Complete wasters. I should have looked after the money myself.
Actually the other ones weren't much better.
Main point is - they havent got a clue what they're doing.

Oh and remember the Irish Times charity fund race that I mentioned before? .. two guesses who's at the bottom of the table with a huge loss??

What do these people learn when they go to college and study finance? .. P/E ratios? Someone should teach them how to make money in the stock market. If I can do it part time anyone should be able to!