Retirement Annuity - Allan Gray?

[MikyMouse]

Interested to know why not many ppl have mentioned index tracking RAs as an alternative with very low fees?

I'm with Sygnia atm, but thinking of diversifying next year and opening up another RA with either Coronation / AG

 

[rodga]

Interested to know why not many ppl have mentioned index tracking RAs as an alternative with very low fees?

I'm with Sygnia atm, but thinking of diversifying next year and opening up another RA with either Coronation / AG

About to sign up with sygnia myself for an RA
What fund have you chosen?
Im thinking of going with "Sygnia Skeleton Balanced 70 Fund Class A (no hedge fund exposure)"

 

[supersunbird]

Interested to know why not many ppl have mentioned index tracking RAs as an alternative with very low fees?

I'm with Sygnia atm, but thinking of diversifying next year and opening up another RA with either Coronation / AG

I mention 10X often..

But since my employer contributes to 10X, I contribute to a managed fund. If the employer contributed to a managed fund, I'd contribute to an indexed fund

 

[MikyMouse]

About to sign up with sygnia myself for an RA
What fund have you chosen?
Im thinking of going with "Sygnia Skeleton Balanced 70 Fund Class A (no hedge fund exposure)"

Yup I've done exactly that one ie going for the Unit Trust option and not the ULF - mainly bcz I didn't understand the ULF option entirely and I don't like the idea in investing in something that I'm not comfortable with. Ps sign-up process etc was fantastic, very impressed so far.

 

[MikyMouse]

I mention 10X often..

But since my employer contributes to 10X, I contribute to a managed fund. If the employer contributed to a managed fund, I'd contribute to an indexed fund

aaaah I see, makes sense now What managed funds do you use btw? I just had a look at the coronation RA which looks simple enough. Great to see that you can be flexible with your contributions etc. I wonder if they charge you if you were to move your RA to another asset manager? I know with Sygnia, I can move without any fees

 

[supersunbird]

aaaah I see, makes sense now What managed funds do you use btw? I just had a look at the coronation RA which looks simple enough. Great to see that you can be flexible with your contributions etc. I wonder if they charge you if you were to move your RA to another asset manager? I know with Sygnia, I can move without any fees

My monthly contribution RA is with Coronation, all in Coronation funds (they don't offer other funds on their platforms).

I have a lumpsum RA with Alan Gray (only the bond fund is Allan Gray, the rest is Marriott Dividend Growth, Coronation Top 20, Coronation Global Managed, Satrix MSCI World and Stanlib Property) at Regulation 28 compliant levels.

No, they don't charge, but moving between fund managers is not a quick 1 week process...

 

[1972leos]

Go anywhere but AG. Your hard earned earnings are safer just lying in your bank account rather than AG.
I learnt the very hard way.
They cut-copied-pasted on rules sent to me and have.transferred by pension to a pension preservation fund. I cannot access my funds till I am 55. I had to take my daughter out of final year univ and lost my vehicle and in the process of losing my house. AG are modern day pirates. I am in the process of taking them to the Durban High Court.
Your family deserves better. Never trust AG.

 

[HavocXphere]

Go anywhere but AG. Your hard earned earnings are safer just lying in your bank account rather than AG.
I learnt the very hard way.
They cut-copied-pasted on rules sent to me and have.transferred by pension to a pension preservation fund. I cannot access my funds till I am 55. I had to take my daughter out of final year univ and lost my vehicle and in the process of losing my house. AG are modern day pirates. I am in the process of taking them to the Durban High Court.
Your family deserves better. Never trust AG.

As harsh as it may seem, signing on the dotted line of a contact you don't understand is your own fault. Plus pensions & any products they're transferred into are age restricted by law, not by decision of AG.

AG isn't what I'd go for (I'd prefer a Sygnia product) but they certainly aren't thieves.

 

[supersunbird]

Go anywhere but AG. Your hard earned earnings are safer just lying in your bank account rather than AG.
I learnt the very hard way.
They cut-copied-pasted on rules sent to me and have.transferred by pension to a pension preservation fund. I cannot access my funds till I am 55. I had to take my daughter out of final year univ and lost my vehicle and in the process of losing my house. AG are modern day pirates. I am in the process of taking them to the Durban High Court.
Your family deserves better. Never trust AG.

Well, since Allen Gray doesn't offer financial services, who advised you to put your money there? Should go after them too. They won't just take your pension fund and transfer it into a preservation fund. Someone must have instructed them too?

A preservation fund does allow one withdrawal, have you already done a withdrawal and now can't again? Otherwise they are just following the law of the land.

Did the Pension Funds Adjudicator reject your complaint? Much cheaper process than a High Court action, so since you do seem to have money to take them the court, I'm unsure why you had to do the lose the vehicle and such, except if your lawyer is working on a contingency fee, but then something must have gone seriously wrong somewhere if he/she thinks he/she can win and is not wasting he/she own time.

Your post leaves more glaring questions than answers.

Let this tale also be a warning to others, don't go stumbling into retirement funds without taking note of the first part of the name, and then expect to access the money before retirement age (which is actually an early 55).

Good luck Leos.

 

[MikyMouse]

My monthly contribution RA is with Coronation, all in Coronation funds (they don't offer other funds on their platforms).

I have a lumpsum RA with Alan Gray (only the bond fund is Allan Gray, the rest is Marriott Dividend Growth, Coronation Top 20, Coronation Global Managed, Satrix MSCI World and Stanlib Property) at Regulation 28 compliant levels.

No, they don't charge, but moving between fund managers is not a quick 1 week process...

Thanks supersunbird. On the transfer issue, I transferred my RA from Liberty to Sygnia and I guess I was lucky, it 'only' took about 1.5 months

How has your experience been with Coronation? as I said earlier I am looking to diversify, so considering them. I like the idea of no annual management fees only the UTs TERs. I could get access to coronation funds through Sygnia, but that doesn't make sense as it will cost 0.25% extra for the funds (incl Sygnia's)

 

[supersunbird]

Thanks supersunbird. On the transfer issue, I transferred my RA from Liberty to Sygnia and I guess I was lucky, it 'only' took about 1.5 months

How has your experience been with Coronation? as I said earlier I am looking to diversify, so considering them. I like the idea of no annual management fees only the UTs TERs. I could get access to coronation funds through Sygnia, but that doesn't make sense as it will cost 0.25% extra for the funds (incl Sygnia's)

I'm happy with Coronation, online interface decent and secure. Just the TERs on the foreign funds can be quite high.

My fund selection in my Coronation RA is 50% Top 20, 25% Global Managed and 17.5% Property Equity and 7.5% bond fund. I see they have a new fund called Global Equity Select, reading up on it new, will see how its performance and TERs are (not available yet), maybe move my Global Managed there if I like what I see.

I see the Balanced Fund has caught a wakeup and has 11% in local listed property but I like my asset allocation to that higher so wont be leaving that up to Coronation by choosing that fund.

Sygnias CEO said my property allocation is too high//risky when I bemoaned thus fact I couldn't use the Skeleton 70 fund cause its got only a 5% property allocation, 15% is more my style and it's paid off so far. This was on moneyweb.co.za but they changed the format and those comments are forever gone so I can't link...

 

[supersunbird]

I see Coronations is changing their benchmarks and/or fees on some funds from 1 October this year:

http://www.moneyweb.co.za/investing/unit-trusts/new-fees-for-coronation-funds/

http://www.moneyweb.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Changes-fund-by-fund.pdf?d77978

Big change to the Top 20, it will now be able to invest in any JSE share, not just the 50 highest capped. Benchmark "lowered" in my opinion, so they can more easily get performance fees?

 

[skayfe]

I see Coronations is changing their benchmarks and/or fees on some funds from 1 October this year:

http://www.moneyweb.co.za/investing/unit-trusts/new-fees-for-coronation-funds/

http://www.moneyweb.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Changes-fund-by-fund.pdf?d77978

Big change to the Top 20, it will now be able to invest in any JSE share, not just the 50 highest capped. Benchmark "lowered" in my opinion, so they can more easily get performance fees?

Agreed. Good restructuring for them as a business though, makes me think it's worth picking up more shares as they turn around their fee structure over the next few years.