Royal London flexi-access drawdown

richallum

Been looking at them for smallish case of £130,000 using Governed Portfolios and the cost seems to be £186 set up then 0.45% pa (after discount, Core Funds only) exc adviser fees.  This seems damn good VFM for a simple plan.  Anyone got regular use experience?

parawhat

I haven't personally for a couple of years, but the firm I'm currently working for has a number of clients who use the above combination quite a bit for smaller value clients. Does what it says on the tin really.

LewysRichards

We use Royal London quite often. Their servicing is generally very good and the product is fantastic value. It even allows full flexible access, including monthly UFPLSs, which is more than can be said for a lot of providers.

They also have a 'drawdown governance' service which looks pretty good. This is a traffic light system for an adviser to keep track of whether any of their clients are taking too much income from their drawdown pot. I haven't really seen it in action (other than demos from our BDM), but it's a good idea.

Only downside for me personally is no online applications, however you can at least fill in the PDF digitally before printing it off, and they accept application forms via email. They accept most other instructions via email/phone as well, no pesky signatures required.

Suse1969

Big fan.

richallum

Thanks for the comments.  

Nathan

Very big fan or Royal London, very reasonable and the portfolios are generally pretty competitive

benjaminfabi

We use them a lot for pension Richard. I've been a fan for years. They do the important stuff very well. The governed solutions are also very good for those who don't want/need ongoing service.

PeterM

We use them too, however one area to watch is that if you are transferring in an existing drawdown plan with more than one tranche, then each tranche is treated separately and priced according to the value of each tranche.

This can mean that the client does not get the full value of the discount of the combined policy value.

mjeffs

The only issue we have had in the past is the income tap doesnt allow for income in arrears and you can't hold an element in cash, as its caught up in the rebalance of the GPs
Also, the GPs are cheap because they're mainly passives - but I suppose that's the cost issue.

Nathan

Drawdown one off fee has just gone up on these to £191