One major consideration for all investors is that a decision made for retirement provision should not be based purely on low charges. It is important, too, to also look for a high-performance pension fund. With a personal pension you can select funds based on the time you have left to retirement, your risk profile and an overall investment strategy. And there are plenty of personal pension funds to choose from.

Managed pension funds
Managed pension funds are run by insurance companies and fund management houses and aim to produce capital growth over the long term. They hold a mixed portfolio of assets: UK and overseas shares, fixed interest investments and property.

With-profits pension funds
With-profits funds are run by life insurance companies and aim to produce steady growth for personal pensions, endowment policies and bonds by adding annual fund bonuses that smooth out stock market fluctuations. They, too, hold shares, fixed interest investments and property.

Specialist pension funds
Specialist pension funds are offered by insurance companies and fund management houses, they usually focus on a particular investment sector. They hold a portfolio of shares chosen by a manager, in the same way that unit trusts and investment trusts do. And their performance has been similar to these trusts.

Specialist investment pension funds have performed even better - especially those based on award-winning unit trusts and investment trusts. However, higher performance will generally apply to higher risk funds.

We can help you choose a management company with a good performance history and a wide range of funds - and review your funds on a regular basis.

Choose the best fund for you
You really need to take a long-term view when choosing a pension fund to make provision for retirement. You can gain extra time to ride out any short-term under-performance by using pension fund withdrawal. And this gives you more fund choice.

To achieve a geographical spread of funds, you can select personal pensions with a multi-fund or 'umbrella' structure. These allow you to choose a number of different funds from different managers and to hold them in a single personal pension.

It is essential that you check your pension fund's performance once a year. If you would like to review your current pension arrangements to enhance your retirement provision, please e-mail or contact us for further information.