Lifting the lid

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Updated:

 

WE have compared like-for-like policies of the refuseniks with funds that are still taking in new customers.

The results are a startling indictment of the closed funds' sky-high charges and lousy investment management.

They underline the urgency of Money Mail's call for these savers to be given a low-cost exit route for their money.

Eagle Star - £10,000 invested in its with-profits bond in 2001 by a 75-year- old man is now worth £10,066, and if he cashes it in he will get back just £8,465.

But the Pru's with-profits bond would have increased that £10,000 to £10,691, and its cash-in value would be £9,146.


Lincoln Financial Group - Two doting grandparents took out a £50-a-month maximum investment plan invested in the UK Equity Income fund for their five grandchildren in May 1997. Total saved, £3,800. In May it was worth just £2,556.

But £50 a month put into Invesco Perpetual's High Income unit trust, which has invested in broadly the same assets over the same period, would have produced £3,644.


Phoenix Assurance - £17.40 a month saved since 1975 produced £20,834 in June this year. But a similar policy with Standard Life would have almost doubled that figure by paying out £37,419.


Sun Life of Canada - a £62-a-month, 25-year endowment taken out by a 30-year- old woman in 1990 to pay off a £50,000 mortgage and invested in its Equity fund is now worth £9,969.

But that money saved over the same period in the Jupiter UK Growth unit trust, which also invests in UK shares, would now be worth £14,795, says data analyst Standard & Poor's.


Swiss Life - three low-cost, low-start 25-year endowments starting at £6, £23, £22 a month taken out in 1988 to cover a £41,801 home loan with Swiss Life- owned Pioneer Mutual have a combined shortfall of up to £22,041. But similar plans taken out with Wesleyan would have a £2,766 shortfall.


Woolwich Life - a 25-year endowment costing £74 a month taken out in 1995 by a 34-year-old man to pay off a £48,200 mortgage now has a shortfall of £11,200. The money has gone into Woolwich's managed fund, and it is currently worth a mere £5,049.

But a similar Standard Life policy would now be worth £6,327, with a far more manageable shortfall of £4,815.

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