Just about any alternative strategy would be better than relying on the type of unit linked fund offered by the pension companies. One of the most worrying things about the current position is that Managed Funds are often used as “default” funds by savers, particularly those in group personal pension schemes, and it is quite clear that these funds are especially poor. Investors/savers need to find alternative homes.

Using a Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) offers far more choice and in the modern world these are no more expensive or exclusive than a typical pension of the sort covered by this survey. 

A SIPP allows investors to use direct holdings in shares, to invest into property, into other funds types (Investment Trusts, OEICs, ETFs) and to generally get a process in place which will produce results.

Simply handing your hard earned savings over to the pension companies to place into their own funds seems to fail. Of course there are exceptions but the essence of the findings of this report and others that we have produced (for example we surveyed the whole market about 6 months ago and found that if you applied certain standard benchmarks, 86% of pension funds failed) suggest that the alternatives are almost certainly better and investors need to start taking action to help themselves by moving their money into plans that allow them to pursue these better alternatives.