Pension fees can leave you shortchanged
by Fiona Reddan
It’s somewhat shocking to realise that much of the tax relief you get for saving into a pension fund can be eaten up by the various charges and fees levied on that money by pension providers.
But this is what a report by the Department of Social Protection on charges in the industry found late last year – it revealed that the average annual charge of 2.18 per cent can diminish your final pension pot by as much as a third.
And the higher the charge, the more severe the impact.
As Marc Westlake notes, "a differential in fees of 1-2 per cent “absolutely kills you over 30 to 40 years”.
Although this is from 2013, nothing has really changed in the Irish Market since then