PensionCheck.ie Comparison Methodology

Context

It can be hard to intuitively grasp the potential impact of PRSA fees on a pension portfolio over a long period of time. PensionCheck.ie provides an online calculator to generate a quick estimate, so users can get some sense of how much PRSA fees could impact a pension's growth across various PRSA products. Fees are only one consideration among many that need to be factored into a retirement plan. So before making a decision about your pension, talk to a Registered Financial Advisor.

Key Assumptions

In order to estimate fees and their impact on pension growth, assumptions are made about the following:

• Number of years until retirement (retirement age minus current age)
• That your contribution amounts will be the same each year
• That regular contributions are made monthly, and any ad-hoc single contributions are made as a single amount once per year (at the start of the year). Regular contributions are charged at each product's regular contribution rate, and single contributions at its single contribution rate.
• That the underlying growth rate of all investment portfolios, after stockbroking fees and banking fees, but before PRSA fees, is the same. A warning is included with PRSA products that have these extra fees, which can have an oversized impact on small PRSA portfolios in particular.
• Where fees vary based on channel choice, the lowest-fee option is taken for comparison purposes
• That the "default investment strategy", where applicable, is not employed
• We assume that any intial contribution will come in the form of a transfer from another pension

Key Simplifications

• Compound investment growth is assumed to be constant and is accounted for once each year, for all products
• In all cases, annual fees are accounted for once each year
• Inflation is ignored. You can either consider all figures to be in real terms, or make your own adjustment for inflation.
• The tool provides a point estimate only, not the range of possible outcomes, which in reality can be extremely broad
• Stockbroking fees are ignored. A warning is included in cases where these apply.

Excluded Products

The following PRSA products are excluded from comparisons:

• Products which we identify to be not available to the general public (e.g., available to employees of the pension provider only)
• Products which are not open to new clients

Some products accept only regular contributions, or only single contributions (an N/A value for either is indicated in the Pensions Authority Fee Spreadsheets). Rather than being excluded, these are flagged in the results when you enter a contribution type they do not accept.

Other Protocol Details

• Management fees can vary within a single PRSA product based on the choice of investment vehicle. For curated PRSAs, we calculate results for both the lowest-cost and highest-cost fund choice. For brokerage PRSAs, we calculate results only for the scenario where the customer invests directly into assets without an intermediary layer, and therefore avoids management fees at the product level.

Data Source

Calculations are based on data published by the Pensions Authority. To view the data, follow the link and then click "Products and charges".

Updates are made periodically. There will be some delay between an update to the Pensions Authority site and the corresponding update on PensionCheck.ie.

Implementation

The calculations run entirely on your own phone or computer, helping to protect privacy. If it's slow, try closing unused browser tabs or restarting your device.