Compare the fund, not just the provider
Zurich and Irish Life are both well-known pension providers, but the provider name is only the starting point. Each provider offers a range of funds, and those funds can be very different from one another.
One Zurich fund may be cautious, while another may be equity-heavy. The same is true for Irish Life. That means a simple provider-to-provider comparison can be misleading unless you compare specific funds with similar aims.
Start by comparing the objective. Is the fund trying to grow aggressively, protect capital, track a market or provide a balanced mix? Then compare the risk rating, asset mix and performance over the same time periods.
It also helps to look at consistency. A fund that performs well across different market conditions may be easier to understand than a fund that swings heavily from year to year. Consistency is not the same as safety, but it can make comparison clearer.
What to line up
To compare funds properly, put similar funds beside each other and ask the same questions.
- Are the funds in a similar risk band?
- Do they hold similar types of assets?
- How did they perform over one, three and five years?
- Did one fund take more risk to achieve its return?