Hello,

Eight years ago I started a 10 year unit linked savings plan; which seemed liked a good idea at the time. I pay £40 a month into it, £480 a year. I have a good job so I just paid it year in year out and never really thought much more about it. As the financial meltdown seems to be affecting everything I am now wondering if it will be worthless when it matures? The plan matures in two years, is money already accrued safe? as I don't really expect it to make much profit in the final years due to the economy.

All answers gratefully received

Thanx

Homegirl

Do you get regular reports from the Plan manager? If so do you know how much the plan is worth now as against your investment to date? If you do is that a healthy profit? Where is your cash invested eg 'blue chips' in the UK? On the latter point the FTSE 100 index ('blue chips') is proving remarkably resilient and is only around 10% or so away from its all time high. The balance of probabilities is that you should come out of the Plan with a reasonable/good profit on the aforementioned assumptions.

If you are interested in learning more about the general investment scene Hargreave Lansdown's website is pretty user friendly and helpful.

Hello drumster,

Thank you for responding to my query. I do get annual statements but find them hard to understand. I have got old statements which I will look up but I am due for a new one in June which will probably paint a clearer picture of what's going on. I intend to go through my previous statements in the next few days and will write again with a bit more detail.

Thanx

Homegirl

Hello again drumster,

I waited for my next statement which came last week then I called them up and queried my policy. They said they would send me a projected maturity figure which came today. If their guesswork is good they reckon the lowest £680 more than I paid or highest £1,250 more than I paid in. I am relieved that I'm not making a loss but I can't help feeling that after 10 years the figures are not exactly making me jump for joy. I suppose I should be grateful for small mercies given the current economic situation. I think I will probably spend just a little and invest the rest in a high interest savings account.

Thanx for your help

Homegirl

Hi Homegirl,

If you have a unit linked plan it can be quite easy to work out what the plan is worth.

Your statement should give you the number of units that the plan has, and then if you can find the fund that plan is invested in, on the providers website for example this will give you a unit price. You then multiply the two together and that should give you a current fund value.

Example: Plan has 250 units, and you are invested in ABC Investments Managed Fund and the unit price in the fund is £10 - you multiply the 250 x 10 and this gives you a value of £2500.

If when you do locate the fund values you are given two values - a bid price and an offer price then you use the bid price as this is the price that they sell at.

Hope this helps!

Matt

Hi Big Matt,

Good advice, I will do that.

Thanx

Homegirl