good or bad investment

[1delboy]

I was sold a with profits investment by the royal bank of scotland , into the norwich union for 50k , at the time I was told by the bank thats where to put my money , its not been in a year yet , any tips on what to do

[bednobs]

why do you need to do anything?

[Whoever]

I don't know what age you are but I assume that when you decided to make this investment, you planned it to be a long term investment and were not going to need it for a number of years.(These products are long term plans, not like instant access savings accounts). I also assume that you have read that Norwich Union are imposing Market Value Reductions (i.e. financial penalties) on anybody cashing these investments in early and this is the reason for your question. With the current dire state of the stock market (because these With Profits plans are stock market related) the only sensible thing you can do is leave the money invested until the stock market improves, or Norwich Union decide to remove the Market Value Reductions, which could be a few years while the market improves sufficiently. Some of these plans have certain maturity dates when you can cash them in without penalty. Others are open ended, but generally penalties are imposed during the first five years of any plan if you try to cash them in early. I don't know whether you were sold a product which was unsuitable for you needs. It depends how much information you gave to the bank, including details your risk profile and how soon you might want to have access to your money. Read the Terms and Conditions attached to this product and if you believe it was sold to you without full disclosure of your risk profile, you could possibly ask to be compensated on grounds of mis-selling.

[ryanhoffman]

You need to consider putting your money in some sort of mutual fund. That way you can move the money around to different sectors while still protecting yourself from risk.

Sources:
http://www.amfi.com/
http://beginnersinvest.about.com/cs/valueinves ting1/a/080103a.htm