IRISH Progressive, the life assurance arm of the Irish Permanent has introduced a new range of personal pension plans which offer investors five different managed funds and 11 specialist funds. This product is very much in keeping with the new generations pensions that have been appearing over the past year, the cornerstone of which is flexibility of investment funds and management.

Clients who opt for a managed fund can choose as its manager the Irish Progressive fund managers, Bank of Ireland Asset Management (BIAM), Ulster Bank Investment Managers (UBIM) or Gartmore, the international fund managers. Investors can also mix their funds and fund managers by allocating a percentage of their business to each of the above.

In addition to the five managed funds, which include a mixture of domestic and foreign equities, bonds, cash etc, (these vary according to the specialisation of the fund manager) and some of which by their selection of assets take greater account of retirement ages, there are also 11 specialist funds from the Irish Progressive range which include capital guaranteed funds, cash and gilt funds and a number of equity funds which include UK Equity, Irish Equity, Japanese Equity, and combination funds such as International Equity, European Equity, North American Equity, and Pacific Equity.

The cost of switching within these funds and fund managers is being kept quite low, which is only correct for a product which is promoting its flexibility. Investors should check the overall effect of internal costs on fund performance however, since the Irish Progressive's cost record is not as good as other pension companies (it was formerly Prudential Life).

The advent of more flexible and broader pension fund choices is a welcome development since it should mean that fewer people are dumped into mixed funds that were hardly ever managed in the true sense of taking into account the individual circumstances of the investor. As part of this launch, the Irish Progressive has published an explanatory booklet free front any Irish Progressive office.