aviva cash plus plan

ourmaninchina

Could somebody help please?
I have an Aviva Cash Plus plan started in 1987 from a former employer (left them in 2000 and moved into my own name but kept in the same fund).Total paid in by myself and employer approx £85000 and no further money paid in since I left the company
This shows a with profits benefit of approx £190,000 and a regular bonus of approx £60000.There has been no regular bonus since 2001 but every year a letter about why there was no regular bonuses added and talking about a final bonus. No indication of any growth, the with profits figure has remained the same for 10 years
I am now thinking about retirement and hopefully sooner rather than later (58 next) and have had some pretty awful projections for taking the pension early, certainly in recent times.
I like many others basically don`t understand the whole Pension thing.
I have ISA`s,Prudence Bond, a couple of endowments due in the next 4 years, various other bits and pieces pensions and a self funded stakeholder with the same company which has been going for 9 years.
Really I hav`nt a clue about how bad or good this main pension is!
Seems to me it is best left to the original age 65 date? The thought of early retirement is great but scares me financially even with a fairly moderate lifestyle and no debts/mortgage.
Cheers
PS My first post but working from home and sick of work!!!!

dunstonh

Seems to me it is best left to the original age 65 date

Depends on the terms of the plan. A lot of these old Aviva replacement plans have guarantees on them and those guarantees only apply at a given age. In my area we see a lot of these aviva plans with guaranteed minimum fund values (so the bonus rate doesnt matter as it would never reach the minimum fund value) or we see ones with protected lump sum payments. Some as high as 100% of the value (even though pension rules now limit it to 25%). So, the value and benefit is in the terms of the plan rather than the rate of return.

The projection of benefits you get on these old plans with guarantees usually doesnt reflect the guarantees that are in place. This is partly a limitation of the illustration method.

With this type of plan, if you dont understand it then dont risk making decisions that could cost you a lot of money. Get a local IFA to review the plans for you.