Lost £5.5k due to miscalculation by Aviava - where is my money? how do i get it back?

LOSTHURLS

I've recently transferred my private pension into my company pension. The difference between the transfer quote & the amount transferred was OVER £5000 however I have not benefited from this - my new pension value or 'time bought' has not increased. My company pension providers are telling me that as it is within 7.5% (its over 7%!) there is nothing they or I can do:( They also had a time limit of 90 days & the transfer took 87, I had continued to pay into my private pension up until the transfer took place but the amount I was paying could never equate to £5k transfer value. How can this be legal?? How can my pension provider keep £5k of my money? All help/advice would be gratefully received

dunstonh

The difference between the transfer quote & the amount transferred was OVER £5000

A quoted transfer value is only on a given day. It will change daily.

My company pension providers are telling me that as it is within 7.5% (its over 7%!) there is nothing they or I can do

It sounds like they had a 7.5% tolerance either way where they would give you the defined benefits agreed.

I had continued to pay into my private pension up until the transfer took place but the amount I was paying could never equate to £5k transfer value. How can this be legal?

It is legal because it is what you agreed. Your agreement was to buy a defined benefit with that pension. You have got exactly what you asked for. the fact the pension went up is irrelevant. Just as it would be had it gone down. With a defined benefit scheme you are buying benefits. Not fund value.

If you wanted your pension to remain investment linked then you should have left it. Instead you agreed with the receiving scheme to get certain benefits in exchange for your Aviva pension as long as the value was +/- 7.5% of the figure you gave them.

How can my pension provider keep £5k of my money?

It offsets those that fall by similar amounts. If your value had gone down by £5000 and were getting the same benefits, would you still be complaining?

They also had a time limit of 90 days & the transfer took 87

Aviva are one of the fastest at transferring pensions. They use the options system and that takes about 3 days. Of course, that needs the receiving scheme to be using that system as well. However, even on paper method, Aviva are fast. I suspect the receiving scheme didnt send the required paperwork in quickly or things like discharge forms were not provided up front and had to be obtained after the event.

I had continued to pay into my private pension up until the transfer took place

Did you use an adviser? They would have told you to stop. If you didnt use an adviser, then you are required to read and understand the requirements and potential issues or things to do.

You may wish to change your thread title as it is wrong. Aviva did not miscalculate.

Debt_Free_Chick

When you agreed to transfer, you were not agreeing to a specific amount. Instead, you were giving an instruction for the pension provider (Aviva) to sell your investments for what they were worth on the day they were sold. If the value of those investments fell, then the amount of the transfer would fall too.

You are only entitled to the cash-in value of the investments on the day that Aviva sold them. They've not kept any money, it's just that the investments were worth less when your transfer instruction was completed.

hyubh

LOSTHURLS wrote: »

How can this be legal??

At the risk of asking the obvious... what did the document you signed in order to proceed with the transfer say? If you were transferring on the basis that the membership bought would be the membership quoted, then I'm not sure what your objection is, or indeed, why you continued paying into the private pension after that. Conversely, if the quote was merely a quote, then you might have a case.