With-profits with Aviva / Friends Life ? Don't transfer before you see what's hidden

agarnett

These two companies have both been up to no good with your with-profits funds.

They are both companies who each acquired several household name with-profits pension providers and then changed the names of the funds to something obtuse - in Friends Life's case, several times.

They also both dreamed up schemes to get their hands on billions in the funds that did not belong to them until they had played out their scheming to a tee.

Aviva did their dirty deed in 2007-2009 right under the noses of regulators who should have known much better, especially since Friends Life did theirs in 2000-2001 and left a fudged trail of spilled loot.

These two conglomerates merged last Monday.

"Pension Freedom" kicked off the Monday before that.

If you are planning to transfer out of your with-profits pension with this merged leviathan, then first ask some very pointed questions of them.

Sure, they'll provide you with a transfer value, but what are they holding back ?

Aviva have in the last month or two announced that they have created a second tier final bonus. It is currently 9% for some people. Are you one of those people ? If not why not ?

Were you missold a bribery deal in 2001 or 2009 which may have put just 2% or less in your pocket ? Where's this 9% come from ? And will it increase ? Is it legal ? Why if it is surplus money due for payment to policyholders has it not been used to smooth annual bonuses added to with-profits policies which is what with-profits has always been about?

What about Friends Life ? Well as I have said, they did their dirty deed in the early noughties. They were supposed under the terms of the deed to have done a five year test to see if money should be released to policyholders. It was the best part of 3 years overdue in 2008 when they finally got around to doing the review and worked out that they must pay special bonuses (to some - not those they had previously tricked with wholly inadequate bribes and weasel words mind!). I think they thought that everyone had forgotten about it and they could let sleeping dogs lie, but unfortunately for them, a Treasury Select Committee shone the spotlight on their scheming deed, and on Aviva's and on Prudential's similar designs. The amounts added to policies in 2008 were typically almost twice the amount of the 2001 bribe.

Prudential kiboshed their scheme, but Aviva continued with theirs regardless. The Treasury Select Committee were not very impressed with any of them.

In 2011, after the 2010 5 year test/review, they typically added to policies fresh amounts of around 12 x the original bribes. And at the end of this year, 2015, another 5 year test / review is due, and they are being very cagey about what it might yield for policyholders.

Clearly if you are one who was tricked by bribes in earlier years, or not, then you risk distancing yourself from something that is being hidden from you in the hope you will walk away from it for good.

I have suggested in previous threads, that these sorry actions by both companies amount to missales (whether you took the bribes or not).

Are there any of you out there who feel this might apply to you ?

Aviva/Friends Life would love it if you remain silent.

We are talking billions here that have been hidden from any transparent view.

I think it would be useful if someone came up with a template letter to be used if transferring away from this lot, reserving full rights to pursue misselling claims and to pursue payment of unfairly (and in my opinion, dishonestly) withheld bonuses.

NorthernMonkey1

You're turning into an anti Aviva and friends life angry ranter.


They clearly are fit to do business, but they are busy around the financial year end, as is every financial institution.

agarnett

NorthernMonkey1 wrote: »

You're turning into an anti Aviva and friends life angry ranter.

I am anti Aviva and Friends Life for a very good reason - and because they are now one company with more of this type of business than any other industry player, it is important to warn unsuspecting MSE'ers that a company they may trust with their Quidco cash-backed motor or home insurance is not to be trusted blindly with principal assets like personal pension accounts. They clearly find the billions floating around in funds too much of a temptation.

I have four Barclaycards because of mergers and acquisitions of four once completely separate businesses. I now have four Aviva pensions for an exactly similar reason.

All my credit cards can be easily and totally accurately mapped to every single transaction and penny of interest or fees that was ever processed since I got my first Barclaycard in 1975 whether it is a busy financial year end or not. All I have to do is look at the statements. Financial accounting, NorthernMonkey, is supposed to be an exact practice, not a fudged behind closed doors drawn out as long as you can practice, or did you not realise ?

I got my first insurance policy type pension 15 years later than my first credit card. So why is every single transaction and fee and bonus opaque or even obfuscated with my pension accounts?

Perhaps banks and credit card companies are best placed to account for personal pensions because they are used to the customer expectation of an instant answer to the question "how much is in my account?" and "what am I earning on my savings?", since insurance companies still find it such a chore, and oh so complex ?

They clearly are fit to do business, ...

On what basis do you make that assertion ?

... but they are busy around the financial year end, as is every financial institution.

Oh ! So that makes their clear ineptitude as described carefully by me as okay in your book ?

And what do you know about what I have reminded MSE'ers that they are hiding ?