I have 3 pensions 2 with friends life 1 with aviva

dunstonh

It's not performed overly well over the years, and the online functionality has been awful - compared to my husband's Aviva online pension dashboard, which is very swish to look at.

AXA spent all their money on their platform. That had very good funcationality until they sold it last year to Standard Life. So, you had an AXA product that was getting no love which was bought by Friends Provident who didnt give it any love as it was then a heritage/legacy product and now its Aviva who wont give it any love for much the same reason. That doesnt mean the product isnt working. AXA had a decent fund range on their PPP at the time. I used it several times and the all the usual external funds you would expect to be there were there.

a) When Aviva-Friends Life merger is complete in Oct 2017, Aviva will end up re-naming all my Friends Life funds + altering the fund charges anyway? And if i'm worse off re: charges, make a move at that time?

The terms of your pension wont be changed. The name will, at some point, be rebranded and the fund prefix changed to Aviva. Charges were unlikely to change on most of the funds but there may be some consolidation. Those tend to happen later rather than sooner.

b) Vanguard is due to launch it's SIPP in late 2018 - so hoping Vanguard's fees will be lower than i'm currently paying... so perhaps stop paying any further into Friends Life, and open a new SIPP with Vanguard when it launches?

That would limit you to vanguard which is not ideal. And dont assume that it will be as low cost as the ISA. Pensions cost more in administration and have higher solvency requirement (although the SIPPs have lower FSCS protection than personal pensions. So, there is a bit of saving there).

c) By the grace of God, Aviva's nice pension dashboard will somehow be translated across to my Friends Life account?

Probably about 20 years after you retire. Really do not bank on that. Remember that AXA's old system is standalone to Aviva's. It may have been Friends for a long time but the online side of AXA's pensions is still visually the same as it was a decade ago apart from the logo.

Much to my pleasant surprise, the AMC on my policy, for amounts invested over £100k seems to have dropped from 0.55% (which has been the AMC for the past 10 yrs), to 0.45% very recently.

Some of the AXA PPPs had fund based discounts. So, you may have moved into the next tier. A reduction on the contract is possible but that is a contract change and any change like that would be required to inform you in writing.

The "My plans" section of Friends Life website was closed down a few days ago - so you can no longer login online, to get the latest valuation .

The IFA version is still working (just checked). No mention of that moving so far (when yours moves, the IFA version will move as well as the systems would be linked.

Bottom line is that on most of these things, only Aviva will know what their plans are. They will almost certainly go through multiple changes in objectives and timescales as well. We can only guess based on what has happened on past purchases.

Little_Miss_Moneysaver

You really are the fountain of knowledge!! :T

Thank you for posting on MSE with all your various posts - as the rest of us laypeople, do learn a lot from your insightful comments! :A

I will update here when the general public login for Friends Life/Aviva is re-instated.
I am hoping Aviva doesn't drag their heels for years, before allowing online access to old Friends Life policies.... I'm really hoping it will be soon after Oct 2017, when the merger is complete.

Good to know the IFA version, is still accessible by IFA's online.
I may just contact the IFA who set it up 10 years ago, and ask for a review on that pension - to see if it's worth moving it elsewhere, for more competitive charges?
Or contact a local IFA to review my pension (as the other one is a few hundred miles away)?

Any advice on which IFA (the original one who set it up, or a new local one) to contact?