Hefty MVR being imposed by Phoenix Life

atush

Find out your maturity date. Today if you can. Tomorrow if you c ant.

I suspect it will be 60. So then an MVR would not apply later this year. It would apply NOW as you are 59.

Pointless to worry until you make that call.

chipp

Thanks everyone for setting my mind at rest. I thought I was being particularly dense and missing something, but it seems not.

As suggested by Linton and atush I have asked them why an MVR is being applied when 60th birthday retirement date has always been known. I used their standard enquiry form and have received a numbered acknowledgement so hopefully it will be dealt with and I'll be able to report back with good news. Fingers crossed I'll get a response before my PensionWise appt.

chipp

Thought I'd post an update.

I used Phoenix's online enquiry to query the MVR and received an acknowledgement number on 3rd Sept. Today (19th Sept) I chased it and got a second acknowledgement number 930 higher than the first (to give you an idea of the volume of enqs they get).

There is a how to complain section of their website which gives an 0800 number so I rang it, selected the appropriate number from the menu, got put on hold for a number of minutes then got cut off. Good start. Second attempt I did get to speak to someone. For anyone else who needs to know, the SLA for dealing with online enquiries is up to 10 working days and the clock starts ticking from the date the enquiry reaches the department allocated to deal with it, not the date it was submitted. So I lost 3 days there because it was bounced around till 6th Sept. It should theoretically be answered in writing by tomorrow (the call handler gave no indication that this would actually be the case).

So I'm no closer to getting an answer but at least I know my enquiry didn't disappear into the ether (I was beginning to think it might have landed in an unattended mailbox).

chipp

A letter arrived today from Phoenix apologising for the delay in replying and echoing their original stance. Interestingly it was dated the same day I spoke to their complaints dept (so just inside their SLA) but postmark was illegible. A long para on MVAs which used different wording to say the same as in their previous correspondence.

Going through my paperwork, my policy was transferred from NPI in 2015 so it seems that the helpfully-named link provided by xylophone SHOULD apply in my case. Or at least in 2015 it did, although it seems they never sent me a copy of the booklet and nowhere within it does it reflect the name of the link. I've downloaded it and captured a screen grab showing the URL in case they decide to remove it from their website. The bulk of my paperwork is statements, and they always begin with words to the effect of "other than reading this material you don't need to take any action". So if there's anything in there about a change to my retirement date, or charges if I dare to adhere to it, my attention hasn't been drawn to it.

It worries me that if I'd taken out a life assurance policy 30 years ago, to mature on my 60th birthday, it might be arbitrarily decided to renege on that too.

PensionWise appt is next week, I'll see what they say.

atush

Thanks for keeping us up to date, and let us knwo what follows.


I still think they are applying an MVA because you havent reached 60 yet. Even though you dont want to tak it until 60.

Batesm3

Would appreciate understanding if you got this resolved?

I've just had 32.5% MVR applied to small NPI policy that should be free of MVR going by the planned retirement date info from the Scheme PDF that was posted earlier in the thread.

Really pleased to have found this post and the Scheme PDF posted earlier.

chipp

No Batesm3 it's not been resolved. They're sticking to their guns despite belief from Pensionwise and the Pension Advisory Service that they're wrong. In a letter dated 6th Nov they say they will get a t&c doc sent out to me but it's not arrived yet.

I wonder what's different about your policy that your MVR is only :rotfl: 32.5% :huh:

Like yours, mine is a small policy that won't change my life and I've better things to do than wind myself up about it. I shall pay special attention to the next annual statement to check it's still earning bonuses (because they can't have it both ways - either it's due to be paid out MVR-free or it's still an active policy) and if so that's about it for the next 5 years (they say it will definitely be MVR-free at 65). Till they move the goalposts again to track the state pension age

Alexland

So if they say the MVR will definitely not apply at 65 is that when their records indicate you policy was originally due to payout? Have you got this in writing?

sandsy

You're not one of the 1000 selected pilot group then who can switch out of with profits without an MVR:

https://www.ftadviser.com/pensions/2017/11/09/phoenix-life-drops-with-profit-exit-fees/

Linton

chipp wrote: »

Like yours, mine is a small policy that won't change my life and I've better things to do than wind myself up about it. I shall pay special attention to the next annual statement to check it's still earning bonuses (because they can't have it both ways - either it's due to be paid out MVR-free or it's still an active policy) and if so that's about it for the next 5 years (they say it will definitely be MVR-free at 65). Till they move the goalposts again to track the state pension age

New information! This sounds like they have your retirement age set at 65. Which may be right or wrong. This is what you should check.