Aviva Vs Standard Life?

ChrisK....._3

I have a pension with standard Life and one with Aviva and now joined the country council so no more contributions. I want to move it into one place and last year standard Life actually went down. Which of these two would have the best prospects over next 10 years?

Spreadsheetman

They are platforms, not investments. You could hold exactly the same investments in either (assuming the SIPP product) and the only difference would be the platform fees.

JoeCrystal

Have you considered looking into getting a transfer quote for your old pension schemes for LGPS? It might be worth it.

Albermarle

In fact nearly all investments went down last year ( but now largely recovered)
As already said what matters most is how your money is actually invested inside the pension.

Within both SL and Aviva pensions there is usually a choice of 200 to 300 funds and it is that choice that matters.

Once that is clear, you can then compare them as pension providers, which largely comes down to charges, customer service, ease of website use etc

Paul_Herring

ChrisK..... wrote: »

I have a pension with standard Life and one with Aviva and now joined the country council so no more contributions. I want to move it into one place and last year standard Life actually went down. Which of these two would have the best prospects over next 10 years?

Comparing pensions with SL and Aviva is like comparing savings accounts with Barclays and Lloyds - it's not the institutions, per se, you compare, but what you hold with them.

In the case of pension funds, it's entirely possible to hold exactly the same funds with different institutions (any difference in returns being, as noted above, differences in fees the institution themselves impose.)

Your starting point should be what are you holding with them both - i.e. the names of the funds your money is invested in, then start from there.

dunstonh

Both Aviva and Standard Life have very good platforms for their new business but their legacy business (old stuff) is not great. Although there are the odd gems.

Which of these two would have the best prospects over next 10 years?

Does it really matter? The pension provider is just an administrator. Your pension returns have nothing to do with them. It is the funds you invest in that do. You can hold std life funds on Aviva and Aviva funds on Standard life. Both of their platforms are whole of market and allow around 30,000 investments.

The other thing is that both providers are largely intermediary providers. i.e you use an FA or IFA with them. Indeed, you cannot access the full platforms of either without one. So, if you want to DIY then you need to use a DIY provider.

Once that is clear, you can then compare them as pension providers, which largely comes down to charges, customer service, ease of website use etc

Both use FNZ as the software. The forms, when generated mostly look identical apart from the logo and colour scheme. There are configuration settings that are different with both and a few bolted on unique options. Both have virtually the same superclean versions. So, its like comparing two granny smith apples to see which is best. We usually look at price as they have different tiers which see one better than the other with some values and vice versa. Plus, both are known for giving out special terms.

Albermarle

Both of their platforms are whole of market and allow around 30,000 investments.[/QUOTE
This is not the case if you apply for a personal pension as an individual retail client.
Although not sure you can even do this with Aviva anymore , they push retail investors to their Sipp.
You can still set up a personal pension with SL though, Either an 'Easy' option with only four funds or a DIY option with about 250 funds.

dunstonh

This is not the case if you apply for a personal pension as an individual retail client.

It is if the individual retail client is done via an intermediary. As mentioned in my third paragraph.

You can still set up a personal pension with SL though, Either an 'Easy' option with only four funds or a DIY option with about 250 funds.

Intermediary providers dont exactly have great products for the DIY market. If I was going to DIY, then I would rather use a provider that is focused on the DIY market and not one that is giving a token offering.