Aviva SIPP Platform

fjh

Review of holdings almost completed - My 7 holdings are on the Prudential SIPP platform which is very low ‘tech’- MY IFA is keen to move me to Aviva- Any thoughts please?
reason to move is to reduce costs + improve the amount of information I can view without having to resort to Morningstar to track my portfolio.
Thanks

Dox

Your IFA may be keen, but are you? Have they given you a clear explanation of the costs and advantages? If so, and you have confidence in your IFA, I wonder why you feel the need to ask a bunch of strangers?

fjh

Dox wrote: »

Your IFA may be keen, but are you? Have they given you a clear explanation of the costs and advantages? If so, and you have confidence in your IFA, I wonder why you feel the need to ask a bunch of strangers?

Over the past 3 years I have come to value the inputs and view of a “bunch of strangers” who have I have found in a lot of SIPP matters got great wealth of knowledge which helps me understand and then decided if to follow my IFA- think its wrong to follow any such person ‘blind’

jaybeetoo

How much is your IFA going to charge you to move to Aviva?

fjh

I am told that it will be ‘free’ & fee’s will be less than I am paying for Prudential.
I am asking as I personally thought II seemed the best for cost - hence question as to what Aviva is like.
Thanks

cfw1994

My main DC pension scheme (current work one) is with Aviva.

We have a company 'membersite', which works very well, from my perspective. On communicating with them, they told me we are apparently one of their "top 40" customers (with a dedicated team) to speak with.

I don't have/use an IFA, but I can easily see the 80+ funds I have the choice of, and over the past 15-18 years, have occasionally 'shuffled the deck' slightly.

I did recently crystallise a portion of it (partly for the money, partly to check the process!), and it all worked fine :beer:


One thing to perhaps check: Aviva has bought up many companies over the years (ours was from Friends), so I my experience might be different to others, I suspect....


Has your IFA very clearly shown you the fees & how much you will be saving?

fjh

IFA has shown me fees but the ‘sell’ is that it’s saving over Prudential as IFA Can get a bigger discount at Aviva - still not as low as II

LHW99

Presumably the IFA will continue to review your Aviva pension? At II you would be likely on your own with a SIPP.

SonOf

fjh wrote: »

IFA has shown me fees but the ‘sell’ is that it’s saving over Prudential as IFA Can get a bigger discount at Aviva - still not as low as II

II requires you do to everything. They give no advice and they do no administration on your behalf apart from following your instructions. DIY means you do it. With the IFA, they do everything.

If the platform charge and the investment charge are the same then the IFA will be more expensive because you have the IFA charge on top.

However, there can be variances in the investment charges and platform charge. Some DIY investors pick expensive and inappropriate investments and use expensive platforms. So, the IFA can come in cheaper, including the IFA charge, on those.

Its really like any job in life. DIY well and you can save money. DIY badly and it can be more expensive than getting a professional to do it.

If your IFA is employed on a servicing basis, then you would expect the move between providers/platform to be at no additional cost as that is what the ongoing servicing is paying for with most advisers.

The Aviva platform for IFAs is powered by FNZ, the largest of the platform software providers. It had some issues on launch but is running pretty well at present. It has a few issues and quirks but then all platforms do. Aviva are issuing special terms and sometimes those terms can be very cheap 0.1x% is not uncommon. Especially if you are already an Aviva customer elsewhere.

thickasabrick

I have my SIPP on the Aviva platform. It was setup by an IFA in 2012. Charges are about 0.4% of the fund value per annum.
Easy enough to navigate around and make purchases. Haven't sold anything.
I plan to go into flexi drawdown in about 2 years so starting to compare costs and some of the other providers look a little cheaper.
I still track all the transactions in the free Morningstar and Trustnet portfolio tools as I like to see all my investments summarised in one place.

It has sufficient detail in the summary, select a time period
Performance tab
Summary
Value at start of period £
Value at end of period £
Difference £

Your Payments
Cash Paid in: £
Cash wishdrawn : £
Transfers: £
Total £

Pension
% return between Date started and today
Current investment value gain/loss £
Realised gains £
Gross interest £
Accrued interest £
Dividends £
Tax £
Charges -£
Total £

My Investments tab
As at: Date
Name: Lists fund or shares name
Total cost £
Value £
Change in value £
% of Pension Portfolio - Pre-Retirement %


Name has a dropdown for details where you can see a graph of the unit price over time and summary of :
Units held: XXXX
Held in: Pension Portfolio - Pre-Retirement
Total cost: £
Average cost per unit: £
Current price: * £
Current value: * £
Change: £

Transactions Tab
You can choose Investments, Cash transactions or Transfers selecting from until dates
Transactions
Date
Details: Name of fund units or share
Transaction type: Buy
Number of units: XXX
Reference number
Value: £

Cash Transactions
Date
Details Aviva Charge, Pension Portfolio Pre-Retirement for the period, Tax Relief for Deposit, Bought XX Vanguard LifeStrategy60%Equi A Inc, Dividend etc
Paid in £
Paid out £
Cash balance £

fjh wrote: »

Review of holdings almost completed - My 7 holdings are on the Prudential SIPP platform which is very low ‘tech’- MY IFA is keen to move me to Aviva- Any thoughts please?
reason to move is to reduce costs + improve the amount of information I can view without having to resort to Morningstar to track my portfolio.
Thanks

Albermarle

IFA Can get a bigger discount at Aviva - still not as low as II

You can not really compare as II are a retail only platform and do not work with financial advisors.
It is true their charges are very low , maybe why they are losing money …..