Late Aviva drawdown payment

cfw1994

Morning all!
My Aviva drawdown is set up to pay money in on the 1st of the month.
October, November, December: all landed on the 1st 😎👍
This month: it has just landed this morning: Thursday 6th January 🙄

This is in spite of the fact the money was taken from the Aviva funds on December 24th - 9 weekdays (& so far as I can see, 6 ‘working days’) ago 🧐

Anyone else, particularly those with Aviva, find the same happening in January?

I appreciate it is Christmas/New Year….but if you have direct debits going out - it feels moderately criminal of Aviva to fail to pay before this morning!  

If they need longer to process, then take it out on the 22nd or 23rd: their job is to ensure money lands in my account on the 1st (or first working day after if that is the weekend).

I will raise a complaint with them, but I am curious to know whether others have had a similar experience.

cfw1994

Well, to answer my own question, having spoken to Aviva just now: they had some general problem that affected many people - if anyone else here has Aviva, likely you may have also seen a delay.

Polite but official complaint duly raised - their 'issues' should not be my problem.....& despite having a reasonable online system, I have had a couple of problems with them since starting the drawdown 🧐

dunstonh

I haven't heard anything about this.   Is yours Aviva Bristol, Salisbury, Glasgow, Norwich or Sheffield or one of the others? (chances it is limited to one type administered out of one office)

cfw1994

dunstonh said:

I haven't heard anything about this.   Is yours Aviva Bristol, Salisbury, Glasgow, Norwich or Sheffield or one of the others? (chances it is limited to one type administered out of one office)

Pretty sure the address is Salisbury: originally Friends Life.
I’m stunned that they made zero effort to notify people who would be impacted: he told me it was not just me affected.

dunstonh

Pretty sure the address is Salisbury: originally Friends Life.
I’m stunned that they made zero effort to notify people who would be impacted: he told me it was not just me affected.

There may not be that many people.   Salisbury handles the legacy business of Friends Provident (other Friends Life stuff, like ex AXA, is handled out of Bristol).     Most of Aviva's drawdown business is going to be on the platform (Glasgow) and that is where the spending has been and they are much more reliable as it's using FNZ software (the same as Vanguard, Std Life and many others).    So, you are looking at a legacy product with not too many people using drawdown on it and an event that impacted only those drawing on a certain date.   By the time the committee look at it, everyone would have had their money and most wouldn't have noticed it arrived 5 days late.

In my experience the old FP plans come in more expensive than modern plans built on modern software.  So, you may want to compare terms of what you have against a modern DIY option and if there are no terms or contractual reasons to stay, you could put it with a newer plan.

cfw1994

dunstonh said:

In my experience the old FP plans come in more expensive than modern plans built on modern software.  So, you may want to compare terms of what you have against a modern DIY option and if there are no terms or contractual reasons to stay, you could put it with a newer plan.

Just to follow up on this, with satellite delay!
The online data (via the membersite) looks modern enough: changing funds is straightforward & the fees look pretty reasonable to me: default & "more basic" ones at 0.23% (& that is the TOTAL fee - no other charges on top): sample snip of first 25 or so options here:



You think they have an even lower cost option I should be considering?
Cheers

dunstonh

 AMC on insured funds is comparable to TER on UT/OEICs.

Looking at the fund charges, either there is a product charge to go on top of that or you have a good discount (you say no product charge so it must be discount).  The funds are about 0.1x% higher in cost than the UT/OEIC version against the OCF (ignoring TC).   

Some old plans can be gems. Most do not compare well to modern plans.   It's always worth that check just so you know where yours stands.  So, if you're truly getting a 0.23% bottom line then that is great.  

cfw1994

I had a couple of checking conversations with them before drawing down any (over 2 years ago) & they were very clear about the charges remaining as they had been prior to leaving work....and that these indeed are the only charges: hence my reticence to move anywhere!

Thanks for the reply 👍

Albermarle

cfw1994 said:

I had a couple of checking conversations with them before drawing down any (over 2 years ago) & they were very clear about the charges remaining as they had been prior to leaving work....and that these indeed are the only charges: hence my reticence to move anywhere!

Thanks for the reply 👍

Yes looks like a good deal . I had an ex employer Aviva pension and lowest price was 1% - since moved to a SIPP.
I also have a Standard Life one and lowest fund prices are  1% with a 0.6% discount
Plus a SW ( ex Zurich) one with lowest fund prices 0.1% + 0.17% platform price . I thought that was cheap but yours is even lower !

Thrugelmir

You'd get a more informed view by asking what their internal processes are. Easy to summarise as cash in investment account and transfer to bank account. In reality there'll be a whole series of checks and balances, i.e. segregation of duties. As it won't just your money but thousands of other peoples as well. These will include reconcilations, creating a payroll run and setting a BACS payment Which in itself won't clear until 2 working days after it's created. 

cfw1994

Thrugelmir said:

You'd get a more informed view by asking what their internal processes are. Easy to summarise as cash in investment account and transfer to bank account. In reality there'll be a whole series of checks and balances, i.e. segregation of duties. As it won't just your money but thousands of other peoples as well. These will include reconcilations, creating a payroll run and setting a BACS payment Which in itself won't clear until 2 working days after it's created. 

I agree it must surely be me and thousands of others….yet I still get the feeling I might be leading the way 🤣
As dunstonh suggests, it may not be that many people…..I did have some more minor early “challenges” with them….promises of actions that were not followed.  One did result in a cheeky little cash apology from them (which was a nice gesture).   

The broad platform and indeed costs appear very decent, but the “mechanics” of it sometimes feels….suboptimal 🤷‍♂️