Move Workplace pension to different provider

greggymagic

Hi All 

I'm wanting to keep my workplace pension to keep the employer contributions and take advantage of salary sacrifice. 

However, the pension is with Aviva and they seem to have a limited amount of funds that I can switch to invest in so I'm wanting to move the balance to a different provider. 

I'm currently in the Aviva mixed investments 40-85% S6. 

The new provider will be someone that can offer a world index tracker fund such as the Vanguard VWRL or HSBC FTSE all world accumulation funds.

I will then keep the Aviva to make the monthly payments from myself and employer but move the payments and as when to the new provider. 

Is this a terribly inefficient way of doing it?

Or even more useful - does Aviva offer anything like the two funds above.

(14+ years till earliest chance of retirement.)

Thank you

cloud_dog

You need to ask the scheme administrators (Aviva?) if you are able to undertake a partial transfer our whilst remaining an active member of the scheme and continuing to contribute to it.  The wording is really quite important, as some schemes may allow you to undertake a transfer out, but may not allow you to continue as an active member / able to continue with contributions.

Albermarle

Or even more useful - does Aviva offer anything like the two funds above

Aviva have a huge range of funds but not all are available for all products/pensions. You really need to search what is available for you through the web portal . I would be a bit surprised if they do not have 100% equity funds but maybe not quite the same as the index trackers you mention.

dunstonh

However, the pension is with Aviva and they seem to have a limited amount of funds that I can switch to invest in so I'm wanting to move the balance to a different provider. 
I'm currently in the Aviva mixed investments 40-85% S6. 

Aviva have plans that are whole of market and plans that have just one fund.   With workplace schemes, it is often the employer that decides the size of the fund range (through selection of the product type).However, Aviva usually have a decent enough fund range for the average person.

Or even more useful - does Aviva offer anything like the two funds above.

It usually does on its restricted fund choice products.

There are an awful lot of people posting on this site recently who are going for 100% global equities.   That is much higher risk than the average consumer and I suspect too many of them are just looking at recent performance and are in for a big shock when a crash comes along or another dead decade where the values are lower than when they started.   Are you sure you have the risk tolerance, investment behaviour and capacity for loss to go 100% equities?

greggymagic

dunstonh said:

However, the pension is with Aviva and they seem to have a limited amount of funds that I can switch to invest in so I'm wanting to move the balance to a different provider. 
I'm currently in the Aviva mixed investments 40-85% S6. 

Aviva have plans that are whole of market and plans that have just one fund.   With workplace schemes, it is often the employer that decides the size of the fund range (through selection of the product type).However, Aviva usually have a decent enough fund range for the average person.

Or even more useful - does Aviva offer anything like the two funds above.

It usually does on its restricted fund choice products.

There are an awful lot of people posting on this site recently who are going for 100% global equities.   That is much higher risk than the average consumer and I suspect too many of them are just looking at recent performance and are in for a big shock when a crash comes along or another dead decade where the values are lower than when they started.   Are you sure you have the risk tolerance, investment behaviour and capacity for loss to go 100% equities?

It's the million dollar question about risk....Everyone thinks they can stomach it till it actually happens.

Having said that, I think my mindset is probably ok - when my Isa dropped by 50 percent in March 2020, I just thought that's life. It never even crossed my mind to sell anything or panic. 

It would be unfortunate to have to need the funds right at the bottom of a crash - but again that's life and you'd hope to have enough cash to ride out anything - but you can only do what you can do. And I'd hope that 15 plus years would be a long enough time to even out the gains and losses - I can't touch it for 15 years so it's not like I could panic and do anything rash and I'd still have to contribute but I'm just trying to muddle through like everyone else. 

Marcon

greggymagic said:

Hi All 

I'm wanting to keep my workplace pension to keep the employer contributions and take advantage of salary sacrifice. 

However, the pension is with Aviva and they seem to have a limited amount of funds that I can switch to invest in so I'm wanting to move the balance to a different provider. 

I'm currently in the Aviva mixed investments 40-85% S6. 

The new provider will be someone that can offer a world index tracker fund such as the Vanguard VWRL or HSBC FTSE all world accumulation funds.

I will then keep the Aviva to make the monthly payments from myself and employer but move the payments and as when to the new provider. 

Is this a terribly inefficient way of doing it?

Or even more useful - does Aviva offer anything like the two funds above.

(14+ years till earliest chance of retirement.)

Thank you

Check with your employer what happens if you do move your funds from your workplace pension. Depending on the rules of your particular arrangement, doing that could be seen as 'leaving' the employer's scheme and they may decline to re-enrol you until they have to - which could be up to a year, meaning you miss out on a year of employer contributions.

dunstonh

Having said that, I think my mindset is probably ok - when my Isa dropped by 50 percent in March 2020, I just thought that's life. It never even crossed my mind to sell anything or panic. 

Think about the 2000-2003 period when markets fell by a greater amount (CV falls were only the third largest fall in the last 25 years) and not only that, they fell over 3 years.    Nowadays, with online access and quarterly statements, you see those falls much more than you ever used to.   Just think about the quarterly statements going down for 3 years.   And then 5 years before it recovers and then comes along another crash a bit bigger resulting in no growth over that decade.  

No two decades are the same but generally, after a strong period, you tend to get a weaker one.   These last 13 years have been very strong.  Paint yourself some pictures with real figures on some of those scenarios to think about how you would react.  If you went down 50% with CV then you would have dropped about 65% in the dot.com period and credit crunch.

Also, consider with the regular could be 100% equities but a base amount of the existing fund should be protected somewhat.  With circa 14 years to go until retirement, you are no longer thinking long term but medium term.   

penners324

It's unlikely you'll be allowed to do partial withdrawals only Aviva will let you know on that.

Your employer will not pay into a different pension scheme to the other employees either.