Aviva. Can't change pension settings. Losing money

ihateapples

Hi all 
So I have workplace pension with Aviva but got made redundant so tried to update my retirement date to next month so funds are transferred to safer investments.nb in 58.
I was told I could not do so as a transaction is in progress, nothing I've done.
After a lengthy call I learnt it's their maintenance charge which is pending and I have to wait 3 days meanwhile due to market volatility my fund has list £2k in 2 days 
Clearly I should not be out of pocket due to their processes and wonder if anyone has any experience of this and what action if any you took. Thanks

ihateapples

That's LOST £2k..can't find edit function.

dunstonh

Clearly I should not be out of pocket due to their processes and wonder if anyone has any experience of this and what action if any you took.

Rather than trying to change the scheme age to adjust the fund holdings, why not just switch the fund holdings yourself?

It is quite common for models to prevent amendments whilst a transaction in place across the board.

TheMilkmansDad

Their process would have been agreed in the T&C's between the parties when the pension 1st started.

If your fund value had gone up in this time period I assume you'd wouldn't expect to repay them back the additional amount?

Marcon

ihateapples said:

Clearly I should not be out of pocket due to their processes and wonder if anyone has any experience of this and what action if any you took. Thanks

Only if those processes aren't covered in their T&C - which they will be. As Dunstonh has pointed out, you could have switched the funds yourself, so not sure what you think Aviva is liable for?

ihateapples

TheMilkmansDad said:

Their process would have been agreed in the T&C's between the parties when the pension 1st started.

If your fund value had gone up in this time period I assume you'd wouldn't expect to repay them back the additional amount?

How is that a valid argument. I said I CHOOSE to exit now but can't merely because of THEIR system wanting to charge me like £50 and because if that I've so far lost £2k WAITING to exit, or more precisely waiting to start the process to exit

ihateapples

dunstonh said:

Clearly I should not be out of pocket due to their processes and wonder if anyone has any experience of this and what action if any you took.

Rather than trying to change the scheme age to adjust the fund holdings, why not just switch the fund holdings yourself?

Same issue. The policy is locked to any changes whilst I wait 3 days for them to debit the £50ish fee for this quarter

dunstonh

The problem is that you are in a model following a lifestyling strategy.   This is a common issue with models where ad-hoc trading can be delayed where a) a transaction is taking place or b) where a model is being updated.   This is not an Aviva thing specifically but commonplace across the providers and platforms where a fund grouping exists.

If you were using individual funds you would not have this issue but you are not.  You chose to have a lifestyle model.  If you want more fund control then stop using the lifestyle strategy and self select.

Albermarle

ihateapples said:

Hi all 
So I have workplace pension with Aviva but got made redundant so tried to update my retirement date to next month so funds are transferred to safer investments.nb in 58.
I was told I could not do so as a transaction is in progress, nothing I've done.
After a lengthy call I learnt it's their maintenance charge which is pending and I have to wait 3 days meanwhile due to market volatility my fund has list £2k in 2 days 
Clearly I should not be out of pocket due to their processes and wonder if anyone has any experience of this and what action if any you took. Thanks

It depends on the exact timing but I would suspect that if you check again tomorrow , or maybe Monday, that your loss is now less than £2K .
Also safer investments are not immune from volatility , so would have moved in a similar direction , albeit not as sharply.
So the problem is probably already less than you first thought, and may well just largely resolve itself.

ihateapples

Albermarle said:

ihateapples said:

Hi all 
So I have workplace pension with Aviva but got made redundant so tried to update my retirement date to next month so funds are transferred to safer investments.nb in 58.
I was told I could not do so as a transaction is in progress, nothing I've done.
After a lengthy call I learnt it's their maintenance charge which is pending and I have to wait 3 days meanwhile due to market volatility my fund has list £2k in 2 days 
Clearly I should not be out of pocket due to their processes and wonder if anyone has any experience of this and what action if any you took. Thanks

It depends on the exact timing but I would suspect that if you check again tomorrow , or maybe Monday, that your loss is now less than £2K .
Also safer investments are not immune from volatility , so would have moved in a similar direction , albeit not as sharply.
So the problem is probably already less than you first thought, and may well just largely resolve itself.

Thanks for the optimism but no it's going down more as the us and UK markets dropping daily due to tensions in Ukraine. Now if Russia invade ( and I know this sounds heartless) but we could easily see a TEN% drop in one day and I can't afford to lose that much due to something outside my control

dunstonh

Thanks for the optimism but no it's going down more as the us and UK markets dropping daily due to tensions in Ukraine. 

That is strange as the trend has been upwards for the last 3 days.  So, yours shouldn't be dropping daily.  (broadly back to where we were in mid to late January)

Now if Russia invade ( and I know this sounds heartless) but we could easily see a TEN% drop in one day and I can't afford to lose that much due to something outside my control

A 10% drop isn't even classed as a crash.   A 20% drop is.   And there have been 5 periods in the last 25 years when that has happened.   Three of them recovered within 6-12 months.