Should I Move my Personal Pension

BigJRock

Hi, I've had a personal pension with Aviva (started as Sun Life) for over 30 years. My payments in were low with odd small lump sums but it got to be worth around 99000-100000 a few years ago. Last year it went down to 91000 after disasterous mini budget but it got back to around 97000 earlier this year. Since then everytime I check it's always at this level or slightly lower - today it's on 96700, it's not even gone up a bit despite some contributions.

I know it's a long term thing and I still have a few years (at least a couple but possible about 5 years) before I'll start drawing it but should I consider switching this to something like Vanguard?

With Aviva I believe my options for drawing may be limited and you can no information when I log into my account - just the value, nothing else.

I feel the Aviva fund performed ok up to a few years ago but seems to have done nothing since.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Linton

Changing your pension provider of itself won't make significant difference to your returns.  You need to look in detail at what funds you are using and ask yourself whether they are appropriate for your circumstances and plans. This is particulalrly important when you are approaching retirement.

Only change provider if you cannot get the funds you need from your current provider or there are other benefits such as lower charges or better customer service.

I think you will find that most portfolios have performed in a similar way to your description over the past few years.  Covid, Ukraine and the major change in interest rates have affected everybody to some extent.

Stubod

..if it's any comfort our S&S ISA's have hardly moved for the last 2 years...virtully "flat lined", just the watr things are at present. Just got to sit it out and hope things improve. To be fair the last few years have been pretty dire. A bit frustrating when you can now get 6% with NSI!!

dunstonh

. Last year it went down to 91000 after disasterous mini budget but it got back to around 97000 earlier this year. 

Dont get too hooked up on that as the reason as that was a very short term minor event that also coincided with the BoE announcing the afternoon before that they were ending QE.    The assets affected in the budget had already gone down significantly prior to Liz Truss and are currently lower.   The unwinding of QE compounded with the energy cost increases and inflation are the key things that hit 2022 returns.

Since then everytime I check it's always at this level or slightly lower - today it's on 96700, it's not even gone up a bit despite some contributions.

You will probably find that your equities have gone up and your gilts have gone down.   

I know it's a long term thing and I still have a few years (at least a couple but possible about 5 years) before I'll start drawing it but should I consider switching this to something like Vanguard?

How would that help?  If you invested in the same asset mix via Vanguard then you would have got the same returns.
It reminds me of something many years ago when someone was boasting how they changed their pension for the better by changing provider and how much better the returns were with the new provider.     When looking at the details of both pensions, I found that they were in a FTSE tracker in both of them.    The only difference was the first one went through a negative period and the second one went through the recovery.

I feel the Aviva fund performed ok up to a few years ago but seems to have done nothing since.

Brexit, a global pandemic, a war in Europe, an energy crisis and high inflation are the reason.  One of those in a 10 year period may be typical.  Not all of them within 5 years.

Albermarle

Stock markets peaked in November 2021 and bond market has had a severe decline as well.

Three points
1) How has the fund performed over the last 10 years?
2) The most popular Vanguard fund - Life strategy 60- is 6.5% down in the last 24 months 
3) My main concern would actually be the lack of visibility on the Aviva site. Normally they are OK but I suspect it is because it is a legacy pension from Sun Life .

dunstonh

My main concern would actually be the lack of visibility on the Aviva site. Normally they are OK but I suspect it is because it is a legacy pension from Sun Life .

Legacy plans from ex AXA (Bristol) and ex FP (Salisbury) have not yet properly migrated onto the Aviva systems and the original online systems turned off.

Sea_Shell

dunstonh said:

 .
Brexit, a global pandemic, a war in Europe, an energy crisis and high inflation are the reason.  One of those in a 10 year period may be typical.  Not all of them within 5 years.

So, if we can come out of all that relatively unscathed (financially), then surely that's a win. 

If not a Black Swan event(s)... maybe a grey one? 

BigJRock

Thank you for your replies. I'll contact Aviva to get more information on my pension, why my account interface is so basic, etc. I'll then post back here.