Frustrating experience with Aviva's pension customer service

MetaPhysical

I've moved away from Aviva because of their fees - even with their "employee special offer" pricing to my employer it was very expensive being a percentage of a large fund as opposed to a flat platform fee from Interactive Investor.  That said, I always found Aviva customer service absolutely first rate.  YMMV though I suppose.

MeteredOut

MetaPhysical said:

I've moved away from Aviva because of their fees - even with their "employee special offer" pricing to my employer it was very expensive being a percentage of a large fund as opposed to a flat platform fee from Interactive Investor.  That said, I always found Aviva customer service absolutely first rate.  YMMV though I suppose.

Out of interest, what was the percentage?

With mine (also an employee scheme although I'm no longer with that employer), its 0.33% (uncapped), made up of what they call administrative charges (0.26%) and transaction costs (0.07%) but no fund charge.

I have considered moving it elsewhere, but I quite like the fund mix (though I'm sure I could replicated it on another platform), and I'd have to check whether a lower capped platform fee on any new platform would outweigh the increases due to fund charges.

I suspect it will have to be a generous a transfer offer to get me to move.

dunstonh

Out of interest, what was the percentage?

I was doing a top up this morning to an Aviva platform plan. 0.16% platform charge 0.11% OCF = 0.27% for provider and funds.

With mine (also an employee scheme although I'm no longer with that employer), its 0.33% (uncapped), made up of what they call administrative charges (0.26%) and transaction costs (0.07%) but no fund charge.

Ignore the transaction charges.  That is a synthetic figure and most people take no notice of it.

MeteredOut

dunstonh said:

Out of interest, what was the percentage?

I was doing a top up this morning to an Aviva platform plan. 0.16% platform charge 0.11% OCF = 0.27% for provider and funds.

With mine (also an employee scheme although I'm no longer with that employer), its 0.33% (uncapped), made up of what they call administrative charges (0.26%) and transaction costs (0.07%) but no fund charge.

Ignore the transaction charges.  That is a synthetic figure and most people take no notice of it.

Thanks. That's interesting. I've gone down a rabbit hole looking at various documents

My statements (I've checked 2020-2024) state the annual fund charge is 0.3%, but the actual £ amount over the year comes out at nearer 0.33%-0.34% of the average of the opening and closing valuations across each year. The statements up to 2023 says the transaction cost is 0.05% and the 2024 says 0.06%.

But if I stick my policy number into this page: https://www.retirementtools.aviva.co.uk/myfuture/schemecharges/ it says my scheme (for the fund I'm invested into) has admin charge of 0.26% and transaction cost of either 0.06% or 0.07% depending on "years to retirement" (the higher one within 5 years to retirement), and a total charge of 0.32/0.33%. Admittedly, it does say if I've left employment of that scheme (which i have), my charges may be different to the current scheme charges.

So, it certainly seems the charges appearing on my annual statement are nearer the fund charge + transaction charge, rather than just the fund charge alone.

But, the documentation I received when I took the  Tax Free Cash (just this week) states the amount in drawdown will have a fund charge of 0% and (copied from the document) "Your income drawdown funds will also have a management charge of 0.25%.We refer to this as an Annual Fund Charge.".

That same document also provides an estimate for charges going forward, based on the amount remaining in drawdown, and that works out at 0.27815%.

The fund factsheet states "Performance information has been calculated based on prices with a total charge of 0.63% taken out. This charge may or may not be the same as your policy. "

So, I'm not exactly sure what % I has/will been used

I'm now thinking that transferring elsewhere will probably be better, but will likely wait for a decent bonus transfer offer. That'll give me time to find alternate funds with a similar mix.

MetaPhysical

MeteredOut said:

MetaPhysical said:

I've moved away from Aviva because of their fees - even with their "employee special offer" pricing to my employer it was very expensive being a percentage of a large fund as opposed to a flat platform fee from Interactive Investor.  That said, I always found Aviva customer service absolutely first rate.  YMMV though I suppose.

Out of interest, what was the percentage?

With mine (also an employee scheme although I'm no longer with that employer), its 0.33% (uncapped), made up of what they call administrative charges (0.26%) and transaction costs (0.07%) but no fund charge.

I have considered moving it elsewhere, but I quite like the fund mix (though I'm sure I could replicated it on another platform), and I'd have to check whether a lower capped platform fee on any new platform would outweigh the increases due to fund charges.

I suspect it will have to be a generous a transfer offer to get me to move.

The platform fee that my employer had negotiated was 0.16%.  On a 500k fund that's £66 per month!  II charge 12.99 per month platform fee.

Also, on many funds that are not Aviva badged ones (Aviva MyM), they add a percentage to the provider fee for that fund.  For instance they add 0.16% to Fidelity World Index for which II charge 0.12% - so Aviva charge 0.28%.   That is a HUGE amount of money on a decent sized pot.

I was being fleeced like this - I use the word with care and delicacy but I believe it to be correct and appropriate - for ten years until I learned the error of my ways and moved my pot.  It is simple and easy to make this move.  I put it off for years thinking it would take months and there'd be all manner of complex form filling.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

To be fair to Aviva, they do not leverage trading charges and II and some others do.   However the cost of these is tiny in the context of the wider pension savings.  And their support is super.  But at a cost.

Feel free to PM me and I'll explain what I did.

DRS1

For fun I looked at some old Aviva documents for my (no longer active) Aviva plans.  I found one with an AMC of 0.875%.

ali_bear

You should see what Aviva get out of me  it is a fair wodge 

dunstonh

Also, on many funds that are not Aviva badged ones (Aviva MyM), they add a percentage to the provider fee for that fund.  For instance they add 0.16% to Fidelity World Index for which II charge 0.12% - so Aviva charge 0.28%.   That is a HUGE amount of money on a decent sized pot.

The Aviva plan you have is under Aviva life and pensions.   The Aviva platform is separate and has all UT/OECIs/ETFs etc at their normal price.     The Aviva platform policy numbers start AV.....   Your could start with a range of letters as the Aviva MyM funds are on multiple plans.  The main group scheme that has thing starts with a G IIRC.   And I believe that used to be an ex Friends Life plan that they ported over and retained for new business.

MeteredOut

dunstonh said:

Also, on many funds that are not Aviva badged ones (Aviva MyM), they add a percentage to the provider fee for that fund.  For instance they add 0.16% to Fidelity World Index for which II charge 0.12% - so Aviva charge 0.28%.   That is a HUGE amount of money on a decent sized pot.

The Aviva plan you have is under Aviva life and pensions.   The Aviva platform is separate and has all UT/OECIs/ETFs etc at their normal price.     The Aviva platform policy numbers start AV.....   Your could start with a range of letters as the Aviva MyM funds are on multiple plans.  The main group scheme that has thing starts with a G IIRC.   And I believe that used to be an ex Friends Life plan that they ported over and retained for new business.

My policy starts TK. Do you which platform that is?

I still can't correlate the % fees documented in various places with the actual charges appearing on my yearly statements, other than its coming out at roughly 0.33-0.34% in total.

MeteredOut

MetaPhysical said:

MeteredOut said:

MetaPhysical said:

I've moved away from Aviva because of their fees - even with their "employee special offer" pricing to my employer it was very expensive being a percentage of a large fund as opposed to a flat platform fee from Interactive Investor.  That said, I always found Aviva customer service absolutely first rate.  YMMV though I suppose.

Out of interest, what was the percentage?

With mine (also an employee scheme although I'm no longer with that employer), its 0.33% (uncapped), made up of what they call administrative charges (0.26%) and transaction costs (0.07%) but no fund charge.

I have considered moving it elsewhere, but I quite like the fund mix (though I'm sure I could replicated it on another platform), and I'd have to check whether a lower capped platform fee on any new platform would outweigh the increases due to fund charges.

I suspect it will have to be a generous a transfer offer to get me to move.

The platform fee that my employer had negotiated was 0.16%.  On a 500k fund that's £66 per month!  II charge 12.99 per month platform fee.

Also, on many funds that are not Aviva badged ones (Aviva MyM), they add a percentage to the provider fee for that fund.  For instance they add 0.16% to Fidelity World Index for which II charge 0.12% - so Aviva charge 0.28%.   That is a HUGE amount of money on a decent sized pot.

I was being fleeced like this - I use the word with care and delicacy but I believe it to be correct and appropriate - for ten years until I learned the error of my ways and moved my pot.  It is simple and easy to make this move.  I put it off for years thinking it would take months and there'd be all manner of complex form filling.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

To be fair to Aviva, they do not leverage trading charges and II and some others do.   However the cost of these is tiny in the context of the wider pension savings.  And their support is super.  But at a cost.

Feel free to PM me and I'll explain what I did.

Thanks, a £500K fund for me on Aviva is around £135-140/month, but that's all in including fund charges, so £1600-1700/year.

Moving to II would be £13/month (£156/year) so all all other charges (OCF etc) would have to total under (around)  0.3% to make a saving. On the face of it, that should be possible and, as the fund grows, then the savings if moving would also grow.

But, the Aviva fund I'm in has performed consistently (2nd quartile in benchmarks for past 4 years) so I don't want to make a hasty decision to move.