Aviva Fees

DRS1

I never thought of the bonus on a with profits policy as having anything to do with fees.  It is the investment return.  Usually there are two bonuses - the annual one (which cannot be taken away) and the final one (which is usually a big chunk but is not guaranteed).  The final bonus is where the smoothing you mention comes into play and is why it is not guaranteed.  If you compare a with profit policy with a unitised one you will find the unitised one will look as if it has massively outperformed the with profits one.  It may not look quite as bad if the final bonus is factored in but with profits is pretty old hat these days.

The other "smoothing " thing with with profits is the market value reduction which can be applied if you take a transfer when markets are bad.  Aviva will tell you if they are currently applying an MVR to your policy.

It may be unlikely but you also need to check with Aviva to see if you lose anything such as a GAR by transferring the with profits bit of the pension.

dunstonh

MetaPhysical said:

I moved to Interactive Investor from Aviva because of their platform fee and because they add a significant markup to most funds.  I reduced my fees massively by moving away from Aviva into an II SIPP.

Aviva platform has no mark up on any funds. It retails OEICs/UTs are their normal price.

Are you perhaps referring to Aviva lif & pensions products where they use mirror funds for external fund houses?