Switch pension from Aviva to ii

sausage_time

I'm also doing an Aviva "S6" transfer to Interactive Investor.   I'm a month in, and things do seem to be moving rather slowly for me.  I have several forms from Aviva to sign and scan back.   This will be a cash transfer, and I'm tempted to sell at least one of the S6 funds manually - it's on a bit of a high!

MallyGirl

DRS1 said:

If I were the OP I might be wondering if ii tell you the funds have landed or do you need to keep logging on to check.

There was a transfer dashboard in II which also sent messages at each stage but the messages lagged by a bit.

jimjames

I've switched as well from Aviva to ii and very happy with it. They are often doing special transfer deals so you might find you can get cashback from ii as well. Depending on your Aviva pot that might be substantial.

https://www.ii.co.uk/ii-accounts/sipp/offers-and-cashback/sipp-cashback

dont_use_vistaprint

dunstonh said:

DeLaSole said:

dont_use_vistaprint said:

DeLaSole said:

Perhaps someone has a more recent experience to share but in July 2023 my wife initiated a cash transfer out of Aviva on a Monday evening and on the Friday morning it was ready to invest on ii.

Any issues / regrets switching ?

No issues or regrets. She had a couple of pensions, including an Aviva Stakeholder, which she moved to ii. She's had limited dealings with ii's customer service but they've been efficient in their response time and quality of information when contacted.

I have a couple of pensions, including the Aviva Stakeholder, which have the protected age (55) so didn't move to ii myself.

Aviva will notify the receiving scheme if there is a protected scheme age, and some schemes will continue the protected scheme age.  i don't know if ii do but it may be worth asking them.

I don’t understand this, I’m 55 this year and will be accessing the money then if it stays in Aviva I assumed I will be able to do the same with ii ? 

MallyGirl

Yes - but if you were younger meaning that you couldn't normally access till 57, you might have a protected right to it at 55 from Aviva which may go with the money to II (or not!)

dont_use_vistaprint

sausage_time said:

I'm also doing an Aviva "S6" transfer to Interactive Investor.   I'm a month in, and things do seem to be moving rather slowly for me.  I have several forms from Aviva to sign and scan back.   This will be a cash transfer, and I'm tempted to sell at least one of the S6 funds manually - it's on a bit of a high!

What fund in ii will you go for?

Yes S6 is doing fantastic at the moment and as I get closer to 55 at 25% tax lump sum it’s growing nicely week by week which is why I’m apprehensive to move things. Just found this on the interactive investor website…. a month or six weeks at the market would be devastating for me at the moment


A pension which is transferred to us entirely as cash usually takes 2 to 6 weeks to complete. You will need to sell any investments before you transfer your pension as cash. If you are transferring another SIPP to us, you may be able to transfer your investments as they are.

sausage_time

dont_use_vistaprint said:

sausage_time said:

I'm also doing an Aviva "S6" transfer to Interactive Investor.   I'm a month in, and things do seem to be moving rather slowly for me.  I have several forms from Aviva to sign and scan back.   This will be a cash transfer, and I'm tempted to sell at least one of the S6 funds manually - it's on a bit of a high!

What fund in ii will you go for?

Yes S6 is doing fantastic at the moment and as I get closer to 55 at 25% tax lump sum it’s growing nicely week by week which is why I’m apprehensive to move things. Just found this on the interactive investor website…. a month or six weeks at the market would be devastating for me at the moment


A pension which is transferred to us entirely as cash usually takes 2 to 6 weeks to complete. You will need to sell any investments before you transfer your pension as cash. If you are transferring another SIPP to us, you may be able to transfer your investments as they are.

I have six S6 funds in various proportions - some doing very well some less so.  My plan is to simplify, probably just two funds.  One high risk for most of the pot, then something lower risk for (imminent) flexible drawdown with a regular review to keep the short term part topped up.  

Pat38493

dont_use_vistaprint said:

sausage_time said:

I'm also doing an Aviva "S6" transfer to Interactive Investor.   I'm a month in, and things do seem to be moving rather slowly for me.  I have several forms from Aviva to sign and scan back.   This will be a cash transfer, and I'm tempted to sell at least one of the S6 funds manually - it's on a bit of a high!

What fund in ii will you go for?

Yes S6 is doing fantastic at the moment and as I get closer to 55 at 25% tax lump sum it’s growing nicely week by week which is why I’m apprehensive to move things. Just found this on the interactive investor website…. a month or six weeks at the market would be devastating for me at the moment


A pension which is transferred to us entirely as cash usually takes 2 to 6 weeks to complete. You will need to sell any investments before you transfer your pension as cash. If you are transferring another SIPP to us, you may be able to transfer your investments as they are.

Or it might be very lucky - in April this year the markets went down by over 10% in a week.  If that happens again whilst you are out of market, you will gain out of it - no way to tell really, but it's pretty unusual for there to be movements that large in a few weeks or so and it could go either way.

I had the same worries when I transferred but in the end you just have to bite the bullet - if I remember correctly I think I gained a few hundred quid by being out of market, but that was just lucky.

I googled S6 growth fund and if I am looking at the correct fund, it's a multi asset fund with about 80% equities, which at first glance has been outperformed by other well known 80/20 funds like Vanguard life strategy 80 in recent years, so it's not the specific fund you are in that's doing well - it's just that the market is doing well right now - if you are a long term retirement investor generally being out of market for a week or two whilst doing a transfer will be irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

MetaPhysical

jimjames said:

I've switched as well from Aviva to ii and very happy with it. They are often doing special transfer deals so you might find you can get cashback from ii as well. Depending on your Aviva pot that might be substantial.

https://www.ii.co.uk/ii-accounts/sipp/offers-and-cashback/sipp-cashback

I picked up £800 in cash back from II as part of my move to them - I moved £700k.  I would have moved anyway but that was a nice bonus.

MetaPhysical

Something to be aware of when inside II.  Trades are normally £3.99.  You shouldn't need many to build your portfolio.  However, as soon as you want to buy (or sell) 100k or more of something, the trade fee is £40.  Be careful of this since I got burnt on three trades that were 150k.

If you want to buy more than 100k, 150k in my example, then split it into two trades - a 90k and a 60k for instance and each will be £3.99.

Your trade would have to be over £one million for it to be worth paying the £40 fee.

Again you don't really need to trade that much, and I'd question anyone if they were regularly trading on what is meant to be their pension fund.  Each to their own though.