Aviva workplace pension funds

allondon

I have 2 workplace pension funds that were acquired by Aviva years ago (one starting with F and another with TK). Both were managed online and I took out 25% tax-free money from both. At some point Aviva informed me that "as I am approaching the retirement age" they were moving my investments into the different funds. These funds have been their worst performers in recent years, however Aviva took the ability to research and manage the investments online away from me (when I asked about it, their reasons have been vague and conflicting). Each fund is dealt with by completely different teams (even the complaints), therefore it takes unreasonable time to try and get anything from Aviva over the phone. In my view, by overwriting my investment choices and removing my ability to manage the funds, Aviva became de-facto the fund manager and T&Cs of my policies have changed. The only positive outcome of my complaints to Aviva was getting a list of the alternative funds for one of the policies (not for another). They do have some well performing funds but I've been stuck with their choices. Is it worth escalating the complaint to Financial Ombudsman or Pension Ombudsman? Has anyone had positive experience with Aviva workplace pension funds?

flaneurs_lobster

Not clear (at least to me) what the nature of your complaint is.

If functionality to choose alternative funds to those chosen by default was not an option with Aviva then you could have moved your pension(s) to a provider that did give this functionality (notwithstanding any difference in fees).

ali_bear

I had two Aviva policies, transferred the older one into the other, no problems.

You should be able to take out a third (new) scheme with Aviva and transfer both into that without any serious trouble or delay. Then you'll just have to choose from the 1000's of funds available

Marcon

allondon said:

They do have some well performing funds but I've been stuck with their choices. Is it worth escalating the complaint to Financial Ombudsman or Pension Ombudsman? Has anyone had positive experience with Aviva workplace pension funds?

What are you alleging: poor investment advice (they've not given any advice, so not one for the Financial Ombudsman) or maladministration (again, there's nothing in your post to suggest there has been any maladministration, so not one for the Pensions Ombudsman)?

dunstonh

I have 2 workplace pension funds that were acquired by Aviva years ago (one starting with F and another with TK). Both were managed online and I took out 25% tax-free money from both. 

TK makes it an ex Norwich Union plan.   F is most commonly used with Friends Provdent plans  Fxxx/xxxxx

These funds have been their worst performers in recent years,

Gilts and bonds suffered their worst period in over 100 years between 2021 and 2023.   However, that doesnt matter if your intention is to buy an annuity - which is what lifestyling is set up to target on these plans.

however Aviva took the ability to research and manage the investments online away from me (when I asked about it, their reasons have been vague and conflicting).

Ex Friends Provident plans were removed but Aviva TK plans should still be available.   Both will take instructions by other means.

Each fund is dealt with by completely different teams (even the complaints), therefore it takes unreasonable time to try and get anything from Aviva over the phone. 

That is because one is ex Norwich Union and the other is ex Friends Provident.   They operate on different systems out of different locations as Aviva hasn't brought them together yet (expensive, time consuming and would involve the regulator)

In my view, by overwriting my investment choices and removing my ability to manage the funds, Aviva became de-facto the fund manager and T&Cs of my policies have changed.

Nope. You are wrong.  None of the T&C has changed, and you still have investment choices and the ability to self-select from their range.   Lifestyling is an option (usually the default) and they are just following what you or your adviser (or employer if ex employee plans) put in place at the start, assuming you made no changes since then.

Is it worth escalating the complaint to Financial Ombudsman or Pension Ombudsman? 

On what basis?     You would effectively be complaining that you lack knowledge and understanding but that isn't Aviva's fault. 

MeteredOut

OP, what retirement age do you have set on your pensions? It sounds like your pensions are set up within a lifestyling portfolio, which moves your investments into more defensive funds/bonds as you approach that age. Your product documentation will have told you that.

allondon

@dunstonh Thank you for the detailed response. However, I beg to differ on several points:
1) Investment choices may exist, but they are no more available to me online to self-select (the service that had been available for many years). I only managed to get a list of available funds for F policy and this required a written complaint as over the phone I only received empty promises. I still have to fight to get the list for TK policy.  My main grievance is that the fund lost the self-management options and getting the list of the available funds and switching the investments requires an enormous amount of time and effort since online management had been removed. Removal of the service that existed for many years without any notice is by itself a change in T&C in my view.
2) The investments selected by myself were changed by Aviva. I would not raise an issue if this was my choice of investments and I still had an ability to switch funds myself (and not asking for a favour).
3) Could you please explain how the loss of gilts and bonds does not matter for annuity?

allondon

MeteredOut said:

OP, what retirement age do you have set on your pensions? It sounds like your pensions are set up within a lifestyling portfolio, which moves your investments into more defensive funds/bonds as you approach that age. Your product documentation will have told you that.

It probably was set to 55 which is well in the past.

allondon

From the latest annual Aviva statement: "You can see an up to date valuation of your pension anytime, anywhere, at our website. Plus there are helpful tools, answers to your pension related questions

and the ability to make changes to your plan." (only the first sentence is correct, the ability to make changes online disappeared.) "We offer many different funds for you to choose from. All have the potential to grow at different rates and have different charges and levels of risk attached to them. Explore the options at aviva.co.uk/myaviva." (Does this mean some customers are still able to manage their investments online?)

DRS1

allondon said:

MeteredOut said:

OP, what retirement age do you have set on your pensions? It sounds like your pensions are set up within a lifestyling portfolio, which moves your investments into more defensive funds/bonds as you approach that age. Your product documentation will have told you that.

It probably was set to 55 which is well in the past.

Are you sure about that?  You said they were writing to you saying you were approaching retirement age.  Could that be 65? 

dunstonh

1) Investment choices may exist, but they are no more available to me online to self-select (the service that had been available for many years). I only managed to get a list of available funds for F policy and this required a written complaint as over the phone I only received empty promises. I still have to fight to get the list for TK policy.  My main grievance is that the fund lost the self-management options and getting the list of the available funds and switching the investments requires an enormous amount of time and effort since online management had been removed. Removal of the service that existed for many years without any notice is by itself a change in T&C in my view.

When both of these plans were first available there was no online access for them.   That came later.   Online access is not a T&C thing.  
The Aviva website shows the funds available on the CGNU plans (TK in your case).  You just need to match up the series number.

2) The investments selected by myself were changed by Aviva. I would not raise an issue if this was my choice of investments and I still had an ability to switch funds myself (and not asking for a favour).

The only time Aviva (or any provider) changes the funds are:
1) you have a lifestyle stragegy in place
2) the fund is closing and being replaced with a different one

3) Could you please explain how the loss of gilts and bonds does not matter for annuity?

Annuities use gilt yields as the primary driver for annuity rates.  Annuity rates align with gilt yields (age and health just amplify the yield).

When gilts fall in value, the gilt yields go up and vice versa.    So lifestyle strategies will move people into gilts as it removes market risk and protects your income.  Yes, the fund value will go down if gilt yields rise, but the annuity rate will go up.    Think of it as 25x4 vs 20x5.    (£250,000x4 vs £200,000x5).

It probably was set to 55 which is well in the past.

The selected scheme age is there to set the starting point of the risk reduction.     If the lifestyling was say over 10 years, they would start at 45 if the scheme age was 55.   However, if the scheme age was set to 67, they would start at 57.   Scheme age is very important to get right when you have lifestyling.

From the latest annual Aviva statement: "You can see an up to date valuation of your pension anytime, anywhere, at our website. Plus there are helpful tools, answers to your pension related questions
and the ability to make changes to your plan." (only the first sentence is correct, the ability to make changes online disappeared.) "We offer many different funds for you to choose from. All have the potential to grow at different rates and have different charges and levels of risk attached to them. Explore the options at aviva.co.uk/myaviva." (Does this mean some customers are still able to manage their investments online?)

Aviva have hundreds of versions of plans from books they ran under NU, CG, AXA, Friends Prov and many more.   In your case, the ex Friends Prov plans dropped off online several years ago.  They also stopped providing valuations into IFA software at the same time.     However,  ex NU TK plans are still allowing online switches for IFAs and usually that means its available on the MyAviva app.   However, the TK range was available in individual and group scheme formats.   So, whilst individual schemes still appear to have it, it is possible that group schemes do not.