Aviva group personal pension to SIPP

Aylesbury_Duck

I've been doing some research into my Aviva pension, a former Friends Provident policy that's been deferred since 2014.  It's done rather well, particularly since I invested the bulk of it in international and UK equities in summer 2000, and is worth about £185k, about £20k of which is in with-profits and which generates an annual bonus.  I've just de-risked the equity funds into different funds (c.55% equities) because I am likely to begin drawing on this plan in five years' time (at 57).  It represents about a third of my DC pots and I have DB pensions currently worth about £18k p.a. kicking in at 67.

I'm paying a 1.00% management charge on the non with-profits elements, and know that I could save a reasonable sum by moving it to a SIPP.  I'm happy to stay with Aviva for now, partly to make the transfer easier (I hope!) and I've had written confirmation that there is currently no MVR to be applied and nor are there any protected benefits to my current plan.

What's the best way to progress here?  Open a SIPP with Aviva, citing the current Aviva plan as the one I want to transfer in?  Is it that simple?  The email they sent me, while otherwise helpful, wasn't clear because it talked about a "different division" handling the process.  The last two times I've managed to speak to them on the phone it's been the case that the agent doesn’t really know much beyond very basic principles and general queries.

I'm not eligible for any of their gift card promotions because it's an Aviva-to-Aviva transfer.  I suppose one advantage of transferring to a SIPP elsewhere is to take advantage of a similar incentive, assuming all other things (fees, decency of platform website, customer service, etc) are similar.  I have this (perhaps naive) assumption that an internal transfer should be more straightforward than moving between pension providers.

Anything else I should be considering at this stage?

DRS1

Does the Aviva SIPP accommodate all the various flavours of drawdown or might you end up transferring to another SIPP which does drawdown the way you want?

In particular when you have a mix of crystallised and uncrystallised do they treat it all as one fund or do they allow you to have different investments for the two bits?  So you could have the uncrystallised in something growthy and the crystallised in something less so.

ali_bear

Should be straightforward transferring within Aviva to a modern product and lower fees. 

I would disregard special offers and cashback etc to go to other providers as these are likely to be small compared with the overall cost in charges. 

Albermarle

The email they sent me, while otherwise helpful, wasn't clear because it talked about a "different division" handling the process.  The last two times I've managed to speak to them on the phone it's been the case that the agent doesn’t really know much beyond very basic principles and general queries.

Aviva have taken over other pension providers. It is not often very easy to fully amalgamate processes/people/locations, so they continue to operate semi independently under the Aviva umbrella.

This is often the case after takeovers, mergers etc. Not just with pensions but with many commercial activities. 

Aylesbury_Duck

DRS1 said:

Does the Aviva SIPP accommodate all the various flavours of drawdown or might you end up transferring to another SIPP which does drawdown the way you want?

In particular when you have a mix of crystallised and uncrystallised do they treat it all as one fund or do they allow you to have different investments for the two bits?  So you could have the uncrystallised in something growthy and the crystallised in something less so.

Good questions, thank you.  Will do some more research before acting.

Aylesbury_Duck

After doing lots of reading, I initiated the transfer in the New Year.  I have an Aviva SIPP opened, and received early acknowledgement that my transfer is underway, with a suggested timeframe of four weeks.

Today (about two weeks in), I received a secure message saying the following:

We regret to inform you that we are currently unable to proceed with your transfer request due to a Block Transfer note on our records (IBM). As a result, we have issued a ‘Day 1 Disclaimer’ letter to the policyholder by post. Kindly confirm once it has been received. Please review the letter, update the necessary information, and return it to us so we can proceed with the transfer request

It'll take a while for post to reach me, and while I'm happy to wait and see what the letter says, I'm curious as to what this is about.  I had previously checked and had it confirmed by Aviva that no MVR would be applied and that there are no protected benefits associated with the current Aviva pension.  There is a sizeable with-profits fund as part of the existing pension, and the December statement suggested this could have a reasonably large final bonus element applied upon transfer.  One of the reasons I'm transferring out of the with-profits fund as part of this is the opacity of its bonus/MVR arrangements.  It seems sensible to transfer now, when I know there's no MVR involved, rather than wait a few years and see that change if markets have moved and/or there has been significant change in the number of fund-holders.

Any ideas?

Marcon

Aylesbury_Duck said:

After doing lots of reading, I initiated the transfer in the New Year.  I have an Aviva SIPP opened, and received early acknowledgement that my transfer is underway, with a suggested timeframe of four weeks.

Today (about two weeks in), I received a secure message saying the following:

We regret to inform you that we are currently unable to proceed with your transfer request due to a Block Transfer note on our records (IBM). As a result, we have issued a ‘Day 1 Disclaimer’ letter to the policyholder by post. Kindly confirm once it has been received. Please review the letter, update the necessary information, and return it to us so we can proceed with the transfer request

It'll take a while for post to reach me, and while I'm happy to wait and see what the letter says, I'm curious as to what this is about.  I had previously checked and had it confirmed by Aviva that no MVR would be applied and that there are no protected benefits associated with the current Aviva pension.  There is a sizeable with-profits fund as part of the existing pension, and the December statement suggested this could have a reasonably large final bonus element applied upon transfer.  One of the reasons I'm transferring out of the with-profits fund as part of this is the opacity of its bonus/MVR arrangements.  It seems sensible to transfer now, when I know there's no MVR involved, rather than wait a few years and see that change if markets have moved and/or there has been significant change in the number of fund-holders.

Any ideas?

A block transfer (aka a buddy transfer) is where two or more members transfer together from one scheme to another and thereby protect certain rights in the original scheme. Typical examples are a protected pension age, or the option to take a higher amount of tax free cash.

The disclaimer letter is issued because you'll lose those rights when you make your proposed (further) transfer.

Aylesbury_Duck

Marcon said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

After doing lots of reading, I initiated the transfer in the New Year.  I have an Aviva SIPP opened, and received early acknowledgement that my transfer is underway, with a suggested timeframe of four weeks.

Today (about two weeks in), I received a secure message saying the following:

We regret to inform you that we are currently unable to proceed with your transfer request due to a Block Transfer note on our records (IBM). As a result, we have issued a ‘Day 1 Disclaimer’ letter to the policyholder by post. Kindly confirm once it has been received. Please review the letter, update the necessary information, and return it to us so we can proceed with the transfer request

It'll take a while for post to reach me, and while I'm happy to wait and see what the letter says, I'm curious as to what this is about.  I had previously checked and had it confirmed by Aviva that no MVR would be applied and that there are no protected benefits associated with the current Aviva pension.  There is a sizeable with-profits fund as part of the existing pension, and the December statement suggested this could have a reasonably large final bonus element applied upon transfer.  One of the reasons I'm transferring out of the with-profits fund as part of this is the opacity of its bonus/MVR arrangements.  It seems sensible to transfer now, when I know there's no MVR involved, rather than wait a few years and see that change if markets have moved and/or there has been significant change in the number of fund-holders.

Any ideas?

A block transfer (aka a buddy transfer) is where two or more members transfer together from one scheme to another and thereby protect certain rights in the original scheme. Typical examples are a protected pension age, or the option to take a higher amount of tax free cash.

The disclaimer letter is issued because you'll lose those rights when you make your proposed (further) transfer.

Thank you.  I'm curious, because before initiating the transfer I specifically asked if there were any protected rights I would be losing if I transfer, and the answer was: "There are no safeguarded or protected benefits associated with the plan."  I also don't understand the "buddy" bit.  I'm the sole policyholder.  It is an old Friends Life policy that was taken over by Aviva.  Could that be what's behind it?

I'll wait and see what the letter says.  If there are protected benefits then I may reconsider the transfer.  I wonder if their original advice was incorrect and there's something like a protected pension age of 55 (mine would otherwise be 57)?  This was a policy in effect from 2006 and deferred from 2014.

DRS1

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Marcon said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

After doing lots of reading, I initiated the transfer in the New Year.  I have an Aviva SIPP opened, and received early acknowledgement that my transfer is underway, with a suggested timeframe of four weeks.

Today (about two weeks in), I received a secure message saying the following:

We regret to inform you that we are currently unable to proceed with your transfer request due to a Block Transfer note on our records (IBM). As a result, we have issued a ‘Day 1 Disclaimer’ letter to the policyholder by post. Kindly confirm once it has been received. Please review the letter, update the necessary information, and return it to us so we can proceed with the transfer request

It'll take a while for post to reach me, and while I'm happy to wait and see what the letter says, I'm curious as to what this is about.  I had previously checked and had it confirmed by Aviva that no MVR would be applied and that there are no protected benefits associated with the current Aviva pension.  There is a sizeable with-profits fund as part of the existing pension, and the December statement suggested this could have a reasonably large final bonus element applied upon transfer.  One of the reasons I'm transferring out of the with-profits fund as part of this is the opacity of its bonus/MVR arrangements.  It seems sensible to transfer now, when I know there's no MVR involved, rather than wait a few years and see that change if markets have moved and/or there has been significant change in the number of fund-holders.

Any ideas?

A block transfer (aka a buddy transfer) is where two or more members transfer together from one scheme to another and thereby protect certain rights in the original scheme. Typical examples are a protected pension age, or the option to take a higher amount of tax free cash.

The disclaimer letter is issued because you'll lose those rights when you make your proposed (further) transfer.

Thank you.  I'm curious, because before initiating the transfer I specifically asked if there were any protected rights I would be losing if I transfer, and the answer was: "There are no safeguarded or protected benefits associated with the plan."  I also don't understand the "buddy" bit.  I'm the sole policyholder.  It is an old Friends Life policy that was taken over by Aviva.  Could that be what's behind it?

I'll wait and see what the letter says.  If there are protected benefits then I may reconsider the transfer.  I wonder if their original advice was incorrect and there's something like a protected pension age of 55 (mine would otherwise be 57)?  This was a policy in effect from 2006 and deferred from 2014.

Do the letters IBM in brackets mean that the pension originated with an occupational pension you had from working for IBM?  It is more likely that the protected whatever it is resulted from that sort of transfer than from Aviva taking over Friends Life

Aylesbury_Duck

DRS1 said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Marcon said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

After doing lots of reading, I initiated the transfer in the New Year.  I have an Aviva SIPP opened, and received early acknowledgement that my transfer is underway, with a suggested timeframe of four weeks.

Today (about two weeks in), I received a secure message saying the following:

We regret to inform you that we are currently unable to proceed with your transfer request due to a Block Transfer note on our records (IBM). As a result, we have issued a ‘Day 1 Disclaimer’ letter to the policyholder by post. Kindly confirm once it has been received. Please review the letter, update the necessary information, and return it to us so we can proceed with the transfer request

It'll take a while for post to reach me, and while I'm happy to wait and see what the letter says, I'm curious as to what this is about.  I had previously checked and had it confirmed by Aviva that no MVR would be applied and that there are no protected benefits associated with the current Aviva pension.  There is a sizeable with-profits fund as part of the existing pension, and the December statement suggested this could have a reasonably large final bonus element applied upon transfer.  One of the reasons I'm transferring out of the with-profits fund as part of this is the opacity of its bonus/MVR arrangements.  It seems sensible to transfer now, when I know there's no MVR involved, rather than wait a few years and see that change if markets have moved and/or there has been significant change in the number of fund-holders.

Any ideas?

A block transfer (aka a buddy transfer) is where two or more members transfer together from one scheme to another and thereby protect certain rights in the original scheme. Typical examples are a protected pension age, or the option to take a higher amount of tax free cash.

The disclaimer letter is issued because you'll lose those rights when you make your proposed (further) transfer.

Thank you.  I'm curious, because before initiating the transfer I specifically asked if there were any protected rights I would be losing if I transfer, and the answer was: "There are no safeguarded or protected benefits associated with the plan."  I also don't understand the "buddy" bit.  I'm the sole policyholder.  It is an old Friends Life policy that was taken over by Aviva.  Could that be what's behind it?

I'll wait and see what the letter says.  If there are protected benefits then I may reconsider the transfer.  I wonder if their original advice was incorrect and there's something like a protected pension age of 55 (mine would otherwise be 57)?  This was a policy in effect from 2006 and deferred from 2014.

Do the letters IBM in brackets mean that the pension originated with an occupational pension you had from working for IBM?  It is more likely that the protected whatever it is resulted from that sort of transfer than from Aviva taking over Friends Life

No, I've never worked for IBM or any of its associated companies.  I assumed that it stood for something else in this context.

DRS1

Oh well just a thought.  Be interesting to know what it is.

If you have a problem with the post from Aviva I think they have a way to send you correspondence by encrypted email.