are Aviva scamming us?

Exodi

GunJack said:

I suppose the big question is, why are the pension companies so bad at doing the admin and handling customer's funds/payouts/communication??????

I don't know if this is aligning with the conspiracy the OP made (which I think is ridiculous, FYI), but in reality I'd imagine it's down to regulatory checks (especially considering the sums that can be in question), reliance on antiquated and arduous systems, third party delays (e.g. DWP) and likely a decision to charge competitively low platform fees meaning they keep a lean workforce.

To play devils advocate, with scamming only getting worse (especially now with AI), I think we'd all be up in arms if pension providers were haphazardly emptying pension pots from a request.

In the OP's case, it is also likely related to the festive break, which also impacts banking services and investment markets.

Moonwolf

GunJack said:

I suppose the big question is, why are the pension companies so bad at doing the admin and handling customer's funds/payouts/communication??????

My experience with getting a bought out DB from Aviva, starting drawdown with Standard Life and claiming my NHS pension is that Aviva have been perfect, Standard Life slipped up but fixed it in 24 hours after a phonecall and the NHS, which is already over a week late with zero communication are proud that they pay 80% of pensions within 80 days, i.e. 1 in 5 people has to wait more than a month for money they are entitled to.

If the NHS is the benchmark then the private companies are amazing.

Although to be fair to the NHS, I don’t think the admin for the McCloud fixes has been properly costed and funded.

Aylesbury_Duck

GunJack said:

I suppose the big question is, why are the pension companies so bad at doing the admin and handling customer's funds/payouts/communication??????

Margins, probably.  Everyone wants fees of <1% and preferably much lower than that, so I'd assume providers are making their staffing costs fit that model.

dunstonh

GunJack said:

I suppose the big question is, why are the pension companies so bad at doing the admin and handling customer's funds/payouts/communication??????

There has been a race to the bottom on charges.   There has been a significant increase in the costs of employment and energy.   Many people are not willing to pay for service.

The call centre/processing centres are manned to meet average capacity.    The Budget scaremongering caused massive overloading of that capacity and firms are still catching up

The OP doesn't say what part of Aviva it is with.   Aviva on the platform side is fast and efficient.  Aviva L&P on the CGNU side is fine with all but some very old plans that require specialist teams to do manual calculations (and capacity is an issue when they are put under stress).     Aviva is slower on the AXA and FP side as those parts of the business have yet to be fully integrated into the Aviva systems and are running on old software, which was dated before Aviva bought them, in the original call centres.

Often it means that undesirable outcomes will occur because of the modern world we live in.  It doesn't make it right. It is just the way it is.    People can help themselves by preparing in advance and not expecting 20-30 year old products to have the functionality and speed of modern products.

Pat38493

By the way, when you say "cash out" your pension are you taking the full pension all in one go, and if so are you aware of the tax consequences of doing that, depdending on the total value?

Albermarle

I have transferred three DC pension pots and three S& S ISAs.

The longest was 2.5 weeks . The quickest was less than 48 hours, which was transferring out from ------- Aviva !

I do not know about hanging on to the OPs money, it seemed they could not get mine out quick enough.

On a more negative side, my experience dealing with a certain DB pension administrator was very negative.
About 8 months from start to actually getting a payment in my bank account, and many e mails, complaints etc inbetween. 

GunJack

Just for clarity, I wasn't siding with the OP in the conspiracy theory!! It just seems like there's been a lot of threads over the last couple of years involving slow or poor service and/or communication from many providers/administrators....

Mind you, I can't say I have no skin in the game, I've got a deferred CS pension payable in 23 months ... Any bets on whether Crapita have sorted themselves out by then?? 🤣🤣🤣

Aylesbury_Duck

After mulling things over for a few months, I've pulled the trigger on transferring an old FL Aviva pension into an Aviva SIPP, to give me a broader fund choice and save a little on fees.  My December statement had a transfer value of £28k more than my funds' aggregate values (because there's a with-profits fund among the other funds) so I'm hoping that all gets sorted correctly first time.  I'd already had confirmation that no MVR would be applied and nor am I surrendering any protected benefits.  I'm fully prepared for delays given it's an old FL policy and there's the with-profits bit to sort out.

I'm not in a rush, though, unlike the OP.  In fairness to Aviva, when I last did some rebalancing of funds and they took weeks doing nothing, once I called them they actioned it effective on the date of my original instruction.

dunstonh

I'm not in a rush, though, unlike the OP.  In fairness to Aviva, when I last did some rebalancing of funds and they took weeks doing nothing, once I called them they actioned it effective on the date of my original instruction.

On the old life & pension plans, that is pretty standard across most insurers.  i.e. if they take 5-10 days to do it, they will backdate it and use the unit price they would have done had it been done that day.   It was a way for them to balance capacity even if it hit them in the pocket.

jimjames

On the other hand I requested a cash transfer from Aviva to ii on 24th December and the money was in my account by 2nd Jan. Really can't fault them so you might be better to move elsewhere and take the money out from that pot instead.