Tweet
bizarre series of circumstances as regards my old occupational defined benefits scheme.
I've posted previously about the massive disappointment I have with Aviva who have had my section 32 buy out policy since 1988. 27 years they've had it and no bonuses for 20 years, unable to meet the guaranteed pension amount of £5,000 and the value of the policy if I wanted to buy an annuity from elsewhere would only get me £3,000. So all in all not very good ! I've written many times but never got any joy, and now I'm just 4 months from maturity date and resigned to just £5,000 pa.
And then, quite oddly, my former employer wrote to me for the first time in 27 years enclosing my 'pension entitlements' from their scheme ...I thought...ooh shall I or shall I not...but then thought again and rang them up to say I think their records are wrong...can they check them..
But, and bearing in mind the company scheme started from the same point as Aviva did back in 1988, they are quoting my pension as £11,600 !!!
So Aviva can not even make £5,000 but the company scheme can make £11,600 ?
Something must be wrong somewhere, mustn't it ? That's one hell of a difference, and the value of the funds...Aviva £35,000 approx, the company scheme over £200,000.
The £11,600includes the GMP element of £5,000 plus my 'excess over GMP' of £6,500.
Anyway I spoke to Capita who are managing the company scheme now, and they said I had already accrued a pension of £2,080 by 1987...and Aviva have managed to 'earn' a miserley extra £1,000 after 27 years of ''specialist investments' across a broad range of funds ..... This all sounds very odd to me. Clearly Aviva have not only failed to acheive any returns for me, but have used up all the excess pension I had to prop up the GMP amount...and still failed.
Having sat down and thought about this I decided I have 3 avenues to persue ..
1. Complain to the trustees of the company scheme that they did not provide me with the necessary information to enable me to make an informed decision back in 1987, becasue they did not tell me anything about the future value of the company scheme if I had left my pension pot with them. That is a fact, not a fib and a genuine reason for complaint. If this fails to resolve matters I can contact the POS and maybe TPAS and the FCA...or even sue them...
2. Complain to Aviva, providing them with the two set of figures and ask them to explain. if that fails I'm not sure where I can go next.
3. Contact the FSCS about a Financial advisor who wrote to me in 1988 to say the buy out option was the way to go..That company ceased to trade in 1990 and there is no paperwork to support my claim so this might not be successful...but again, it is not a fib, it's true. I'm not sure if their old files are retained anywhere (like an adminstrator) but I would have thought after 24 years they would be shredded now. My fault for losing my copies I guess. ?
So that's my plan...if anyone else has any suggestions I would be most pleased to read them..I am hoping that a mistake was made at my company scheme and only the GMP was transferred to Aviva..it is odd they still think I am a member after all this time, their records must be in tatters,like mine ! Honesty is the best policy though, so I have told them what I know and they have gone away to investigate and have a look in the archives.... I am hoping they will come to an agreement with me but if they don't then i will escalate things.
It's been a funny week.......
I've posted previously about the massive disappointment I have with Aviva who have had my section 32 buy out policy since 1988. 27 years they've had it and no bonuses for 20 years, unable to meet the guaranteed pension amount of £5,000 and the value of the policy if I wanted to buy an annuity from elsewhere would only get me £3,000. So all in all not very good ! I've written many times but never got any joy, and now I'm just 4 months from maturity date and resigned to just £5,000 pa.
And then, quite oddly, my former employer wrote to me for the first time in 27 years enclosing my 'pension entitlements' from their scheme ...I thought...ooh shall I or shall I not...but then thought again and rang them up to say I think their records are wrong...can they check them..
But, and bearing in mind the company scheme started from the same point as Aviva did back in 1988, they are quoting my pension as £11,600 !!!
So Aviva can not even make £5,000 but the company scheme can make £11,600 ?
Something must be wrong somewhere, mustn't it ? That's one hell of a difference, and the value of the funds...Aviva £35,000 approx, the company scheme over £200,000.
The £11,600includes the GMP element of £5,000 plus my 'excess over GMP' of £6,500.
Anyway I spoke to Capita who are managing the company scheme now, and they said I had already accrued a pension of £2,080 by 1987...and Aviva have managed to 'earn' a miserley extra £1,000 after 27 years of ''specialist investments' across a broad range of funds ..... This all sounds very odd to me. Clearly Aviva have not only failed to acheive any returns for me, but have used up all the excess pension I had to prop up the GMP amount...and still failed.
Having sat down and thought about this I decided I have 3 avenues to persue ..
1. Complain to the trustees of the company scheme that they did not provide me with the necessary information to enable me to make an informed decision back in 1987, becasue they did not tell me anything about the future value of the company scheme if I had left my pension pot with them. That is a fact, not a fib and a genuine reason for complaint. If this fails to resolve matters I can contact the POS and maybe TPAS and the FCA...or even sue them...
2. Complain to Aviva, providing them with the two set of figures and ask them to explain. if that fails I'm not sure where I can go next.
3. Contact the FSCS about a Financial advisor who wrote to me in 1988 to say the buy out option was the way to go..That company ceased to trade in 1990 and there is no paperwork to support my claim so this might not be successful...but again, it is not a fib, it's true. I'm not sure if their old files are retained anywhere (like an adminstrator) but I would have thought after 24 years they would be shredded now. My fault for losing my copies I guess. ?
So that's my plan...if anyone else has any suggestions I would be most pleased to read them..I am hoping that a mistake was made at my company scheme and only the GMP was transferred to Aviva..it is odd they still think I am a member after all this time, their records must be in tatters,like mine ! Honesty is the best policy though, so I have told them what I know and they have gone away to investigate and have a look in the archives.... I am hoping they will come to an agreement with me but if they don't then i will escalate things.
It's been a funny week.......
Comment