With-profits from Aviva

Investing in with-profits could be an attractive option if you’re looking for the possibility of long-term growth, but want some protection from market volatility. At Aviva, you can invest in with-profits through an investment bond, a pension or an annuity.

Your money will be pooled with other planholders’ money and invested in a range of different assets, like shares, property and corporate bonds. This gives you some diversity – in other words, you don’t have all your eggs in the same basket. A system of bonuses then ensures that you get a fair share of the return earned by your investment.

The principle behind with-profits is that you have some protection against stock market volatility through a process called ‘smoothing’. With ‘smoothing’, we keep back some of the gains earned in good years and use them to help pay bonuses in poor investment years. The idea is that you get a reasonable return, even in bad years. Smoothing is unique to with-profits and means you’re less likely to see huge variations in your returns over time. Of course, you need to bear in mind that the value of your investment can fluctuate and you might not get back the amount you invested.

To find out more, see the guides below which tell you how we run the With-Profit funds (our Principles and Practices of Financial Management (PPFM)). There are different guides, depending on the plan you choose. If you’re looking for more in-depth information about our with-profits management, go to our full, detailed PPFMs.

If you need advice or aren’t sure whether a with-profits plan is suitable, we recommend you talk to your financial adviser. Otherwise, you can call us on 0800 092 7872. We can only advise you on Aviva’s products.

New customer? Read our useful guides:

• Portfolio – Guide to investment in our With-Profit Funds
  (PDF – 103kb)
• Stakeholder With-Profit Fund – A guide to investing
  (PDF – 170kb)
• Guide to With-Profit Annuity Investment
  (PDF – 101kb)
• Guide to Conventional with-profits
  (PDF – 290kb)
• Guide to Pensions With-Profit Investment
  (PDF – 192kb)

Already a with-profits customer? Read our useful guides:

Check your policy documents to see which guide is for you. If you're still unsure, call us on 0800 015 4785.

• Aviva & CULAC Conventional Policies
  (PDF – 100kb)
• Aviva & CULAC Unitised Policies
  (PDF – 105kb)
• Aviva Stakeholder Policies
  (PDF – 99kb)
• AvivaL&P Conventional Policies
  (PDF – 103kb)
• AvivaL&P Unitised Policies
  (PDF – 102kb)
• AvivaL&P With-Profits Annuities
  (PDF – 105kb)
• Provident Mutual Conventional Policies
  (PDF – 100kb)
• Provident Mutual Conventional (Switched) Policies
  (PDF – 94kb)
• AvivaL(RBS) Unitised Policies
  (PDF – 80kb)

If you're already a customer, you'll receive a separate version of these guides each year along with your annual statement or bonus pack. We will use this to let you know about any significant changes to the way in which we manage our With-Profit funds.

There's more detailed and technical information about the way we manage our With-Profit funds on our main PPFM page here.