Pension Consolidation service

You’ll need to have the below handy: 

• Your MyAviva or MyWorkplace login details, contact number and National Insurance number.
  If you don’t have a MyAviva or MyWorkplace account, please register for one.
• Your driver's licence or passport, so you can provide us with a photo of your documents and a selfie (if you haven't registered with MyAviva or MyWorkplace before).
  This is to securely verify your identity, and ensure that when we share your pension findings, we know we are sending them to the right person. Using a smartphone to take a photo is the quickest way to verify your identity. We’ll also need you to give us a digital signature, don’t worry if this doesn’t match with your written signature. A digital signature is like an electronic “fingerprint”, offering additional verification that it's you.
• The key details of the pensions you’d like to consolidate.
  The policy numbers of your pension as well as the names of your pension providers.
• Your address details.
  You’ll need to give us the address that’s registered against the pension you’d like to transfer, if it’s different from the address we’ve got in your Aviva account. 

If you don’t have your pension details, you can use our Pension Discovery Service.

When we contact your pension providers, we’ll check for any safeguarded or valuable benefits you may lose by consolidating your pensions, or any charges for transferring. If we find any, we’ll let you know in your pension report or dashboard. It’s important to consider these and you may need to speak to a financial adviser. You may have to pay for this advice.

Safeguarded benefits

These are benefits which have a guarantee or promise of a rate of pension income.

Valuable benefits

These are financial perks or features of your pension that you might lose if you transfer to another pension. They could benefit you in either the short or long term.

Transfer charges and policy fees

If you transfer your pension, your current provider might charge you a fee. Other charges, like admin fees or investment charges may be different to the ones in your Aviva pension.

You can find a more detailed explanation of benefits and charges in our glossary. 

• Defined benefits pensions (also known as final salary pensions)
• Pensions which are set up in the Isle of Man, Channel Islands or any that count as non-UK or overseas pensions
• Pensions you’ve already started taking an income from
• Pensions you’ve already taken a partial transfer from
• Pensions that have safeguarded benefits - these can't be transferred online. If your pension contains any of these, give us a call. You can find the correct number on your latest pension statement. Financial advice is legally required if you want to transfer a pension that has safeguarded benefits worth over £30,000.

There’s no charge to transfer your pensions to us. 

Information on Workplace pension charges can be found on how to find your pension scheme's charges.

If you already have an Aviva SIPP, or are looking to transfer into a new Aviva SIPP, these are the charges you can expect to pay:

Funds

You'll pay an Aviva Charge of up to 0.40% for the value of your funds or cash, depending on how much you invest.

There's also a Fund Manager Charge that will depend on the funds that you've chosen. This charge is included in the price of the fund.

We won't charge you for buying or selling funds.

Shares and other exchange traded investments

You'll pay an Aviva Share Charge, which is 0.40% of their value, capped at £120 a year. 

There'll be a Fund Manager Charge for exchange traded funds and investment trusts that will be included in the price of the investment. 

When you buy or sell shares and other exchange traded investments, there'll be a Trading Charge of £7.50 for every trade you make.

There may be other charges you’ll need to be aware of – you can read more about these on our charges page.

UK platform charges

To make it easier to understand and compare platform charges, members of the UK Platform Group have developed this factsheet. 

It’s important to think about your decision carefully. Transferring your pensions is completely up to you, and there’s no guarantee you'll be better off if you transfer. If you decide to transfer but change your mind later and cancel, your previous provider doesn’t have to take your money back so you might still lose any safeguarded or valuable benefits you had.

While we’re transferring your pensions there might be a short time where your fund value isn’t invested in either pension, so you won't be impacted by any rise or fall in your investments.

If you're invested in a With Profits* fund, a market value adjustment may be applied.

*This is a type of ‘pooled investment’ fund. You, and other investors, pay into the fund and this pooled money is invested in stocks, shares, equities, bonds and property over a set period of time.

Remember, the value of your investments can go down as well as up. You could get back less than the amount invested.

Our Pension Consolidation Service doesn’t offer personal recommendations or financial advice. If you need financial advice, we recommend speaking to your financial adviser. If you don’t have a financial adviser, Aviva Financial Advice can help, or you can find one at MoneyHelper. An adviser may charge for their services.

You may be transferring a pension because you’re ready to take your pension benefits – for example, starting income drawdown or taking out money from your pension. Even if you already have an idea about which option to take, we’d encourage you to speak to Pension Wise to help you make an informed decision about taking money from your pensions. Pension Wise is a government-backed service from MoneyHelper offering free and impartial specialist guidance over the phone or face to face. If you’re aged 50 or over, this service is available to you.

The process can take up to three months. We'll write to your provider within days of receiving your application, but need to wait for them to respond. Some providers respond very quickly, others do not. We'll keep chasing on your behalf.

When your provider gives us the information, we'll check this within a few days and notify you of what we've found. If you decide to transfer, we then request the money from your provider.

We're reliant on your old provider to release funds. We’ll keep you updated on the transfer of your money.

While we’re transferring your pensions, there might be a short time where your fund value isn’t invested in either pension. You won’t be subjected to any rise or falls in your investments during that time.

Once you've transferred, it's important to login to MyAviva or MyWorkplace and invest your money in a way that supports your own needs and goals. Regularly review your fund performance to help ensure your needs are being met.