Congratulations to Aviva for acheiving SIX overall gold awards again in the 2022 Workplace Pension and Auto-Enrolment ratings.
Yet again our ratings demonstrate how Aviva are continuing to develop and grow their workplace propositions for the Designer, My Money and My Money Master Trust offerings.
Suzanne Rose, head of Master Trust and Workplace Proposition, said:
“We are really proud to see our ranking in these prestigious ratings improve year-on-year, reflecting our continuous investment in developing our workplace proposition for members and employers.“
Product offering & administration:
The Aviva Designer proposition is hosted on the Unisure platform and will currently accept schemes online and offline, with some restrictions to the number of lives applicable to their online journey only. They are also willing to accept transfers into new schemes, again with no restrictions (although these cannot be transacted online). The Designer proposition does not currently provide access to a workplace ISA or GIA (unlike the My Money offerings)
The Aviva My Money & Master Trust proposition is hosted on the FNZ platform and currently has an open door policy and will accept any scheme regardless of the number of member or contribution levels.
They are also willing to accept transfers into new schemes, again with no restrictions and in addition to pensions they can offer an ISA and a GIA products to their members
Investment & fund options:
Aviva offer a wide range of funds on their platform consisting of own, life-styling, multi-manager, fund of funds, ethical, ESG and guided funds. They have a range of default investment options, the core default fund being the MY Future Focus, which is specifically designed for different target markets and can be customised by advisers. This includes the name and asset allocation through to customised factsheets. In the past 12 months Aviva designed their default fund offering.
The Aviva Master Trust offers a standard default solution, with employers able to use, subject to the trustees’ agreement, an alternative default arrangement. A longside the standard default, a range of self-select funds are also available covering the key asset classes, equities, bonds, property and money market, together with ethical and ESG options.
Record keeping & governance:
Aviva have established an administrative committee to oversee their governance, which contains an independent chairman and representatives. They monitor the performance of funds in line with their objectives on a quarterly basis looking in detail at fund performance, volatility, external research, error tracking, fund liquidity and charges.
They also carry out qualitative research on fund managers and will communicate to members and advisers any changes that will impact an investment.
Member App & portal:
Aviva offer their members a full native app which has all the same features and functionality as the online member portal. The app now has transactional capability, however this not carried out in real time.
As expected, both the app and portal allow members to update and change their personal details online. The app also includes a secure messaging functionality. Members can also consolidate their pensions online and via the app and charges are clearly displayed in £/p as well as %’s.
Member communications:
Aviva will provide all the required member communications at no additional cost. Aviva’s system will generate auto-enrolment communications and they offer a range of worksite literature.
Communications are provided in accessible formats such as large print and braille if required. They also offer online Annual benefit statements to members, and these show the actual scheme specific annual management charge for all funds selected by the member.
The My Money and Master Trust propositions also offers free personalised video pension statements to its members. Currently the Aviva Designer proposition does not offer personalised video pension statements, however, it does have a Pension Snapshot solution which uses sophisticated digital technology to give customers a quick and personalised summary of their pension over the last 12 months.
Auto Enrolment process:
Aviva will provide all relevant member communications, have no restrictions in terms of staff turnover and have automated systems in place to monitor employee earnings and enrol them once they meet the AE contribution threshold. Their systems will handle multiple payrolls, staging dates and all pay frequencies as well as having CSV integration with a wide range of payroll providers (including Sage, Iress and Xero).
In under 1 hour their system is capable of processing over 5000 employee records. They offer a range of reports and services to assist the employer and adviser with certification, scheme assessment and compliance.
Financial Resilience:
Aviva can use real member data, which is gathered from various tools and Open Banking technology to help members better manage their day-to-day financial lives. They offer a range of different savings vehicles alongside their pension product and can also create a financial fitness/wellness score.
They have a very strong process in place in order to help identify vulnerable customers and have a dedicated team to ensure fair treatment to all. They provide a very good level of generic and personalised financial education to their members and also offer online and face-to-face access to a financial coach or mentor.
Salary Sacrifice:
Aviva offer employers and adviser a free a Salary Sacrifice tool which they have built inhouse and they provide general documents/guides on what Salary Sacrifice is and how it works.
The tool does not currently allow for the import of all core individual client data, which means data needs to input manually.
