Getting to know your pension

Welcome to your new Aviva Workplace Pension.

This video is all about your new pension plan and your journey to Retirement.

We’re an award-winning provider with more than three million members and 300 years’ experience, so you can trust that we know pensions inside out.

A big reason for this recognition is the quality of the support we offer our members.

So, from the moment you start your retirement journey with us, here’s some of the things you can expect…

When you start your journey you’ll need some support. You’ll soon receive your member booklets where you can find out more about your Aviva workplace pension scheme.

Keep an eye out for your welcome pack, explaining how you can check your pension and access the support you need.

It can be hard to see if you’re on the right road towards the retirement you want, so we’ll give you access to useful videos, online tools and easy-to-read information –, so, no matter how far you are from your retirement, we can help prepare.

Don’t worry about losing your way. We’ll be in touch with reminders and support throughout your journey.

So, you’ll get lots of help. But you’re still in the driving seat, because we’ve made it easy for you to take control of your pension yourself.

Once your new pension is up and running, you’ll be able to register for our safe, secure, online account. Here you can view your pension’s value quickly and easily.

You’ll also be able to…

Make changes to your personal details…

Set your preferences so you get your pension information in a way that’s right for you…

Check the amount you’re paying in, how your money is being invested and make one off payments…

Start the process to transfer other pensions to your Aviva pension, if that’s the right decision for you…

And, access our pension planning tools to help and support you along the way…

It pays to keep an eye on the performance of your pension, because the value of your investments can go down as well as up. And, you could get back less than has been paid in….

If you would like any more information in the meantime visit www.aviva.co.uk/retirement.

It’s great to be starting out on our journey together.

We’ll be in touch again soon, a little further down the road.

Nowadays,...

...when going to the cinema,...

...do you notice how many different choices there are to make before we can even view the film?

 

Do we want Premier Seating? Do we want the popcorn and drink deal? Do we want to go extra large?

There’s a lot to think about and the same can be said when considering how we can take money from our pension savings.

 

When you reach age 55,...

...you are free to take the money you have saved from your defined contribution pension. There are 3 main ways to access your money:

 

Option 1:

If you prefer the security of a guaranteed income for life,...

...you can use your savings to buy an insurance policy, known as an annuity.

This income may be smaller than with the other options...

...but you won’t have to worry about running out of money in the future. Just be aware that once you’ve bought an annuity you can’t change your mind.

 

Option 2:

You can take money from your pension as and when you want it and the money you leave in your pot stays invested...

...- as it was when you were paying into your pension. Charges will still be taken but leaving it invested may give it more chance to grow.

There is a risk that the value of your investments could go down. Remember, there is no guarantee that the money will last a lifetime with this option.

 

Option 3:

You can take all of your money out as cash,...

...but as tempting as that is, you’ll need to think carefully about the tax man...

...and how long your savings will last, as taking large sums of cash...

...could push you into a higher income tax bracket...

...and you could run out of money in the future if you don’t budget carefully.

It is possible to mix the different options too if you want to.

 

Before you do anything, you can take 25% from your savings tax-free,...

...so you could pay off any debts,...

...travel,...

... or just treat yourself to the small things in life.

 

The remaining 75% of the savings you will take will be treated like your salary and taxed as income.

You don’t have to do anything with your savings either. You can leave your pension exactly where it is.

 

Whatever choice you make, it’s worth reviewing the options carefully and getting advice. You should also shop around and compare the different levels of income you could get from different providers.

Here at Aviva, we have dedicated staff available to talk you through your options,...

...so whatever route you choose, we can help you set the scene for the retirement you want.

 

If you’re busy buzzing away each day -...

...you’ve probably got a job to go to...

...a family to take care of...

...a home to keep ship shape - then saving for your future may not be the highest priority.

 

The thing is, time goes by quicker than you think, so when you actually want to retire might not be too far away.

 

The sooner you act – even if it’s saving just a small amount -...

... could mean the difference between a comfortable retirement and one that leaves you feeling...well, a little flat.

That’s why a workplace pension is the easiest way to build up a pot of money. Your employer sets it all up and will put your contribution in straight from your salary.

As long as you pay in, they’ll put their money in too.

Some employers even match your contribution, so it’s worth checking how much they’re prepared to give you and getting as much in your pot as you can - look at it as free money.

 

Besides this, the government gives you tax relief, so money that you would otherwise pay in tax is diverted into your pension pot.

 

Unlike a savings account, your pension savings are invested. This is to help your savings grow...

and the earlier you start saving, the more time they have to grow. You do have to be aware that investment values can go down as well as up and you could get back less than the amount paid in.

 

There are a number of ways you can take your money - with up to 25% being tax-free. You’ll also get a State Pension when you’re old enough - as long as you’ve made enough qualifying national insurance contributions.

The current full new State Pension is £241.30 per week - probably not enough on its own to live comfortably but...

if you’ve built up a workplace pension, it’s a good boost to your savings.

 

To see what your future could look like visit our easy-to-use, interactive Shape My Future tool which helps you see how much you’re saving and picture what your retirement could look like.

Pension planning? Isn’t that something you can worry about later?

The fact is that tomorrow comes around sooner than you think, so by saving more now it could lead to you having a better chance of you enjoying the future you want.

So, where do you begin?

First, find out what you already have, and what you could have when you retire.

There’s the State Pension, of course…

For a single person, the current full new State Pension is £241.30 per week for the 2026/2027 tax year. You need to have made 35 years National Insurance contributions to get this. Wouldn’t want to live on that? Maybe not. So, what other money would you have to live on?

Think about any money you’re saving in a bank or building society account, or an ISA. Factor that in.

Next, if you have a workplace pension, check how much is being paid in each month.

The benefit of a workplace pension is that you will normally be eligible for tax relief from the government on your personal contributions. So, if you're a basic rate tax payer, every £100 which goes into your pension will cost you £80 from your take home pay.

Next, think about what you’re going to need when you’ve finished working.

To help with retirement planning visit our website. You’ll find videos, calculators and online tools. Our Shape My Future tool can help you get an idea what your future could look like, and what you can do to make changes now.

You need to remember that your pension money is invested to try and help it grow – and, as with any investment, the value can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you put in.

If you want to join or make changes to your workplace pension just get in touch with your employer.

So in summary, find out what you’ve already got; plan how much you might need - and then take action.

Remember, if you really want to make a difference to your future, there’s no time like the present to act.

Tax and state benefits shown are for the 2026/2027 tax year. They depend on your individual circumstances and may change. This presentation should not be regarded as giving any form of financial or investment advice. You should not make your decision on the basis of this recording alone. If you have any doubts whether the product is suitable for your needs, you should contact a financial adviser for advice.

When you get around to thinking about your finances, what sort of things spring to mind?

A mortgage or car loan? Looking after the family? Paying the bills? Probably not pensions, though.

But the fact is that tomorrow comes around sooner than most of us think…

So where do you begin?

First, find out what you already have, and what you could have when you retire. Your annual pension statement can help here.

There’s the State Pension, of course……

For a single person, the current full State Pension for the 2026/2027 tax year is full new State Pension is £241.30 per week. You need to have made 35 years National Insurance contributions to get this. Wouldn’t want to live on that? Maybe not. So, what other money would you have to live on?

Think about any money you’re saving in a bank or ISA. Factor that in.

Next, if you have a workplace pension, check how much is being paid in each month.

The benefit of a workplace pension is that you will normally be eligible for tax relief from the government on your personal contributions. So, if you're a basic rate tax payer, every £100 which goes into your pension will cost you £80 from your post-tax pay. This tax relief is limited to the amount you earn in the tax year, or the level of the Annual Allowance whichever is lower.

Next, think about what you’re going to need when you’ve finished working.

To help with retirement planning visit our website. You'll find videos, calculators and online tools. Our Shape My Future tool can help you get an idea what your future could look like, and what you can do to make changes now.

Think about whether you can afford to save some extra money from your salary. Putting aside just a little now could still make a big difference later.

You need to remember that your pension money is invested to try and help it grow – and, as with any investment, the value can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you put in.

That’s why it’s important to keep a close eye on the value of your pension and other investments.

If you want to join or make changes to your workplace pension just get in touch with your employer.

So in summary, find out what you’ve already got; plan how much you might need - and then take action

And remember, however busy you may be right now it’s worth taking time out to think about your future while there’s still time to make a difference to it.

Tax and state benefits shown are for the 2026/2027 tax year. They depend on your individual circumstances and may change. This presentation should not be regarded as giving any form of financial or investment advice. You should not make your decision on the basis of this recording alone. If you have any doubts whether the product is suitable for your needs, you should contact a financial adviser for advice. 

You’re getting closer to your selected retirement age which means more freedom to do the things you enjoy.

To make the most of this new stage in your life you need to give some thought to your options, needs and goals. So, where do you begin?

First, find out what you already have, and what you could have when you retire. There’s the state pension, of course.

Chances are, your workplace pension pot will also play a big part in planning the kind of future you’d want for yourself.

There are a number of ways to take your money, such as: taking all the money as cash; taking it as a guaranteed regular income, or perhaps taking it as a more flexible income as and when you need to.

This is the current weekly state pension for a single person. You need to have 35 years National Insurance Contributions to get this much, which is the full amount. Wouldn’t want to live on that? Maybe not.

So, what other money could you have to live on?

Think about any money you’re saving in a bank or building society account, or an ISA. Factor that in.

Before you make a decision on how to take money from your pension pot, you need to get a clear idea of how much you have there, and how it’s invested.

If you want more help thinking about pensions and retirement, a good place to begin is MoneyHelper, the government-backed free guidance service.

If you are over 50 you can use the Pension Wise service, from MoneyHelper, online or by phone on 0800 138 3944. They offer a free face to face or telephone guidance session.

They won’t tell you what you should do, but they’ll provide you with information to help you understand your options.

For more tailored advice, you should speak to a financial adviser. Bear in mind they may charge a fee for this advice. If you don’t have an adviser, you can find an up-to-date list of regulated advisers at MoneyHelper https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensionsand-retirement/taking-your-pension/find-a-retirement-adviser

You can access MoneyHelper online at http://www.moneyhelper.org.uk or by phone on 0800 011 3797.

Tax and state benefits shown are for the 2023-2024 tax year. They depend on your individual circumstances and may change in the future. This presentation should not be regarded as giving any form of financial or investment advice. You should not base your decision on the basis of this recording alone. The value of your pension can go down as well as up and you could get back less than the amount paid in.

Salary Exchange – What does this mean?

When you pay into a workplace pension, one way to do this is for your pension contribution to be deducted from your salary - this receives tax relief, ...but you pay national insurance on the contribution amount.

Another way is with salary exchange – this means your pension contributions are taken before you pay national insurance and income tax, ...so you pay less national insurance and income tax on your remaining salary.. Let’s have a look at a payslip to see how it works.

For example, say you have a before tax salary of £24,000 and you put £1200 (5%) a year of your salary into your pension without the salary exchange option.

As you can see, you actually only pay £960 a year into your pension, as you get 20% tax relief from the government, so that makes up the £1200 total going into your pension a year. (This doesn’t include any employer contribution).

Ater your pension, tax and national insurance have been deducted, your take home pay here gives you: £18,895.84 a year.

If you were to take the salary exchange option and you put: £1,411.76 a year into your pension, this means your salary is lower - so you pay less on income tax and national insurance. This means your take home pay is the same and you get £211.76 more going into your savings.

Your employer will save too, as they won’t have to pay national insurance on the amount that goes into your pension. Employers may even pass their NI savings onto you - meaning more money going into your savings.

If you are a higher rate taxpayer, you’ll get tax relief on your contributions immediately, so you won’t have to reclaim this through your tax return.

You will need to be aware though that since your monthly salary will be less, this could effect your entitlement to the State Pension, Statutory Maternity Pay or Life Cover.

Like any financial decision, salary exchange is not suitable for everyone, so you should speak to your employer to see how salary exchange could work for you.

If you don’t already have an adviser, you may be able to find one under www.unbiased.co.uk. You may be charged for this advice.

You can also speak to us here at Aviva. We have dedicated advisers on hand to answer your questions and help you decide if this will benefit you enough.

This is a recorded of an actual Market Volatility online seminar, so unfortunately we don't have a transcript.

Excellent. Okay, so the recording has commenced. So firstly, welcome everybody. Thank you for joining the session this morning. So presentation to the members of Affinity Water and this is for our defined contribution or DC pension members. So I'm Paul from Aviva and I'll take us through the slides this morning.
So, as I say, the attendee cameras, microphones are disabled. If you have questions, feel free to put those in the chat. What I'm going to do is do some content. I'll have a look at those, that chat box for any questions, get to as many of those as I can. As I say we're expecting 100 or 130 registered for the call this morning.
This is the first of a series of sessions we're doing for you, and each of those will be recorded and hosted on the microsite. So, you may or may not have seen the scheme microsite already. Don't worry, post this call, everybody that's registered, regardless of attendance, will get a post-session follow-up e-mail.
And in that e-mail, I've just put a few links, and one of those links will be the scheme microsite. So, if you've not seen that already, then you'll have access to that after the session. So, with 130 on the call, we might get some a bit of kind of people might lose audio and things like that, so just drop off, come back in.
That should normally fix your issues. Otherwise, rest assured, recorded version of this will be on the microsite, as I say. So welcome. So Paul from Aviva and I'm working in our communications and engagement team. So that team exists partly to help members of our pension schemes, understand those schemes and the choices and options are presented with whilst they are members of those schemes. So happy to take us through the slides, get to as many of those questions as I can. Just have to be clear that my role is not about providing individual member financial advice. So let's have a look at the slide then. So you might already have an advisor.
great. If not, as we go through the content, you feel you might need some advice. So link on the slides there. One of those routes into that world of financial advice. And the only thing I need to add here is if we go through advice, there is a cost to financial advice. We will just touch on the last two bullets.
So the third one is about content for this afternoon, based on our understanding of current pensions and tax rules. Rules are always changing, so we're aware of some of those changes that are upcoming. If you've got specific questions on that, I can take those. But certainly the content this morning is based on current tax rules and pensions and our understanding of those.
Investment risk. I will touch on investments a bit later in this content. And actually in that programme events I've mentioned, we've got another session that does focus a little bit more on investments. So for here, it's just that reminder, when we're putting money into pensions, that money will be invested. It will rise and fall on a daily basis with no guarantee.
And actually, the scheme I'm looking at today with you is invested, and that's no different to the previous way your investments worked, that up and down in value. But we'll show you how the new investments work this morning.
So for the agenda today then, we've got what is changing and probably as important is what's not changing, how does the pension work, and at the end there we've got the next steps and timeline. So I'll just lay out what's going to happen and when and what kind of action you might need to take in that journey. So I'll go through that.
towards the end of the content then. I think we've advertised the session at 45 minutes and certainly no more than 45 minutes worth of content this morning. It just depends kind of what questions we get as we go through the content on the chat. So I'm going to let the next slide just drop in, but I think I've just not, I noticed a question already in the chat, which is good.
Okay, so will both my active affinity DC pension and my deferred affinity pension, okay, combined with Aviva, will I get a written confirmation of the value of the funds before and after the transfer? Okay, so that's very relevant. Great question. Let me get to the timeline. I'm going to park any of those kind of questions until we get to the timeline and then I'll be able to kind of clearly show you how that will work. So let's start with the changing.
and hopefully this is going to be familiar to you. So just pointing out this slide is provided by your employer. So Affinity Water pension plan is changing, the pension admin provider and investment manager. So the current arrangement has legal and general, manage the investments with Hyman's Robertson providing the admin services,
So this change only affects the DC or defined contribution members and Aviva is now our new bundled pension provider. This means both the admin investment plan will now be managed by Aviva. So when we look at the what's not changing,
The level of contributions paid by you and Affinity, and finally the trustees of the scheme are not changing, so effectively what we can say is nobody's leaving the scheme, nobody's joining the scheme, all that's happening is under the bonnet, the admin and the investments are changing. So the people that run the scheme, the people that oversee the scheme for you, the trustees remaining in place, they've just gone through this review and decided things might need a bit of an upgrade. They've gone through that review, taken some advice, and that's where we're ending up today.
So, what about workplace pensions? How do they work?
So the first slide really talks a bit kind of generic, at that kind of generic level, because what we know, the pension, how that works, isn't changing. It's just the admin underneath and the investment. So the first slide here allows me to kind of go through a bit of that kind of overview, and then as we go through, we'll drill into a bit of the detail of it.
So, great way to save, could be through your company pension, and we just list those reasons below. So, true of previous arrangement, true of current, or the newer arrangement.
Tax efficient way to save. So people say pensions are great, they're tax efficient. What does that actually mean? Those tax efficiencies come in three main ways. Tax relief on my contribution, that top up from HMRC. The investments themselves grow in that very tax efficient way. No tax deducted on the growth.
And when we come to access some of the money, we'll add some of that money back tax-free and some of it is taxable. And actually, if we just go back to that programme of events we've got, we're going to run one in a bit more detail on the retirement income options as well.
We know Affinity Water pays in and those contributions aren't changing. The scheme is run by a trustee board who's been appointed by your employer. That trustee board is not changing. These are your pension savings, so if at some point in the future you decide to leave your employer, if you go and work somewhere else, that new employer is going to put you in a new pension scheme.
The money you build up here, the money you accrue is yours. If you want to pick that up and transfer it to another pension scheme, any other registered pension scheme, you can do that anytime. Just need to let us know. Should you do that, no cost, no penalty for transferring that money away.
Under the flexibility then, you can choose how much you contribute into the scheme. You can choose where you invest if you want to. You don't have to. There's a default solution. I'm going to show you that in one moment. And you can choose when you access your pension savings. So when you can access them is not controlled
by your trustees or your employer. This is just a rule set by the government, this minimum pension age. So today, anybody that's 55 and above is allowed to access this type of pension saving. They don't need to stop working, they don't need to stop saving, they don't need to retire. They are allowed access from 55. And as we can see from the slide, hat age will increase from 55 to 57 in April 2028.
So in a nutshell, from a member perspective, it's nothing more complicated than this. Both Affinity Water and I will make those pension contributions. That money gets invested in my pension pot. That pension pot will be invested, so the money there will rise and fall on a daily basis.
Some charges are deducted to run the scheme. I can show you those specifically in the investment section. And as we heard already from 55 and above, if I choose to, I can start accessing some or all of my pension scheme.
So I say we won't go into the detail of those income options this morning. Later sessions we'll go into them in far greater detail, but I will just summarise them here. So the way in which pensions work today, we're allowed some of that money back tax-free, as you might be aware. Typically up to 25% of your pot will be tax-free, with the remaining 75% designed to be your income or your pension for the rest of your life. With that 75% it is taxed as income and broadly there are three ways you can take that money. You don't need to pick one or other, you can mix and match.
That might be taken as cash, that might be taken as a secure income for life through an annuity, excuse me, or it might take it on a flexible way through drawdown. So the way we access those benefits, we might need to transfer to another type of scheme to access those options. And again, in that later session, we can talk about that.
So within my next section, I will just talk about the investments and how they work. And when we talk investments, sometimes there's that fear about them, you know, the lack of understanding or the complexity of it. So we'll start this section by saying you don't need to. There is a default investment solution. Just had another question coming there. Yes, it is being recorded. Thank you.
Okay, so let's have a little think about investments.
So when we pay the money into the pension account, that money does get invested and the reason we invest that is to hopefully provide that growth over the longer term.
How does it actually work? When I put my money in, I'm putting money into a pension fund. That pension fund invests that money. And the value of that investment will change on a day-to-day basis. How that change in value is reflected is a changing unit price. So when I put my money in, I just buy some units in that pension fund.
And that unit price will change daily, and if I wanted to, I could track that literally on a day-to-day basis through my online account.
But it's the kind of information you'll get on an annual statement. And then when we start to think about investments, the next step really is just to appreciate there's that relationship between risk and reward, a pension fund that might be at the high level of that risk and reward relationship. We might hope or expect a greater potential for growth on the understanding we're carrying a greater degree of investment risk.
So risk and reward. And then just to start, to consider the next step from there is where does that pension fund actually invest my money?
So typically, a pension fund doesn't put all your money in a stock market. It will invest in a range of assets. And we've got the main four investment types on the slide in their risk return order. So over here on the left, we've got money markets, typically lower level of risk and volatility with that lower level of potential return.
And we might think, well, lower level of risk is good, but if we're thinking about pensions being a long-term investment, perhaps limiting my returns over the longer term might not be a good thing because of the impacts of inflation over that longer term.
Stepping up, we've got fixed interest, so gilts and bonds, property and equity shares. So from the slide now, if we just picked a fund that's more invested to the right hand side, we can understand that's at the higher level of risk and return and at the left hand side, the lower level of risk and return. So actually within the scheme, there'll be lots of funds that you can choose from if you want to, and say within the investment session, I'll go through those in a little bit more detail.
For here, really, the message is there's lots of choice for those that want it, but where you start and stay is the default or chosen for your approach unless you choose to make an active decision. So for the new investments, for the new platform within Aviva, That default solution is called the My Future Focus Drawdown approach. So that default solution is not unique for Affinity Water. It's actually a solution that can be used across many, many Aviva workplace pension schemes.
And what that default solution wants to do is simply automatically manage your investments in the run-up to retirement, and at scheme level, has simply been decided it will suit most of the members most of the time.
What it will attempt to do is reduce your exposure to risk and volatility as you get closer and closer to retirement. I have to say no guarantees, but that's what I'll try to do. More details in the brochure. Remember, I'll show you where the brochures are in that scheme microsite shortly. So again, just looking at the name of the solution then, this My Future Focus Drawdown approach.
Doesn't mean I have to do the drawdown option at retirement; all the options still remain in place for me.
Okay, so I've said this solution will try and reduce my exposure to risk and volatility. How do I do that?
Well actually the solution is made-up of three different investment pension funds and we've got this lifestyle or glide path approach where over 15 years the money in my account will slowly transition between a long-term growth through into a growth and finishing that Drawdown approach solution.
That happens automatically.
So month on month, some of the money invested in my account, some of my distribution will move across those three different funds on that glide path approach.
Okay, I think I've got some questions coming through. So let me just have a look. So how long has the default option been an active fund for? What's the actual average return? Okay, so I can answer both those questions at the end of the slides. What I'll do is I'll come out and show you some more detail. But that's the kind of question we'd expect in the investment session. But I'm absolutely happy to do that at the end today.
Why has the drawdown fund been selected as the default? Yeah, good, fair question. So at scheme level, what Affinity Water have done is they've taken external advice from people that day-to-day do this kind of advice. They'll understand the scheme profile and make recommendations on what they feel will be the
best fit for most of those members. So it's an advice level at a scheme level. I already have a deferred DC fund with Aviva from a previous employer. Will this account stay separate to my new Affinity Aviva DC pension fund? That's a nice easy one to answer. Yes, it will stay separate.
unless you decide to take some action and you choose to consolidate those. So I'll perhaps talk about that again when we look at the timeline.
So this then is that default approach. So this is where I'll be unless I make some active decisions. And again, I'll do an investment session later on and we'll go into that a bit more detail.
So we mentioned Aviva will charge to set up and run the plan. That charge is expressed as an annual percentage. So that's a percentage of my fund value rather than what I've paid in. So if we stay within the default solution, that total cost is 0.21% of my fund value.
So what does that mean in pounds and pence? Well, if I've got £10,000 invested of the whole year, that's £21. If I've got £100,000 invested of the whole year, that's £210. There's no other costs or charges. So if you're familiar with investments and pensions, you might be aware of things like fund manager charges and platform manager charges, which add it all together.
Make it nice and easy to understand. 0.21 is the total cost. So I mentioned there are other funds within the range that members can select from if they wish. And we tell you what the lowest fund charge is. And we can see that on the slide there at the 0.15%. Whole range of charges, whole range of funds with a whole range of charges.
And again, all of that information is nice and transparent in the brochures and available on the app on the online account once we're up and running.
Okay, so let me have a look at next steps and the timeline there.
Okay, so again, hopefully some of this will be familiar to you in the communications you've seen already, but it's a good chance just for me to talk through about the process. So when the scheme is implemented, lots of what happens is automatic, but there are a couple of points where we think you might
Want to take some action, or you should take some action, so we'll definitely call them out on this timeline here. So, second of March, launch of the Aviva platform. So, remember, nobody's joining or leaving the scheme, which is under the bonnet doing that upgrade and launching the Aviva platform, so automatically members will be enrolled, if you like, or moved to the new platform. Automatically, all future pension contributions will be paid to that Aviva platform.
So, to give you that account details, we need to send you some details. So, those details will be sent to you early March. Some of that will come as an e-mail, and that will include your plan number and details of how to register your account online, and some of that by legislation we need to send in the post and that's just called your member confirmation statement. So at that point, what we want you to do is register for your online account, which is My Workplace. So the question we had earlier about an existing pension, you might already have some online account registration details. They'll still work. You can still use those.
Cheque and update your account details, including your EOW. What's EOW? It's your expression of wish or your death benefit nominations. What we want to do is use this exercise as a chance to re-update all of that information. So we want you to go online and update your expression of wish. Which is your death benefit nomination forms.
And if you can see at this point in the timeline, effectively, we're still a member of two pension schemes. My new contributions have been coming across to the Aviva platform and I've got the new account details, but my existing money, my existing savings have still been invested on the old platform. They're not frozen.
So they'll continue to go up and down in value in line with those investment returns. May is the key next date then. So your existing Affinity Warter to DC pension savings will be transferred to the new Aviva platform. Look out for more details close to that date. So we will be sweeping up all of the money within that previous Affinity Water plan. So if you have active and deferred, all of that will be swept up for you, consolidated and moved across to the Aviva platform. And again, we're going to provide more details and the trustees will provide more details on how that will work and any choices and options that you might want to take nearer the time. So today what we're focused on is the launch of the platform and what actions we need to take. So if we think about that, what do I need to do when I get the e-mail or post confirmation with my new account number?
I need to register on that online, and when you go to the web page, it might say, "Have you got an activation code?" We don't. What we need to do is just scroll down that page and register without the activation code, because it'll ask your plan number, and that's the plan number we're going to send you on the e-mail.
and in the post. And once I've registered, what do I need to do? Well, within that online platform, I need to go and nominate my death beneficiaries, make sure that's done, and I can review and update that at any time.
Okay, let me have a look. So when can I change the monthly contributions? So none of that admin process is changing. All of that will continue. I believe there's a paper form that we're going to put onto your web app microsite, download that, send it into payroll, and all of that will continue in the usual way.
Will investment decisions in the current scheme be carried across to the new platform? Okay, so that's where we're getting to the May look out for more information. There'll be some decisions to be made about what you've got in the old platform and how you want that to be transitioned across. So here,
We'll just talk about the new contributions and if you join one of those investment sessions, you can decide if you don't want that default solution. So there will be a window of opportunity between the first contributions being deducted from your payroll and them arriving in within the Aviva scheme. So for that small group, that small population that don't want to pick the default solution, they can do that if they want to do that.
Can I withdraw my funds in specific occasions, moving abroad, for example? If not, can I transfer the funds to a company pension abroad? Okay, so great questions. We're going all over the place. That's fine. So you've got to just be aware of that timeline about when the transition completes, if you're thinking about moving, transferring or moving overseas.
So again, kind of pension rules in general aren't changing. So those decisions remain constant. So if I am retiring or moving overseas, then broadly speaking, under pension legislation, I've got two options. I can pick up that accumulated pension pot and move it to my country of residence. There are very strict rules around that.
and they're dictated by HMRC. So if you visit the HMRC website, there's a section about what they call QROPS, which is Qualifying Retirement Overseas Pension Schemes. That's the list of schemes that any UK pension provider is allowed to transfer to overseas schemes. So you're looking for QROPS, Qualifying Retirement Overseas Pension Schemes.
That's one option. Your other option is to retain that money within the UK environment and when you come to retirement age, have the income or the cash transferred to your country of residency. So that doesn't change. That's still consistent between your current plan and the New Aviva plan.
If you have a Aviva DC pension and consolidate with this one, will there be any fees incurred as it's Aviva to Aviva? So it's one of those questions where I have to say probably not, but it just depends where that old Aviva scheme is. If it's an old workplace pension savings, then no, there will be no fee on the way out and no fee on the way into the new Aviva platform. And within that online account, my workplace, there's just a little button there that says I've got another Pension I want to transfer it in. And that will work if you've got an Aviva scheme or a non-Aviva scheme. But there are pros and cons to think about that transfer.
decision, that consolidation decision, and again, they're laid out on the app on that journey.
If I have a DB pension, is there any plans to transfer this to the Aviva platform in the future? I can only tell you what I know from the trustees at the moment. No plans to change anything on the defined benefit scheme. That would remain as is. We're just talking about the DC benefits at the moment.
Okay, so I think I've done the questions and the timeline. I'm just going to pop this slide in here. And whenever I talk to members, it's just good to remind members about some of the risks. And one of the risks we're talking about here is pension scams. And I think whenever there's a change going on, perhaps we're more susceptible. We might be expecting an e-mail or a call or a text or a WhatsApp, whatever it might be.
So just be particularly aware at this point. You know, if someone's contacting you with a free pension review, is it a hook into a scam? Someone says, I can help you get your money out before 55. Well, we're saying that's against the rules. So hook into a scam. Or these guaranteed investment opportunities, again, potentially a hook into a scam. So just be particularly aware of that kind of approach at the moment. If you're ever not sure, then speak to your Affinity Water, HR Pensions team, or as I say, I'll get you the Aviva Microsite on the follow-up e-mail. Speak to Aviva just to double check any of that. I am just going to launch a poll in the chat. If you can do a little bit of that, that will be really helpful just to understand how the session has landed this morning. I'm going to move forward to the next slide here, but I know I'm just going to come back to the question we had on investments in a moment.
So if you feel you've got all you needed from the call this morning, thank you for your time. Feel free, drop off, disconnect. We do have time still for questions through the chat.
And remember, everybody that's registered will get the post session e-mail with some useful links, the link to the microsite, the brochures, the documents. And I'll show you that in just a moment for those that do want to stay on while I close the slides and the recording. So if you are dropping off, have a look out for that post session e-mail. It'll be in your inbox later today.
And remember, we've got those other sessions you're more than welcome to drop into. I can't see any more questions coming through in the chat, so at this point I'm going to stop the recording.

Registering for MyWorkplace

In this short demonstration I will show you how to access your pension policy online using MyWorkplace. MyWorkplace is very similar to an online banking site but for your workplace pension, and it allows you to access information as well as make material changes to your details, including your retirement age, your beneficiaries, and your investment instructions.

To register, simply download the app to your smart device and follow the on screen prompts.

If you have been sent an activation code, key it in in order to get started, if not, press, create an account at the bottom of the screen. Next, fill in your personal details, including your email address, choose a password and enter your date of birth. From here, if your smart device is biometric or facial technology, you can associate your fingerprint or face to the password you've just chosen.

This will then ensure that you be able to enter MyWorkplace with a simple look or touch of the screen moving forward. Once you've completed this short registration, you'll notice that your policy details are locked. In order to unlock the full features of the app, you will therefore need to complete a further short verification process. You can do this by either answering some additional questions about your pension or uploading ID.

To do this, simply upload an image of either your passport or photographic driver's license. And record a short facial video as instructed. Our verification software will then ensure that the to tally and notify you once complete. Once you've unlocked your policy, you'll be able to view and transact online. So that's it, to register, visit aviva.co.uk/myworkplace or scan the QR code on screen.

Alternatively, download the MyWorkplace app to your smart device. It's free to download, mobile data charges may apply.

Updating your investments

In this short demonstration, I will show you how to change where your pension plan is invested. When logged into MyWorkplace click on the name of your pension. To change where your pension plan is invested, tap “more from your pension” in the details tab.

From here you'll be able to change your investments, see the fund and program options available to you, as well as access investment tools and further investment content. If you would like to switch from one fund to another, simply tap on change investments to make that switch. You will then be prompted to choose the fund or fund options you would like to switch from before being presented with a list of all of the other fund options available to you.

Simply tap on the name of the fund or funds you would like to switch to and confirm what percentage you would like to allocate to each fund. You'll be able to review your changes before you submit them through.

So that's it. To access further information about your investment choices and change your investment instructions, visit aviva.co.uk/myworkplace or scan the QR code on screen. Alternatively, download the MyWorkplace app to your smart device. It's free to download, mobile data charges may apply.

Introducing our Pension Forecaster

In this short demonstration, I will show you how to use our retirement forecaster.

Once logged into MyWorkplace, click on the name of your pension plan. To access our retirement forecaster, visit the “more from your pension” section and find the relevant prompt.

The forecaster is based on a number of assumptions and aims to give you a rough idea as to what kind of yearly income you could get back at retirement in today's monetary terms. The Pension, Lifetime and Savings Association have produced some financial benchmarks as to what constitutes a minimum, moderate and comfortable standard of living in retirement. And you'll note that we have included these figures next to your yearly projection for reference purposes.

These benchmarks could help you to determine what kind of retirement you could be on track to achieve. Alternatively, you could set your very own income target by accessing the “your target” prompt and using the template provided to record all of your outgoings. By recording how and where you spend your money, could help you to determine how much you are likely to need in order to maintain your lifestyle.

Once done the forecaster will compare your projected yearly income amount against your very own individual target, so you can see just how on track you are. If you'd like to explore any further scenarios to see what difference adding further pension plans, changing your retirement age or increasing or decreasing what you pay in could make, simply click on the “explore changes” prompt in order to do so.

So that's it, to access our pension forecaster, visit aviva.co.uk/myworkplace or scan the QR code on screen. Alternatively, download the MyWorkplace app onto your smart device. It's free to download, mobile data charges may apply.

Transferring a pension

In this short demonstration I will show you how to transfer a pension plan to Aviva.

When logged into MyWorkplace click on the name of your pension. Tap on the relevant prompt within the “manage tab”. Before proceeding we do strongly recommend that you weigh up the pros and cons of transferring the pension plan and contact a financial advisor if you have any concerns or require any additional support.

If you are ready to go ahead however, tap request a transfer.

From here you will need to tell us more about the pension policy you would like to transfer in, including who it is currently with, its policy number and it’s approximate value. Moving to the next step, we will highlight what fund the money you're looking to transfer over will be invested in once it is received. This will mirror the investment instructions on file for your regular contributions.

Assuming you are comfortable with this tap next to proceed, we will then playback the information to you. Please read through the information carefully before proceeding. Once your request has been received, we will send you a confirmation receipt by email and deal directly with your other pension provider to move your pension over.

So that's it. To transfer in a pension plan visit aviva.co.uk/myworkplace or scan the QR code on screen. Alternatively, download the MyWorkplace app onto your smart device. It's free to download, mobile data charges may apply.

Nominating a beneficiary

In this short demonstration, I will show you how to update your beneficiaries. When logged into MyWorkplace click on the name of your pension. To manage your beneficiaries, scroll down to the relevant prompt within the Manage section.

From here you'll be able to add, amend or remove a beneficiary. To add a beneficiary, simply key in their personal details and decide what percentage of your pot you would like to allocate them. It's possible to nominate up to three people online, if you would like to nominate more than three people, a non-UK resident or a charity, please contact the helpline for further assistance.

Once complete, we will play back the information to you and if you are happy to proceed with your beneficiary submissions, we will update your file with your new instructions.

So that's it, visit aviva.co.uk/myworkplace or scan the QR code on screen to manage your beneficiaries. Alternatively, you can download the My Workplace app. It's free to download on both Apple and Android devices, mobile data charges may apply.

Morning.

So for the duration of the recording, what I'll do is I'll leave the attendee cameras, microphones on disabled. If you have questions as we go through, pop those on the chat. What I'll do is I'll do some content, have a little look at the chat for questions and then get back into content.
So this is actually the second in a series of launch presentations we're doing. The first ones were just about launched and the timeline that's been recorded. That recording will find its way onto the microsite. So if you want to watch that one back, then you'll be able to do that. Similarly, I'm going to record this one. This one will.
Find its way onto the microsite and there are another couple of sessions still to come in a series of launch presentations as well. So I'm Paul from Aviva working in the Communications and Engagement team and that team exists partly to help members of our pension schemes understand those schemes and the choices and options they're presented with while the members of the scheme. So happy to take us through the slides this morning, answer as many questions as I can. Just have to be absolutely clear, my role is not about providing individual member financial advice. So as we go through, you might feel we need some advice.
You might already have your own advisor. Great. If not, we've got a link on the slides there, one of those links into that world of advice. And the only thing I need to add about that is if we do go through the advice process, there's a cost for financial advice. Let me just touch on the last two bullets on the slide. So this presentation this morning is based on our understanding of current pensions and tax rules, last one there, investment risk. So we've got a lot more content this morning about investments. So for here, just that reminder, when we put money into pensions, that money does get invested, it will rise and fall on a daily basis with no guarantee.
But to be clear, what we'll talk about today in the new Aviva platform, the way that investment works is no different to the way your previous investments work in terms of that that investment risk. But this morning clearly we've got lots more information and detail about those investments.
That's where we're going today. So for the agenda then we've got a little bit on how does your plan work. If you join that earlier session, a couple of those slides there will be a repeat. So apologies for that, but just give us that kind of base level of understanding.
Before we go into the investments and investment options and again look back at the timeline and again some of that is familiar, but I'll be more specific around investment options within that timeline. I think we've advertised these sessions out at 45 minutes. I don't see us going that long this morning. I think we've got less than 45 minutes worth of content, but plenty of time for questions on the chat and we've got multilingual on the chat coming through as well. OK, so I will keep an eye on that chat box for questions. Chat box for questions, I should say. OK, so where to start? So what about workplace pensions? How do they work?
And so if you joined one of those earlier sessions, this slide will certainly be familiar to you, but it's a good slide. It just enables me to talk through the basics of the company pension scheme. So great way to save through the scheme. Why is that? Well, we've got those reasons listed below.
So tax efficient way to save. So those tax efficiencies come in three main ways. Tax relief on our contributions, tax efficient growth and when we come to access some of that money, we're allowed some of that money back tax free.
We know Affinity Water pay into the scheme as well, and the scheme is run by trustees appointed by your employer. So just to look back really, if you did join one of those earlier sessions, we went through what's changing and what's not changing.
And in terms of what's not changing, it's the the trustees of your scheme, the level of contributions, how you make those contributions. None of that is changing on that transition to the Aviva platform and the Aviva investments. It's just that upgrade under the bonnet if you like.
You're savings. So if at some point in the future you decide to leave Affinity Water, you've got this money invested. If you go and work somewhere else, if you want to pick these savings up, transfer them to another register pension scheme, then of course you can do that.
No cost, no fees, no penalties for transferring that money away. You can of course leave the money invested within the scheme, and the key there is it is still invested, so continue to rise and fall in value. They're certainly not frozen in value.

Under the flexibility. Then we can choose how much you contribute.
You can choose where you invest if you want to. Lots of focus there this morning and you choose when you access your pension savings and that age limit is set by the government that minimum pension age. So currently anybody that's 55 or above can have access to those savings. They don't need to stop working, they don't need to stop saving, they don't need to retire, but they can have access. And actually one of the sessions we've got planned later, we'll talk through those options in a bit more detail. We can see that age is increasing from 55 to 57 in April 2028.
So in a nutshell, nothing more complicated than this. Affinity Water and I make those regular contributions. That money gets invested into my pension pot and we know the value there will rise and fall on a daily basis. Charge is deducted to run the scheme. We'll look at those specifically the investments.
In the investment section.

And from 55 and beyond, we can access those savings if we wish. And I don't go into the detail here, but I will summarise it. So broadly up to 25% of that pot you can have tax free.
With the remaining 75% designed to be your income or your pension for the rest of your life, regardless of whichever way you take that 75% is taxed as income. Broadly, there are three options you can use for the 75%. You don't need to have one or the other, you can mix them.
Those three options are all is cash, all as a secure income for life through an annuity or on a flexible drawdown approach. OK, so through the basics, hopefully that's OK. You may have seen that from an earlier session. Nothing on the chat, that's OK. So we're going to go into the investments.
And investment options. And again, I'm just going to start at that kind of basic level. So thinking about pensions and how they work. So we put that money into the pension plan, that money gets invested and the reason we invest that is to hopefully provide that growth over that longer term, when I'm putting my money into the plan, then I'm just buying units in a pension fund. That fund is invested. That changing fund value is reflecting in the changing unit price, so I can track that daily if I want to on my online account.
It will show me how many units I'm holding, what that unit price is today and therefore how much money is invested. And that's the kind of information you'll get on your annual statement as well. OK, so question in the chat, flexible drawdown approach, happy to take it here. As I say, the latest sessions are going into it in more detail.
Flexible drawdown simply means that when I start to access my pension savings, I can leave some of that invested and simply draw down it in a flexible way and ad hoc way. I can choose how much and how often I take I draw from those investments. So that's that's.
Flexible drawdown. That's one of those options you'll have through income options from 55 or beyond. OK, so let's have a little more think about the investments. So try and make it easy so your investment decisions are split between these three columns and moving through these three columns you can do at any time. It's not a one time only decision. So starting off on the left there the the hands off approach.
So if you don't want to choose how to invest your money yourself, this could be right for you. So this will be called the default solution or the hands off, and we'll look at that solution in a bit of detail in one second. So the middle ground then is helping hands. So if you like the idea of a managed approach.
The way in which your money is managed over over time, and perhaps de-risking as you get closer and closer to retirement, then perhaps the helping hands is the one for you. So perhaps you don't think the default solution is right, but you like the idea of a managed solution then we've got the helping hands and I can show you that specifically in a second. And that last column is that hands on for those members that want to be kind of choosing their investments. Again, they can do that as often as they need to. There's no cost or penalty to manage those investments.
And move them between different fund options within their account. So as I say, you can move across these three columns anytime within your online account. OK, so that sets out the framework. Let's just have a little think about how the funds work.
And again, some of this might be familiar from that earlier session, but when we think about investment funds, they are, they're invested. And when we think about those investments, there's that relationship between risk and reward. So a pension fund at the higher level, that risk and reward relationship.
We might hope or expect a greater potential for growth.
On the understand we're carrying a greater degree of investment risk. So a risk and reward relationship exists. And then the next step from there is just to think where that money might actually be invested. So typically a pension fund doesn't invest all your money in the stock market.
Typically it'll invest in a range of assets to give us that spread of risk, that diversification. So what we're looking at now on the slide are the main 4 investment types in their risk and return order. So if we start over here on the left hand side of the slide, money markets.
The type of investments in there are typically a lower level of risk and volatility and it's not like investing or putting money on deposit with a bank because investments in here still can go down in value, but they do have lower level of risk and volatility with that lower level of potential returns. So perhaps not the best place for long-term pension savings because of that risk against inflation. You know, over the longer term, we don't perhaps want to limit our potential return.
Stepping up that relationship, we've got fixed interest, so gilts and bonds, property and finally up into shares. So now picturing a pension fund which is more towards the right hand side, we can see it's at the high level of risk and return and if it's more invested at the left hand side, lower level of risk and return.
So within the plan, there are a whole range of funds which members can select from, and it's not an all or nothing decision. If you want to invest in lots of those funds, you can do that through the online account. And then if you decide to move money from this fund to that fund, you can manage that online and there's no cost to move money from one fund to another fund. To help members understand that choice, we'll put those funds on a scale of risk. Our scale of risk goes from 1 to 7. So one is the lower level of risk and return, and I'll say that scale goes right through to seven, and that's the highest level of risk and return.
And within the online account, you'll have funds across that risk spectrum. And as I say you can, you can invest in any number of those funds across any number of those risk levels if you wish. But as we started the session, it said, you know there is the default solution.
So the chosen for your hands off, that's that left hand column is the chosen for you hands off approach, which for our affinity water scheme is my future focus drawdown. So we have the question there about what is drawdown.
Just because the default solution is called drawdown, we don't have to access our money at retirement in that way. All of the retirement income options remain an option. So the default solution automatically manages investments in the run up to retirement, and it's been simply designed to suit the majority or members most of the time, so at scheme level, Affinity Water has taken some advice from external parties and that advice has led them to conclude that the My Future Focus drawdown approach would be most appropriate for most of the members. So we've still got those options around that.
So it says it wants to manage your investments in the run up to retirement. So how does it do that? Well, we've got this lifestyling or glide path approach where the money in my account will actually move across these three different pension funds on this 15 year glide path.
So we can see from the slide there, if we're 15 years or more away from our retirement age, that year zero, all of the money is invested in the long-term growth. Then we move through growth and then into drawdown. Remember our scale of one to seven, what's actually happening here?
Is the long term growth is a 5 moving into growth which is 4 and we finish in the drawdown which is a three. So we're reducing that exposure risk and volatility automatically over that that 15 year glide path.
So one of the things we do need to be aware of is this year zero, and that year zero is picked for you at an individual level within the scheme. So one of the things I'll encourage you to do when you when you get access to your online account is just log in and double check that that that year zero for you and it'll be your retirement age. That's not when you have to retire. You can take your money sooner or later than that year 0. But there's two key things that year 0 does. Firstly, it's driving the 15 year glide path and secondly, when you log into your account or we send you the annual statement and we're saying this is the amount of money we project in retirement that's been projected to your year 0, your scheme retirement age. So within your account, you can reposition that year zero and we can see that I'll do two things. Firstly, it's going to shift this investment glide path either forward or backwards.
And it'll update those projections, those forecasts of benefits. Remember, you remain complete control over when and how you take your money out. So my future focus target drawdown is the default approach. That was the left-hand column we looked at with the three kind of investment decisions and the key here is this program is is either on or off. So what does that mean? If it's on, all of the money within my pension account must follow the glide path.
So I cannot do any self-select options while the system has the glide path switched on. So if I'm thinking about managing my investments, picking my own investments, then the first thing I need to do, the first step is to switch this off, which then opens up the ability to self-select if I want to.
And within that self select range, these funds are part of those options. So if I wanted to pick the long term growth or the future growth or the the drawdown solution, then I can pick that as part of my mix of the self select fund options. And again, if we are self selecting, one of the things we would suggest you do is regularly review that.
And just keep making sure the investments you're picking remain right and relevant for the investments that you want to do. One more, sorry, a couple more slides in this section and then I'll come out and do some other things for you to have a look at.
So firstly the charges. So as mentioned earlier, there's a charge to set up and run your account. That charge is expressed as an annual percentage of the money you've got invested. So if we are staying within the default solution, that total cost.
Is 0.21% of the money I've got invested. So not how much I've paid in, but what my actual pot size is. So what does that mean? If I've got £10,000 invested, £21 for the year. If I've got £100,000 invested for the year, it's £210.
So if I'm going off piste, if I'm picking my own funds, they've all got their own level of cost. I can show you how we find those in a second. And on the slide here we tell you the the lowest one, the cheapest one, and that's the 0.15%. So where can we find this detail? Well, I'll show you that in the brochure, the guidebook in one second.
And
OK. Last slide in this section is the online tools and we're introducing the microsite because that's where I'm going to go now and show you some of the information to help you think about and if you're researching your own funds and investments.
So what I'm going to do is stop sharing slides for a moment. While that happens, then I do lose sight of the question box, but I will come back to that in one second when I reload the slides in just a moment. So I'm going to load up.
A page.
On there, let me just see if I can share that.
There we go.
OK, so the first web page I've loaded up is your scheme microsite, so hopefully this is already familiar to you. Don't worry if it's not, there is a post session e-mail that goes to everybody with some links and this is one of the links you're going to get, but it's going to have lots of details on your scheme.
Um videos.
More details and at the bottom here I want to get to the contact us. So we've got how do we contact Aviva? How do we contact your pensions team? I'm just going to quickly scroll back up to the top and under here we've got a drop down box.
So member videos, that's where I requested the launch video to go, but actually already there's a whole host of videos to help you manage your online account. And within the document section there are some brochures and details and I've opened up one of those here. Let's just take that to the top.
Which is your scheme investment guide. So that's already live. It's on your account. As you can see, it's it's a 28 page document, so I'm not going to go through all of it here, but what I do want to do is call out some of the bits that are key to us.
So how is the money invested? Well, from the slides we saw the hands off, the helping hands and the hands on. And again this brochure will give that, give us that detail, give us that information in more detail I should say. So hands off first of all is that 15 year glide path that we've looked at.
Through long-term growth, growth and into drawdown. So we're familiar with that one.
What it's also going to do here is confirm the charges that we've looked at and the 543, the risk ranking for those funds that make up that default solution. So then as we move through the helping hand option, so these are that middle ground.
And so we've got other programs. So you remember I said that if you like the idea of a managed solution, so here slightly different and one here targeting cash. So if I want to do cash at retirement, there's a solution for that.
If I felt I want to do annuity, I could do that. And here we've actually got a Shariah program. So for those members that want to or need to invest in a particular way to align with their beliefs, there's a Shariah investment program.
And again, we've got details there and again we've got the the fund details and the costs of those different investment funds that make up those solutions.
And as we get towards the end of the brochure, we're going to get the hands on and so I'm just going to flick quickly through it through this bit and we're going to get that confirmation of risk ranking one to seven.
OK, so this is where we've got the entire list of the Self Select funds. I'm just going to make this a bit bigger and we can see we start at 7, but hopefully as I hover over this, you can see online that if I view this brochure as an online document, each of these fund names is hyperlinked.
And that hyperlink will take me to a fund fact sheet. And I've just downloaded some of these just to show you what they look like. So for those members that want to do, we're going to go, let me just get rid of that.
That individual fund selection, what you might want to do is do some research on those funds so we can research the fund fact sheets. Whenever I share a fund fact sheet, I have to just stress this is historic information, so it's not a guide to future performance. These fund fact sheets update monthly so we can track unit prices daily.
But a fund fact sheet is monthly. So what will a fund fact sheet do? Well, firstly, it's going to confirm what the fund manager aim is, what are they trying to achieve? It's given us some stats on the fund, confirms that risk ranking on that one to seven scale. So where does this one sit? I'm actually going to make that, try and make that a bit bigger so we can see it. That's better.
Risk warning. So we've got some yeses and nos, so we've got to come back to those in just a second. So we've got some specific risk factors on this fund we need to be aware of. Then we've got some past performance, so we've got some year on year discrete performance.
And some cumulative performance. So what happened just a few years ago is Aviva reviewed some of its default solutions. So that's why there's only a three-year historic performance here, but there was some back testing to show how how they performed over that history.
So we've got the discrete year on year performance and also the squiggly line to show us how that's doing against the benchmark. And then as we scroll further down the brochure or this document, I should say we've got the asset allocation, so equities, bonds.
How is that invested? And then the top 10 holdings. So some companies that you may have heard of Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon within that that fund. Sector breakdown, so technology, financials, etcetera, a geographical focus or breakdown rather.
And when we have those yeses or nos, those risk warnings, it tells us specifically what those risk warnings mean and are relative to this particular fund. So for all of those funds you've got access to, now you can start doing that research if you want to.
Through these online brochures and fund fact sheets. So just flicking back to the brochure, that gives us all the fund options and then for each of those fund options we'll have the level of cost. And if we're seeing two figures like that, we'd need to add those together to get the total cost.
And each one of those is hyperlinked, so we can dig into the detail, the historic information on that fund performance. OK, I'm just going to stop sharing that, reload my slides because I need to just go through something else there.
And that will give me sight of the chat box again in a minute as well. If there's been any questions, it sometimes drops me back at the front slides. I'm just going to have to press resume.
To go to where we were. There we go. OK, so let me just check on the questions.
There we go. There we are on that one. OK. So no other questions in the chat. That's OK. We can have a look at those for that in a moment. So what I want to do now is just talk through the next steps and timeline because what I've shown you so far is the investments and those investment options are open to you at any time to manage either the Money you've got in the pot or those ongoing contributions, but when a new plan is implemented before the first contribution lands, if you don't want to land in that default solution, then there is that window of opportunity where you can actually pick where your first contribution will land. So that then we need to just now talk through this particular timeline updated slightly from that timeline we looked in the launch sessions. So some of it's going to be familiar to us. We've got that 2nd of March, the launch day.
Automatically then my contributions will move to the Aviva platform and the Aviva investments. Early March I'll get the details of my new account. Some of that is sent via e-mail, so it's sent by post register for your online account. Check and update your account details including your expression of wish.
OK, so checking up the check your details, that's like my name, address and stuff like that. But also that year 0, how my investments are managed, is that right? And expression of wish is the death beneficiaries. So if the worst happens to me, what do I want to happen to the money invested in my pension account? Who do I want to?
Benefit. So I need to go online and update those beneficiaries. OK, so then we've got this late March, this window of opportunity to select the initial investment options before that first contribution lands, which is approximately going to be around the 25th of March. So we have to be a bit kind of careful because these dates do.
Slip and move sometime. But broadly what we've got is if that when that Aviva launch date is the 2nd of March, normally around kind of plus five days will be the e-mail activation that you will receive. So that takes us to Monday the 9th of March approximately.
And then we've got from the 9th to approximately the 25th where we've got that ability, that window to pick investments. If we particularly want to avoid the default solution, start managing our own investments. You might think the default's OK, I can start there and then think about investments later on. I can do that.
But it's just right to highlight that window of opportunity where if you want to select something before the default solution, we have that opportunity. And then don't forget at this point we're still actually a member of kind of like 2 parts of the plan. We've got the existing or previous money still invested in the current plan.
New contributions from March coming to the Aviva platform and then May look out For more information about the the transition of the previous investment across to the Aviva platform and obviously the trustees will send more information about that at that time.
So the key bits on this timeline are make sure you register your online account, make sure you check your details and do your expression of wish, those death benefit nominations, and if you want to do something on your investments.
Obviously you've got, you know, the rest of your time in the savings plan to to think about those options, but there's also that window of opportunity if I want to do something different with my initial contributions.
So the online account is my workplace, so that's self registration. So when you get your e-mail activation that will give you your plan number when you go to the the website, depending on how you arrive at the website, you might say key in your activation code here.
We're not sending you an activation code, we're sending you a plan number. So just Scroll down that page slightly, register without code, and then just the normal kind of name, address, plan number to go through that registration journey. Once I'm there, once I'm up and running, check those details.
And update my expression of wish those death benefit nominations.
Final slide in this section is just that reminder about pension scams. So you know, perhaps at the moment we might be expecting some calls, texts or emails about the the new plan. So just be particularly aware about that scam risk, you know, am I getting a free pension review or someone offering me a free pension review? Is it hook in to a scam? Chance to unlock your saving before 55? We've seen that's against the rules and those guaranteed investment opportunities. If it sounds too good to be true, then perhaps it possibly is.
OK, I think, um, I've got some questions in the chat, but before I get there.
I'm just going to launch a poll. We would like to try and get some feedback.
The sessions hoefully that will come through now.
Yeah, there we go. OK, let's have a look.
OK, I have a member of my team on maternity leave. You can't access her week work emails. Do I need to advise her to access these activation codes? OK, so in addition to the e-mail, your colleague will also get postal communication and that postal communication will also include the plan number and the kind of My Workplace instructions if your colleague wants to activate or should activate and do their expression of wish. So they're not going to miss anything, but they'll just get postal communication as well.
OK, I'm just trying to check my pension in Hyman's but it won't let me in. Is there something to do with the transition? Probably not. I would just go to the Hyman's help desk or the Affinity water team just if you need a password reset or.
Or that there's there's nothing happening yet to give you kind of restricted access to that platform. OK, shall we expect a letter before we sign up or an e-mail to our a W e-mail addresses? So the emails just land first because of the way you know the postal system works.
So that will go to your Affinity Water e-mail address. Just because it goes to your Affinity Water e-mail address, that's not the account or the e-mail you have to use to register your account. You can still choose to use your personal e-mail address if you want to. It's just where we'll get that data. So that's where the emails will go. So if you get that and you want to register, you can. If you want to wait for postal stuff, you can just be aware of that that window of opportunity if you are thinking about picking those investments before the first contribution lands.
OK. If I choose a new non-default fund in March, will the transferred funds in May automatically go into that new fund? OK, it's a great question and that's still being worked through with the trustees and there will probably be that opportunity to do that when the the transition happens. It's what I would expect to see.
Just check my manager login. OK, when do we see our funds from Hymans reflected in on the new Aviva plan? So within that timeline, we're expecting that to happen kind of May. Again, those dates can shift. There's a whole other project going on managing that transition, but post that you'll get communication.
Saying it's landed and you can now go online in your Aviva platform and see those monies. So another project is managing that. We expect it to be kind of May and then you get some more comms around that time.
OK, so that brings me to the end of the content here. So quick reminder where we are. Thank you everybody for your time and attendance. There'll be a post session follow-up e-mail to everybody which will have a couple of links. The key one there is the microsite. If you've not seen that, that gives you access to the brochure and the fund fact sheet.
If you've got all you needed from today's call, thank you. Feel free, dial off, disconnect. This recording will be on the micro site. It just takes a few days to get it there. And remember, if you want to contact Aviva, we've got those contact details and the Affinity Water contact details as well.
Um, so let me stop the recording.

Transcript to be added’

Excellent. That's the recording started. So firstly, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the session this afternoon. So this is a presentation to the members of the Affinity Water Defined Contribution or DC pension plan. So as I said, I'm expecting about 90 on the call this afternoon.
So the attendee cameras, microphones have been disabled. But as we go through, if you've got questions, if you want to pop those in the chat, what I'll do is I'll do some content and have a little look on the chat for questions and then get back into content. Everybody that joins, sorry, everybody that's registered for the call this afternoon will get a post-session follow-up e-mail.
And all I've done there is just a few useful links. I'll talk about those as we go through the content. But that will go to everybody that's registered after the call this afternoon. So this session is being recorded, as I said, and that session will be added to your scheme microsite. This is the third, I believe, in a series of presentations we've done for you. So we've done a launch presentation.
We've done one focusing on investments and this one on income options. This will be added to the microsite along with those other sessions and you can watch those other sessions back if you didn't see those earlier on. So I'm Paul from Aviva working in our communications and engagement team.
So that team exists partly to help members of our pension schemes understand their schemes and the choices and options they are presented whilst they are members of those schemes. So happy to take us through the slides, answer as many questions as I can this afternoon, but I just have to be clear from the outset that my role isn't about providing individual member financial advice.
So you might already have your own advisor, great. If not, as we look on the slide there, the second bullet point down has a link into that world of financial advice. That's one of the routes in. And actually there is also an Aviva advice solution and I'll talk a little bit more about that towards the end of the content. But either way, if you choose to go through advice, there is a cost for financial advice.
Let me just touch on the 3rd and 4th bullet points. The third one is about content for this afternoon. So just as you'd expect, content is based on our understanding of current pensions and tax rules. Last one there is investment risk. Won't go into too much details on investment this afternoon. We did the earlier session, as I mentioned. So just that brief reminder that when we're putting money into pensions of this type, money will get invested, it will rise and fall on a daily basis with no guarantees.
So here then is the agenda for this afternoon. So we do a little bit of a refresh on the kind of the basics really. How does your pension work? Where we spend most of the time this afternoon is those income options or your choices and the way things work. And we finish up with those next steps and timeline.
And within that section, I've got a bit of information about where you might seek further guidance or advice in considering your options.
I think we've got about 50 minutes in the calendar. I don't think this session will take any more than 45 minutes. So we do have plenty of time for questions as we go through. So remember, as we go, if you've got questions, pop them in the chat box. I'll keep an eye on there as we go for questions. So this first section then, how does your pension work?
If you did join one of those earlier sessions, this will be a little bit of a refresh or a repeat. And that's just to give us that base level of understanding before we go into the detail around those income options.
So, what about workplace pensions and how do they work?
So a great way to save could be through your company pension and this slide will absolutely be familiar to any of those during one of those earlier sessions. So a whole list of reasons of why workplace pension and savings are good and I'll just work through them in turn. We start that list with tax efficient way to save.
So pensions today still represent a great way to save tax efficiency over the long term. And those tax efficiencies come in three main ways. So when we pay money in, we get that tax relief on our contribution, that top up from HMRC.
Once the money is invested in your pension account, that does grow in a very tax friendly, tax efficient environment. There's no tax deducted from the growth. So if you're familiar with ISAs and ISA investments, the internal taxation on your ISA is actually the same as the internal taxation on your pension fund. And finally, when you come to access some of that pension money, you are allowed some of that money back tax-free. Pension income is taxable and I'll go through that in a bit more detail when we get to those income options.
Dropping down that list then, the next bit is your employer pays in also. So we know Affinity Water pays into your pension plan. And actually from a tax perspective, that's good. Every time my employer puts money in my scheme, it goes straight in. There's no deduction of income tax or national insurance on those employer contributions.
Your scheme is run by a trustee board who've been appointed by your employer. So the way your scheme is structured, you've got your employer who will kind of deduct contributions from you and add their own contributions, send those across into the pension account. You've got the trustees of the scheme that oversee the running of the scheme.
And they direct Aviva as the scheme administrator in terms of how that scheme should be run. And then you've got you as the member within that arrangement. So these are the different parties that kind of look after and run your pension scheme.
So they are your savings. So if at some point in the future you decide to leave Affinity Water and you've got this money invested in your scheme, you'll have some choices. You can leave that money within the scheme. And the key there is it is still invested, so it will continue to rise and fall in value. If you were to go and work somewhere else, then that new employer is probably going to put you in a new pension scheme.
The money here, you can lift that, you can take that with you and drop it into your new pension scheme and should you do that, there's no cost, there's no fees for transferring that money away.
Under the flexibility then, we've got you can choose how much you contribute. You can choose where you invest if you want to. You don't have to. There's that default solution. And again, if you check back on that investment session, we've got those options in a bit more detail. The final bullet point there on this slide then is perhaps the most relevant for the session this afternoon. It's all about access.
So this minimum pension age is set by the government and that really determines when we're allowed to start accessing our pension savings.
So today, that's 55. So anybody that's 55 and above is allowed to access this type of pension. They don't need to stop working, they don't need to stop saving, they don't need to retire, but they are allowed access to those pension savings. And we'll talk about the different ways you can access it in just a moment.
As we can see from the slide, that age will increase from 55 to 57 in April 2028.
Next slide, I'll just do a reminder of the charges and again if you join one of those earlier sessions this slide will be familiar to you. So there is a charge to set up and run your pension. That charge is expressed as an annual percentage and it's a percentage of fund value, not how much you've paid in but what the actual pot size is. So
As we can see from the slide here, if you remain within the default solution, that total charge is 0.21% of your pot. What does that mean? Well, for every £10,000 you've got invested, the total annual charge is £21 . And if you've got £100,000 pounds invested for a whole year, that total charge is £210.
So within the scheme, there are lots of funds you can choose from. We can see on the slide there the minimum charge is 0.15%, but actually those charges will go right through and above 0.21% for the funds in the Self Select range. So lots of choice, and that again is explained in the brochures and the guidebooks.
A couple more slides in this section that will be familiar, so pensions in a nutshell.
really just kind of gives a nice easy picture of how it's working. So both my employer and I will make those regular contributions. That money gets paid into my pension pot or my pension account. Money's invested, it will rise and fall on a daily basis.
charges deducted to run the scheme, and from 55 and beyond, we can start to choose to access that money if we want to. So this slide is all about that appreciation that once I'm up and running, I've got that pot of money, that's got my name on it, that's going nowhere. So one of the things we need to continually remind our members to think about and consider Is that what if?
What if I was to die before I start accessing and spending my pension benefits? Well, we want to pay the full value of that pension pot out as a lump sum at the time of death to your nominated beneficiaries. So we ask you to make that nomination who you want to be considered for that lump sum should you die before you start accessing and spending that money.
The best and easiest way to do that nomination is through your online pension account, which is called My Workplace. And if you've not yet had a chance to set up your account, I've got a slide just towards the end of the content reminding us how we can do that. But one of the key actions from today really is just check whether you've done that nomination, whether you need to do it or review it or update it.
And I'll just remind you of that again towards the end of the content.
So that brings me to the end of that kind of opening section of the session. I'm just going to have a little check on the chat box for questions. No questions there so far, that's fine. We're just going to now get into the main focus of the session this afternoon. So income options.
So as a reminder then, there's a whole lot of flexibility about when you can take the money and the minimum age is set by the government, at age 55 as we look at the rules today, increasing to 57. Now when your account was created within the Aviva platform, there would have been a retirement age affixed to your particular plan. So that's not when you have to retire. That's not when you have to take your money out. That's just how your plan was created. And it's good to understand what that number is on your plan because it does the two main things. Firstly, it's driving how your investments work.
And secondly, when you get your annual statement or you register online and look at that projection, that forecast of benefits, that projection has to be projected to a point in time. So by default, it will be your retirement age within your account. You can still take your money sooner or later than that retirement age. And actually within your online account, you can move that retirement age.
and it will update those two things, the projection of benefits and how your investments work. So just be aware of that within your online account. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to look through the different income options in turn.
And to be consistent across those income options, I'll use this same pot on all of the options, this £200,000.
So when we think about the pension options, there are some that are available within your pension scheme. To access some of the others, you will need to transfer out of your scheme. And you could transfer anywhere, any provider.
Any other pension plan?
What the trustees of your scheme have done is they've kind of taken out some of the legwork for you and they've said part of those options we're going to appoint the Aviva Master Trust to enable you to facilitate some of those pension options. So what is the Aviva Master Trust? Well it's just another pension scheme
that will facilitate all of these income options that we're going to look at. So that's one of the options you have and that option will just be pointed out to you by the trustees when you start to go through the retirement process. So that just explains the text I've got towards the bottom left hand side of the slide there.
that you may need to transfer out of your scheme to access these options. All of these options are available in the Master Trust, but actually you could transfer your money anywhere to any other scheme if you chose to do that.
One of the things about the Aviva Master Trust is that scheme is provided to you at the same level of ongoing charge as your existing pension scheme. That's one of the advantages that the trustees have done for you with that particular option. And there's no cost to transfer to the Aviva Master Trust.
Okay, so let's have a look at this first option on the slide then. So at 55 and above, you're allowed to fully in cash the whole pension pot if you want to do that. So you can take it all in one go, just have it all paid out to you as cash.
So when we take money from pensions, we'll allow some of that money tax free. Typically that's up to 25% of the value. So within the example here, the £200,000, clearly £50,000 of that can be tax free to me today. But then that does mean the balance, the £150,000 is paid to me today as taxable income. So people often ask what's the rate of tax in retirement? Well it's the same as your income tax rates. So all of your taxable income is added up and that determines your level of tax. There's no national insurance contributions paid on pension income, it's just income tax.
So in this particular example, if I'm having £150,000 pounds worth of taxable income paid to me today, you can see that would be a significant tax charge. So I can do it. I can take all the money in one go, but it might not necessarily be a good thing from a tax perspective. So we'll just step through the other options. And remember, you can mix and match these options as well.
I am just having a little glance in the chat. I can't see any questions coming through so far.
So the next option here is part of the flexible retirement income option, sometimes known as drawdown or flexible access.
So again, this option is available within the Aviva Master Trust. So what's happening here then is the member is 55 and above. They've decided to access their tax-free slice in one go, that £50,000, they're going to do something nice with it. And then with the £150,000, they're going to leave that money invested
within the pension plan. So because it's still invested, the value will rise and fall on a daily basis. But from that £150,000, they're now in complete control over how often and how much they withdraw from that scheme. So they can take a £10,000 slice today, and not take any more money for months or years is up to them and another chunk of money tomorrow. Any money they withdraw from that kind of a lilacky purple pot on the right hand side of the slide here, that £150,000, is then taxed as income. So the rate of tax would be applied at their marginal rate. So choice and flexibility over how much and how quickly they spend that money. But crucially on this slide, they've had their tax free slice in one go.
If we then flip forward to the next slide here.
It's still under that flexible access option, but we're using it in a slightly different way. So if we go back and look at that £200,000, then effectively that member can look at that pot and consider it as being made-up of lots of little pots, and they can decide how many little pots they've got.
And how big or small they might be?
So what they've done here is they've just taken a pot of £100,000. So they've done that partial withdrawal. And you can see when we do that partial withdrawal, effectively what we're doing is we're applying that 25 / 75% split to that partial withdrawal. So on this £100,000 here,
We've therefore got the £25,000, which is a tax-free slice, and the remaining £75,000, I've got that decision. I can have that paid to me as today's taxable income, or simply park it in my pension account and have that later. And if I'm parking it, again, it will be invested, it will go up and down in value, and any of those withdrawals from that £75,000, will again be taxed as income. So if we go back across the yellow line over here, effectively what we've done is we've left £100,000 in this pot here, the yellow pot.
And I might still be working and earning, so through future contributions, let's be optimistic that £100,000 grows back to £200,000. Because it's still on this yellow pot, then we've effectively still got up to 25% of that as tax-free. So if that does go back up to £200,000, then we've got the £50,000 as tax-free.
But let's just continue the journey on this side of the slide. So the next partial withdrawal this particular member has elected to do is £50,000. So of that £50,000, again, we'll apply that 25/75 % split. So we've now got £12,500, which is tax-free, and the £37,500, which is either taxable as income to me as a lump sum, or parked in my pension, still invested up and down in value for me to take withdrawals from on an ad hoc basis later, and again, taxed as income. And again, in this example, we've got another partial withdrawal, just illustrating that 25/75% split.
Okay, so I've got some questions in the chat, so I'm just going to have a quick look at those. So the 25% tax-free allowance, that is over all pension pots that the individual has. Yes. So if you've got lots of pension pots, it's 25% of each one. You don't need to do them at the same time. You can do them at different times. But if we think we've got two pots of £100,000 each, you know, that's £25,000 from each. If I consolidated it, it's still £200,000 pot. The 25% is the same calculation. So it is 25% from each. What I will add at this point is there is a lifetime allowance for tax-free cash.
So, that can be reviewed through the budget. Currently, that lifetime allowance is at £268,275, so it only becomes an issue for those people with pension pots in excess of a million, but it's worth pointing out that is the kind of lifetime limit on tax-free money from pensions.
Another question here, if you take the tax free amount and keep saving it into the pension, do the additional savings keep attracting the 25 tax free? So I think I've just kind of stepped across that and did that. Hopefully I've clarified that one. Please come back if that needs some further explanation.
So if we just take a step back and think about the options I've looked at so far, they're all very flexible, which is good. But what it does mean is I could spend that money in a very ad hoc way. And what's the risk? I could spend that money very easily and quickly, couldn't I? So I could run out.
How long is that money going to last me? You know, how long am I going to live is the issue?
So the last income option we have is this guaranteed income for life, which is achieved through the purchase of an insurance contract known as an annuity. So what's happening here is that member is taking their tax-free slice in one go, that £50,000, and then spending the balance, that £150,000. So I've got no more investment risk. I'm going to spend that money and I'm going to spend that money buying an insurance policy an annuity contract. And that annuity contract will then provide me taxable income for life. So it's not the £150,000, which is
taxed. It's the income that that policy generates which is taxed. So in this example I've done the full amount, I've taken the full tax-free allowance and then spent the balance on purchasing that annuity contract. So I'm just going to flick backwards one more one slide where we were previously and try and illustrate some of the flexibilities that we have.
So let's assume we've been doing a number of these partial withdrawals through the early part of my retirement, doing the things I want to do, spending the money where I want to spend it. And I reach a point later in life where all I want now is a secure income. I don't want to worry about those investments. I just need to cover the bills. Any money I've got left over here,
Yes, I could then use that to buy the annuity contract, give me that peace of mind, give me that security, so I've got that constant income for the rest of my life.
So there is lots of choice, lots of options, and I'll talk about some of the guidance and advice solutions in a minute, but there is kind of this middle ground.
So this is guided retirement. Aviva has tried to come up with a solution that manages those options. And this option is available in the Aviva Master Trust only. And what it tries to do is help you allocate your pot across three different kind of sub pots to help you manage the money. And once this is set up, it's not set and forget.
You can manage the sub-pots as things change and develop.
So we've got that first pot at the top, that flexible income. So it's going to allocate part of your pension pot to that flexibility, the bit of money you want to spend in the early part of retirement, spending on an ad hoc basis. And then it's going to earmark some of your pot to purchase that annuity, that security income,
later in life. And that across the bottom of the slide, the occasional spending pot is kind of the emergency fund or the, you know, do I need to go, I want to go on holiday or the boiler blows up, you know, that kind of rainy day, occasional spending pot. So when you set up guided retirement, there will be a bit of money allocated to each of those pots.
So it's not fixed. You can amend that as you go through with the online modelling tools. And while you're in that flexibility phase, there will be communications that come from the Aviva Master Trust trustees. So for example, if I'm spending too much, they might say, we'll just reign in the spending a bit or think about how long that pot's going to last, or do you need to allocate other monies there? Or they might say, actually, you're not spending enough. Think about increasing that level of spend and enjoying that pension pot across that period. So it's kind of that, the thinking behind it is flex first, fix later, giving you that kind of flexibility early on in retirement and that security of income later.
Okay, I'm going to let the next slide land because it starts going into a bit of the detail, but I think I've got another question land. Okay, so the annuity options, is it correct that the individual can take any amount from 0 to 25% as a tax-free commencement lump sum? Yes.
You don't have to do the 25%. You can use more of the pot for an annuity. That's good, actually, it brings me to the next slide. So we start to talk about that in a bit more detail. The top third of this slide is kind of what we know already. So the 25% tax-free, subject to the lifetime limit.
And the bottom two-thirds of this is, you know, what about the annuity? What is it? How does it work? What do I need to think about? What are the risks? So the first bullet point there says, you know, this is a one-time only deal. Once you spend that money on the annuity contract, once you're through that 30-day cancellation period, that contract has got no cash in value, no surrender value, so you've really got it for life.
So you can buy as many annuities as you want. Once you're through that cancellation period, that's a contract for life. No cash in value, no surrender value. And it goes on to talk, you know, what is an annuity? How does it work? So it's not as easy as, you know, the question is, do you want an annuity, yes or no? There are different types, different options and different providers.
So shopping around is really important. You might get a better deal by taking your money somewhere else. So how does an annuity work? Well I spend some of my pension pot and in exchange I get income for life.
How much income I get will depend on a whole range of factors. So firstly, clearly how much money I'm spending. But secondly, it might be how old I am. Because when I buy the contract, the provider tries to guess or predict how long I'm going to live. So if I'm older, they might think I've got less to live, which actually means they'll pay a higher level of income.
So we follow that process through. If I've got a medical condition, a medical history, smoker status, obesity, diabetes, whatever it might be, which they might feel is life limiting, that leads them to pay a higher level of income.
And if we then consider that all the different providers have a different view on that, you can then see that shopping around for that annuity contract is really key.
And then if we think that amount of income stops when I die, what about my spouse or dependents? When I buy the contract, I can add options and those options would include death benefits and they could be a lump sum and or income for spouse or dependents.
But as their cost options, the amount of income I would get on that annuity contract initially would be less because I've bought those options and added them to my contract.
Okay, just another question drop into the chat. So does the 25% apply to DB pensions I may have in deferment? So there will be a tax-free amount which is available from a defined benefit or final salary pension. And that tax-free amount does feature as part of that overall tax-free allowance, the £268,000, so yes, the tax-free allowance does feature into that kind of lifetime allowance.
Okay, so the next slide is about the risks or the things to consider on those lump sum or flexible income drawdown options. And the first bullet point is what we spoke about in the slides. How can I manage that? If I'm spending that money on an ad hoc basis, how long is it going to last? How long am I going to live?
Second bullet point, we also kind of considered in the slides, that money remains invested. So I need to manage those investments. What happens if that investment drops in value and it drops in value and it drops in value? How will that impact on my future standard of living?
Third bullet point, absolutely key and critical, if I'm thinking about accessing pension savings early and I still want to work and save into pensions. So it's called the money purchase annual allowance. Now if I trigger it, the amount of money I can carry on saving into pensions is severely reduced, not just for this tax year, but forever.
and it's reduced to £10,000 pounds a year. It's only triggered if I'm drawing taxable income from my defined contribution pension plan. So it's not triggered if I'm taking just tax-free cash. It's not triggered if I've got a defined benefit or final salary pension in payment.
But be aware of that money purchase annual allowance risk if I'm thinking about or considering accessing defined contribution pensions early and still working and saving into pensions. Last bullet point there is pension scams. I'm just going to come back towards the end of the content.
So where can we get help and support? So firstly, this is the non-Aviva help and support.
So Pension Wise is a free government backed guidance service accessed through Money Helper. Money Helper is a good website, government backed website with not just pensions information but kind of broader financial wellbeing there. But Pension Wise is free government backed guidance for anybody age 50 and above.
So what Pension Wise will do is they'll explain your pension income options, but as they give you guidance, that still means you have to decide which course of action you take. So that differentiates guidance from advice. Guidance is free, but you decide. Advice has a cost, but you'll get that recommendation. This is what I think you should do, this is what I think you should do it. And this is the cost for my advice, so that differentiates the two. So, again, we've got the advice link there and also the state pension web link there. I'll come back to the Aviva support in just a moment. Just have a little look on the chat. We're doing OK, no more questions there.
So within the next steps and timeline, this will also show you where the Aviva help and support comes from as well.
That really starts at kind of scheme level. So the first link on this slide is the Affinity Water scheme microsite. That's got the brochures, the guidebooks, the videos, the tools, the recording of those earlier sessions. So that's got the kind of the first step we would go to understand the scheme.
Also within that scheme is the contact us stuff, so if you've got member questions and you've also got the Affinity Water kind of pensions links there as well.
The second link on the slide there is the website that's been created for these pension options through the Aviva Master Trust. So when you first decide or start to think about your pension options, you'll contact Aviva and they'll give you some information. That then triggers a pack from your trustees and the trustees will say, well, you can't take your money anywhere.
But we've done some due diligence, we've done some research, and the Aviva Master Trust is an option. Complete the form on the Aviva Master Trust if you want to progress that option. So that's what that second web link does.
So the kind of next level down is the self-help. This is the online account. We mentioned that earlier on, the My Workplace Digital Front Door, if you like, for your pension. And this is where you would go to update and review your expression of wish and death benefit nomination. So My Workplace is available for your desktop, your laptop.
Or if you've got Apple or Android device, you can download the app. It's self-registration, so you don't need an activation code or a link from Aviva. You can create your own account. So you could use your workplace e-mail address or your home e-mail address, that's fine. And once you're up and running, you've got that modelling tool and the ability to research those other options as well.
But, crucially, that's where you do your expression of wish.
The next level of support from Aviva is accessed through this telephone conversation called the Retirement Preparation Review. So through the link in the QR code there, you would book a telephone conversation with a member from the advice team. What we very often find is our pension members don't know if they want advice, need advice, or even what financial advice might look like. So this retirement preparation review is almost a triage through that service. It's A one-on-one conversation to enable you to ask your questions, get some answers. And it's more holistic than just pensions. So if you're thinking about ISAs, equity release,
other investments, that kind of broader financial retirement plan, these people can help. We find more often than not, the people that go through that service get the answers they need. But if at the end of that call, you feel you need financial advice, then that service can route you then into the Aviva full advice service. So the call itself is obviously completely free and you book that call yourself. If you then go on and go through the full Aviva advice service, that is when you would pay the advice fees. But that would be explained to you after the call if you want to do that. But it's a good service to help members plan and understand.
So here is that timeline, and you may have seen that from an earlier session, but it's a good one just to remind us what that looks like. So back earlier in early March, we moved to the Aviva platform. Automatically, future contributions were directed to the Aviva platform. No action was needed from members.
Aviva sent you your kind of new plan details in the post and e-mail and at that point we were looking for you to take some action. So register your account online My Workplace and also register those death beneficiaries. That's completion of the expression of wish there.
Still to come is the transition of your existing money from the previous scheme across to the Aviva platform. So that's targeted for May. So effectively at the moment you're a member of two schemes. You've got the money in the existing platform and from March onwards your contributions are coming onto the Aviva platform. So look out for more details from the trustees in May about that transition of money from the old platform to the Aviva platform.
Okay, I did say I would come back to financial scams, so just a slide on that. And wherever I talk to members, it's just a good reminder really, some of the red flags to look out for. So if you're getting this contact out of the blue, you know, whether it's text, e-mail, WhatsApp, whatever it might be, it's free pension review. Is it hook in to a scam? Just be careful, you know, is it somebody trying to harvest my data?
The next one there is fairly clear now because of what we've seen in the slides. If someone's saying we can help get your money out before 55, well, we've seen that's against the rules. You can't do that. So definitely hook into a scam. And these guaranteed investment opportunities, well, if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.
So, just look out for that as a scam as well.
I'm just going to launch a poll in the chat if I can. So just your opportunity to give some feedback on the session this afternoon. And while that's loading, I'll just go into the final slide I've got here before I go back into the chat box for any questions.
So just a chance to kind of summarise where we are really. Firstly, thank you everybody for your time and attendance on the call this afternoon. Everybody will get the post session e-mail with some useful links. The microsite and that retirement options site will be there as well. Feel free, drop off disconnect if you've got everything you needed from this afternoon's call. Thank you. If there's any questions in the chat, I'll reload the chat box in a moment and get to those. But if you are leaving us, thank you and enjoy the rest of the afternoon. I'm going to firstly stop the recording and I'm going back into the chat box.