Guaranteed funds

The Guaranteed Selection

Our guaranteed funds offer two attractive investment options giving your clients the opportunity to choose between different levels of growth potential and reassuring guarantees.

Low equity investment funds such as the Guaranteed 100 Fund can expect limited growth potential, especially in low interest rate and / or economic growth environments where there may be no growth.

The investment funds, Guaranteed 90 and Guaranteed 100, come with a built-in guarantee on the fifth anniversary. At other times, the value will fluctuate but the guarantee acts as a safety net so if the fund doesn’t perform well, your client will still be able to get a certain percentage of their original investment back on the fifth anniversary.

 

Guaranteed fund charges and higher risk asset limits:

*The fund may also include a fund manager expense charge. We take this charge before we publish our unit prices.

**Any withdrawals will reduce the guarantee in proportion to the number of units cancelled, not the cash amount withdrawn.

The diagrams below show how the range of returns may differ for the two funds.

Using the initial investment as the baseline, each diagram shows the guaranteed level of return on the fifth anniversary in the form of a broken line. The projected levels of both positive and negative potential returns are shown above and below the baseline.

When you compare the two diagrams you can see that the range of returns is greater for Guaranteed 90 than Guaranteed 100. You will also notice that the guarantee offered by the Guaranteed 90 is lower than that of the Guaranteed 100. This illustrates the balance between risk and reward for the two funds.

Investors can switch between the funds anytime, free of charge.

 

For example, investors can ‘lock-in’ growth at any time by switching into the Guaranteed 100 Fund. This will leave your clients safe in the knowledge that they’ll be able to collect at least the amount they’ve switched into the Guaranteed 100 Fund in five years’ time.

Similarly, if a client invests, for example, £10,000 in the Guaranteed 100 Fund and sees their investment grow by £1,500, they could switch into the Guaranteed 90 Fund. By doing this, they’ll still be guaranteed to receive at least their original investment five years on from the switch (90% of £11,500 being more than £10,000) but will be invested in a fund with a higher growth potential.

Customers with any investment in a Guaranteed Fund will receive a letter and Options pack approximately three months prior to the 5th anniversary.

At this point, you and your client will have to make a decision as to what you'd like to do with the investment. If no decision made, the money will be placed into the latest Guaranteed 100 Fund on the fifth anniversary. The fund charge for the Guaranteed 100 Fund is 0.50% and that is paid in addition to the product charge. Customers initially invested in the Guaranteed 90 Fund will notice the fund charge increases from 0.35% to 0.50% to reflect the default switch to the Guaranteed 100 Fund.

Fund performance

You can view performance information for the guaranteed fund tranche where customers are currently approaching their 5th anniversary: click here to view the relevant fund factsheet.

 

What are the options when your client reaches the Guaranteed Fund 5th anniversary?

Switch into a new fund

• Lock in any gain by switching into the Guaranteed 100 Fund. This will happen automatically on the 5th anniversary, unless we are given an alternative fund choice.
• Take a bit more risk but increase the potential for growth by investing in the Guaranteed 90 Fund or a combination of the 90 and 100 guaranteed funds.
• Alternative fund choices include our risk-targeted Multi-Asset fund range. These along with our full fund range can be found by clicking here.

In addition:

• Aviva can now facilitate an ongoing adviser charge on some of our existing investment bonds.
• There are no early exit charges to pay if the money is taken out of the bond in the future.
• Switching funds within a life policy has no income tax implications for your client.

Reinvest on the Aviva Platform

Transfer funds to our Platform via our straightforward internal reinvestment process minimising time out of market, our process supports partial or full reinvestment. Speak to your Aviva contact for more information on the platform and the charges that apply.

Take some or all of the money

Customers can take some or all of their money out. It is important to consider any potential income tax implications if withdrawing any money from the bond.

The Guaranteed Funds offer the following benefits:

• A guaranteed payment on the fifth anniversary of either 90% or 100% of the original payment minus any withdrawals. (Please note: any withdrawals or partial switches made will have reduced the guarantee in proportion to the number of units cancelled and not the cash amount withdrawn).
• Growth potential by investing differing proportions of each fund in equities or property.
• A significantly lower level of risk than 100% investment directly in equities.
• Flexibility to invest in a combination of the Guaranteed Funds to customise a level of protection and growth potential.
• Investment management by experienced Aviva fund managers.

You may also want to consider:

• The guarantee only applies on the fifth anniversary. At all other times during the five-year period, the value of the investment can go down as well as up and investors may not get back the amount they invested if they withdraw their money.
• At the fifth anniversary, only 90% of the original investment is guaranteed in the Guaranteed 90 Fund, which means the investor may get back less than they paid in.
• There are charges for managing the investment, and an additional charge is made to help provide the guaranteed element of the Guaranteed Selection.
• The guaranteed element of each fund may result in lower growth potential than is offered by a direct investment in some asset types such as equities.
• Deposit savings accounts offer less risk of losing money, and with many accounts customers can access their money at any time.