Important changes to your Aegon SIPP scheme

This Announcement is important. It concerns major changes to your Company pension provision at Dentsu and it affects both yours and your Employer’s ongoing monthly payroll contributions for your pension entitlements from 1 September 2023.

What is changing?

Dentsu are changing your Workplace Pension Scheme of choice from the Aegon ARC SIPP to an Aviva Group Personal Pension (GPP). This means that all payroll pension contributions with effect from 1 September 2023 will be invested into the Aviva GPP scheme.

This will result in you having a new pension policy with Aviva, in addition to your current Aegon ARC SIPP scheme.

How does this affect my Aegon SIPP scheme?

There will no ongoing payroll contributions to your Aegon SIPP, after that made for the August 2023 payroll. The August contributions would be expected to be credited to your Aegon SIPP scheme around the middle of September. All pension contributions from payroll deductions, as of September 2023 onwards, will be paid to the Dentsu International Aviva GPP scheme.

There is no affect on your existing funds in your Aegon SIPP. These funds remain fully invested and within the risk-rated, time-horizon-based investment portfolios which you have agreed with your Adviser at Patterson-Mills.

Will ongoing investment and planning advice continue?

Yes. Dentsu understands how the investment and planning advice around your pension investments is important and valuable to you as a member of the Aegon SIPP scheme. This means that Dentsu is to continue paying the costs of advice for your Aegon SIPP scheme and so you will continue to have access, on an ongoing basis, to Patterson-Mills as your Investment Adviser, including Edward Mills, Chris Rathbone and Charles Mills.

In addition, you will receive advice from Patterson-Mills upon equivalent risk-profiled and time-horizon based investment portfolios within your Aviva Scheme at each review meeting. This will enable you to run the investment strategies in alignment, which is the best way of optimising your long-term benefits and returns from your pension funds as a whole.

You will continue to receive annual review meetings and have access to Advisers at Patterson-Mills throughout the year. Further information about your Annual Review Meetings an be found by clicking this link.

Should I transfer my Aegon funds over to the Aviva Scheme?

There is no need to make any transfer, though you would be free to do so. In our professional view, retaining your Aegon SIPP scheme is in your interests, due to the following key reasons:

  1. Lower overall costs – all pension schemes have management costs and the lower are these costs, the more of the long-term returns achieved are retained within your pension fund for your own benefit. The comparative costs are as follows:
    • 0.17% to 0.22% on funds up to £250,000 for your Aegon SIPP scheme
    •  0.20% pa for the Aviva GPP, using the default fund scheme selections. There are higher charges for certain other fund options, upon which we can advise in due course
  2. Aegon’s further discount – The annual management costs drop to just 0.10% on all funds over and above £250,000. This applies to your Dentsu SIPP and even all personal non-pension investments held on the platform (e.g. ISA)
  3. Multiple investment types – your Aegon SIPP scheme is run on the Aegon ARC platform, which facilitates additional investment types, like Investment ISAs. These can be operated online by you, or even advised upon by Patterson-Mills at your choice (separate charges apply to non-pension investment advice, about which you can be advised, upon request)

Why is this change happening?

The change is being made in order to align all Staff under the same administrative umbrella with the Aviva GPP. Those Staff currently in the Aegon SIPP scheme are being switched across to the Aviva GPP.

This change brings all pension administration under one roof, easily accessible by you via your online Benefits Portal. Dentsu has had an Aviva GPP in place for some years now, as well as the Aegon SIPP scheme. 

We are here to help

Should you have any further unanswered questions about this change, please email DentsuPensions@pattersonmills.com or your usual contact at Patterson-Mills.

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