Client communications

Clients invested in Phoenix Wealth AXA Sterling Index Linked Bond Funds

We’ve written to clients to let them know that:

• Following an announcement by AXA Investment Managers UK Ltd to close the fund on 22 February 2024, noting its continued reduction in size, we took the decision to close the Phoenix Wealth AXA Sterling Index Linked Bond funds with effect from 20 February 2024.
• They had until 13 February to advise us of an alternative fund to switch their investment into otherwise we’d move it into the Phoenix Wealth iShares Index Linked Gilt Index Fund.
• The Phoenix Wealth iShares Index Linked Gilt Index Fund was considered the most appropriate fund based on its objective and investment strategy.

Take a look at the template client letter.

We’re writing to clients to let them know that:

• In the meantime, clients are unable to pay into, or make one-off withdrawals from the funds. 
• We’ll continue to make existing regular payments to clients and invest regular payments into policies:
  • Non self-invested policies – we’ll disinvest proportionately across other funds and we’ll redirect regular payments into the Phoenix Wealth L&G UK Property fund.
  • Self-invested policies - we’ll continue making regular payments out as long as there is cash in the cash account. Regular payments into the suspended funds will remain in the cash account unless clients have changed instructions.
• Clients or their advisers can give us different investment and disinvestment instructions if they so like.

• Non self-invested policies 
• Self-invested policies 

We’re writing to clients to let them know that:

• These funds are suspended with effect from 10 October 2022.
• In the meantime, clients are unable to pay into, or make one-off withdrawals from the funds.
• We’ll continue to make existing regular payments to clients and invest regular payments into policies:
  • Non self-invested policies – we’ll disinvest proportionately across other funds and we’ll redirect regular payments into the Phoenix Wealth Money Market fund.
  • Self-invested policies - we’ll continue making regular payments out as long as there is cash in the cash account. Regular payments into the suspended funds will remain in the cash account unless clients have changed instructions.
• Clients or their advisers can give us different investment and disinvestment instructions if they so like.
  

Take a look at the template client letters:

• Non self-invested policies
• Self-invested policies
  

We’re writing to clients to let them know that:

• Following their suspension on 3 March 2022, the funds are closing soon. The fund manager hopes to sell the assets and distribute the proceeds week beginning 13 June 2022.
• In the meantime, clients are unable to pay into, or make one-off withdrawals from the funds. 
• For non self-invested policies - if there are any ongoing transactions that are impacted by this suspension, we’ll let clients and their advisers know what action they can take. 
• For self-invested policies - clients may wish to review any regular investment or disinvestment instructions associated to the fund. Income and charges will continue to be paid provided there is sufficient cash in the cash account. 
• Once we receive clients’ share of the proceeds, we’ll pay them into their policy, as units in the Phoenix Wealth Legal & General Property Trust fund. If clients would like us to pay the proceeds into a different fund, they need to tell us at the latest by 8 June 2022.

Take a look at the template client letters:

• Non self-invested policies
• Self-invested policies
  

We're writing to clients to let them know that unless they've already chosen another fund, or you tell us otherwise:

• When we get the next payments from Aviva Investors, we'll pay them into the Phoenix Wealth Legal & General Property Trust fund, instead of the Phoenix Wealth Money Market fund.
• We'll also move to this fund any payments that we previously put into the Phoenix Wealth Money Market fund.

Take a look at the template customer letters here:

• Non self-invested
• Self-invested

We're writing to clients to let them know that:

• We're introducing caps and limits on product charges to these policies to reduce the amount that customers pay.
• The annual product and drawdown charges will be capped at £235 or 0.5% of policy value, whichever is lower.
• Caps will apply from 1 March 2022. 

The new caps don't apply to investment related charges; the annual fund management charge and annual fund expenses are separate charges that apply to customers' chosen investments. These charges vary depending on the fund chosen, and are deducted from the underlying fund on a daily basis and reflected in the unit price.

Take a look at a template of the client letters:

Customers in drawdown/who've taken partial UFPLS

• The Retirement Wealth Account (post 6 April 2015)
• The Retirement Wealth Account (pre 6 April 2015)
• The Personal Pension, The Executive Pension, The Section 32 (post 2006)
• The Personal Pension, The Executive Pension, The Section 32 (pre 2006)

Customers not in drawdown/who've not taken partial UFPLS

• The Retirement Wealth Account (post 6 April 2015)
• The Retirement Wealth Account (pre 6 April 2015)
• The Personal Pension, The Executive Pension, The Section 32 (post 2006)
• The Personal Pension, The Executive Pension, The Section 32 (pre 2006)

We're writing to clients to let them know that:

• Following their suspension in March 2020, the funds are closing on 19 July 2021.
• All dealing in the funds remains suspended so it's worth clients reviewing any regular investment or disinvestment instructions they have in place and sending us alternative instructions where needed. We're continuing to deduct income and charges provided there is sufficient cash in the policy's cash account. Unless they've already provided us with alternative instructions, regular payments into the funds will be paid to the cash account.
• After the closure, Aviva Investors will seek to sell the funds' assets and periodically release capital back to investors. They estimate this may take from 12 to over 24 months and that the first distribution will be in late July 2021.
• We need customers to let us know where to invest the distributions, otherwise we will pay them into the Phoenix Wealth Money Market fund.

Take a look at a sample of the client letter here.

We're writing to clients to let them know that:

• Following their suspension in March 2020, the funds are closing on 19 July 2021.
• All dealing in the funds remains suspended but we can continue to make income payments from other funds and regular payments into policies continue to be invested in the Phoenix Wealth Money Market fund.
• After the closure, Aviva Investors will seek to sell the funds' assets and periodically release capital back to investors. They estimate this may take from 12 to over 24 months and that the first distribution will be in late July 2021.
• We need customers to let us know where to invest the distributions, otherwise we will pay them into the Phoenix Wealth Money Market fund.

Take a look at the client letter below:

• Non self-invested
  

We're aware that some UK banks are looking to close the accounts of some customers who live either in the EEA or Switzerland.

This could impact payments into and out of policies, so we're writing to highlight this to customers in order to prompt them to take action if needed and avoid any disruption.

Take a look at a template customer letter here. 

We're writing to affected clients to:

• Update them that trading is to resume in some property funds.
• Let them know that they can find a list of the funds that are now open or continue to be suspended here. We'll continue to update this page to reflect the position, as the funds start dealing again so they can check back regularly for the latest updates.
• Inform them of what it means for them now if the property fund/s they're invested in has re-opened, or continues to be suspended.
• Where they can get more information.

Take a look at the template client letters:

• Non self-invested policies
  

Clients invested in one or more of the following property funds through their Phoenix Wealth pension and/or investment bond policies:

• Aviva Investors Property
• Aviva Investors Property (Life)
• Janus Henderson UK Property
• L&G UK Property
• L&G UK Property (Life)
• Threadneedle UK Property
• Threadneedle UK Property (Life)

We're writing to affected clients to:

• Update them on the temporary suspension of trading in property funds.
• Let them know that they are currently unable to pay into, or make new withdrawals from the funds until they start dealing again.
• Inform them that we will continue to pay regular income payments where they have already set up instructions to receive payments from a suspended property fund. The money will be deducted from their policies as normal but we will fund any income payments due from the suspended funds up to 30 April. Once the suspension is lifted, we'll disinvest the amount owed to us. After 30 April, we'll re-apportion their disinvestment strategy across their other remaining funds in order to maintain the same level of income, unless they provide a new disinvestment strategy (non self-invested policies only).

Take a look at the template client letters:

• Non self-invested policies
• Self-invested policies

We’re writing to clients to:

• Update them on the ongoing capital distributions (all policy types)
• Let them know that outstanding adviser charges will start being deducted from their accounts as well as updating them on capital distributions (non self-invested policies only)

Take a look at template client letters:

• Non self-invested policies
• Self-invested policies

For more information on capital distributions and payment of outstanding adviser charges take a look at our adviser update. 

We’ve notified non-advised clients about the change of the management of the Elite Fund of Funds range, from Architas to Aberdeen Standard Investments. This took effect on 20 December 2019.

Letters will start arriving with these clients from 21 January 2020. You can view the client letter here:

• View the letter to clients
  

For clients with advisers linked to their policies, we communicated this change directly to you – view details here. 

We’re continuing to integrate AXA Wealth into our new Phoenix Wealth business, and so you’ll see some more changes related to this activity starting from 5.30pm on Friday 16 March. These include:

• Systems changes and planned downtime - which we expect to make us better able to support you flexibly and quickly in the longer term. As we implement these systems, there will unavoidably be some disruption to our services, so please bear with us during this phase.
• Administrative changes - such as changes to some of our postal and email addresses. 

To find out more about the changes, please look at our dedicated webpage so that you can plan activity within our cut off times.  

We wrote to clients on 7 March to make them aware of the changes and downtime. In the letter, we asked clients to visit a dedicated webpage which details the changes that are relevant to their products, system downtime, and any up to the minute news. 

Take a look at the letters  – you’ll be able to access each product-specific client webpage by clicking the link in each client letter:

• Client letter: The Retirement Wealth Account, Self-invested Option
• Client letter: The Retirement Wealth Account, Phoenix Wealth Pension Funds only Option
• Client letter: The Personal Pension, The Executive Personal Pension, The Section 32 and the Investment Bond
• Client letter: Family Suntrust
• Client letter: The Trustee Investment Plan  

Following on from the sale of AXA Wealth to the Phoenix Group and our recent rebrand to Phoenix Wealth, we will be applying that name to the following FST legal entities:

• The Scheme Provider name will change from AXA Wealth Services Limited  to Phoenix Wealth Services Limited
• The Scheme Trustee name will change from AXA Trustee Services Limited to Phoenix Wealth Trustee Services Limited
• We plan to submit these changes to Companies House on 8 December.

What changes will clients see?

These changes do not impact your clients’ terms and conditions but, after 8 December, they may notice that our new legal entity name, Phoenix Wealth Trustee Services Limited – or an abbreviation, will appear on client bank statements for any income payments they receive.

What do clients need to do differently?

Any cheque payments into existing schemes will need to be made payable to Phoenix Wealth Trustee Services Limited.

We’ll be writing to all FST scheme members from 27 November to let them know about our plans. You can take a look at the letters we are sending clients here:

• View letter to clients taking an income
• View letter to all other clients 

Following on from the sale of AXA Wealth to the Phoenix Group and our recent rebrand to Phoenix Wealth, we're now working on transferring policies from AXA Wealth Limited to Phoenix Life Limited, another company in the Phoenix Group.

To ensure customers' interests are protected, we need to follow a rigorous process and seek High Court permission to do so, but provided permission is granted we expect this transfer to happen on 8 December 2017. From that date you may notice the name Phoenix Life Limited reflected across your terms of business with us, client bank statements and other literature and communications. We'll be writing to all policyholders of AXA Wealth Limited from 21 August to let them know about our plans.

Please be assured that there will be no other changes to your clients’ contracts with us, service levels, products, investments or ongoing payments as a result of the transfer.

For more information, and to see the letter and accompanying documentation we will be sending clients, take a look at our dedicated page.

You may have seen our recent emails about what to expect now we are part of Phoenix. If not, you may have opted out of our marketing emails – just let us know if you’d like to opt back in.

We can now confirm our new branding is scheduled to launch on 1 July.

Phoenix Wealth will replace AXA Wealth from this date, with a new logo, new adviser and customer website together with a fresh range of product literature. Our rebrand will not affect:

• policy terms and conditions
• online services functionality
• adviser charges payments
• client income payments, or
• the way we work with you.

You don’t need to do anything. But for a summary of what you’ll notice changing, what will stay the same, and a preview of our new brand – take a look.

We will be letting your clients know from 5 June – take a look at a template client letter.

We’ve notified clients about the change of Scheme Operator’s name of the Self-invested option of the Retirement Wealth Account – AXA Portfolio Services Limited.  This will be renamed to Elevate Portfolio Services, with the rename to take effect on 24 April 2017.

This name change is a result of the recent sale of different parts of the AXA Wealth business to Phoenix and Standard Life.  It does not affect the operation of your clients' plan and terms and conditions.

Letters will start to arrive with your clients from 11 April onwards. 

View the letter to clients 

We've notified clients about the upcoming acquisition of AXA Wealth's off-platform pension and investment business by the Phoenix Group. You can access the letters we've sent below.

• Letter to The Personal Pension and Retirement Wealth Account policyholders
• Letter to Family Suntrust scheme members
• Letter to Trustee Investment Plan members
• Letter to Section 32, Executive Pension and Investment Bond policyholders/members .

In addition we’ve updated the terms and conditions for The Personal Pension, Retirement Wealth Account and Family Suntrust policyholders/scheme members to reflect a change to the company that has regulatory responsibility over the policy/scheme. You can access a summary of the changes to The Personal Pension and Retirement Wealth Account terms and conditions here.

The latest terms and conditions for Family Suntrust and Retirement Wealth Account products can be found in our literature library. A copy of The Personal Pension endorsement can be accessed here.