AXA Sunlife Pension Review

Overall Rating

If there were any.......since 1980, I have yet to discover them!

Pension was deliberately set up to pay off my mortgage, age 60 - I was assured that this would be from the realizable cash element of the pension fund (25%). Monthly payments were made over years & initially, the fund seemed to function reasonably well. This, by the way, described as a "Managed Fund". Around 6-8 yrs ago however, it consistently lost money &/or the yearly statements of its worth vacillated hugely (e. g circa £55K to £550K). I wrote to the advisors who had set the fund up with AXA & they simply said "Pay more per month". & initially I did, although this did not bring about much improvement. The fund will not meet the set objective (This based on the lowest growth projections) & I will be forced to sell our family home before I'm 60 (Currently 55). It was pointed out that I did not earn enough (!) - For some reason they assumed I would receive annual upward pay rises (Sadly, however, I live in the real world). The term "Managed Fund" is clearly a misnomer. The illustrations/projections appear to have been grossly incorrect. The stated objective of the fund was, it seems ignored OR it was the wrong product for purpose in the first place. Being advised to put more money into a failing scheme was rather like shredding £20 notes over a toilet.