AVC provider for members of the West Sussex Pension Fund

Our in-house AVC provider is Legal & General. Each year your AVC provider will produce an AVC annual benefit statement for you.

Note: An AVC plan is an investment and the value can go down as well as up. The fund value in the future may be less than the payments you have made.

Legal and General

Applying for an AVC?

To begin paying AVCs to Legal & General, please complete the Legal & General application form and send to your employer.

You will need to read Legal & General's fund guide which can be found at www.legalandgeneral.com/westsussexavc

You can also call Legal & General’s helpline (0345 0708686) which is currently open 09:00-17:00 Monday to Friday.

Before applying check:

1) Understanding AVCs

The Member Guide to AVCs in the LGPS (hants.gov.uk) gives a clear explanation of what AVCs are, how they work and your options to use your AVC at retirement. You are highly recommended to read this before applying for an AVC.

2) AVCs and tax

One of the benefits of paying into a registered pension scheme is that you receive tax relief on the contributions you pay into the scheme. However, there are also tax restrictions. For more information on these see: Member guide to AVCs in the LGPS (hants.gov.uk)

If you require further information on the tax implications of contributing to or taking an AVC, please contact us. 

3) Salary Sacrifice Shared Cost AVCs

Some employers offer Salary Sacrifice Shared Cost AVCs with Legal & General. Contact your employer to check if this option is available to you.
In a SSSC AVC both you and your employer contribute to your AVC fund. Every month, you pay a nominal amount as your contribution to the AVC and the remainder of your total contribution amount is paid by your employer. Your employer reduces your gross salary by the amount of the AVC contribution that they pay for you.

You make savings in Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions on the amount of salary that you sacrifice (subject to limits and thresholds) so your take home pay increases compared to paying AVCs in the standard way.

Your original salary, also known as your notional salary, is still used in certain payroll calculations, e.g. statutory payments, pension calculations etc.

4) Your investment choices/charges

The Legal & General fund guide explains what investment options are available and the charges associated with each fund: www.legalandgeneral.com/westsussexavc

It also signposts you to a guide to investing and a guide to risk and reward which you are recommended to read.

5) Financial advice

It is advisable to get independent financial advice before taking our any form of additional pension saving.

You can get help choosing a financial adviser from the Money Helper website. Money Helper is backed by the government and provides free impartial information and guidance.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is the regulatory body for independent financial advisers. Please beware of pension scams and only use an adviser regulated by the FCA.

You can find a local independent financial adviser (IFA) at: www.unbiased.co.uk. Unbiased is a website which lists regulated and independent financial advisers. It checks that everyone on the site is registered with the FCA. 

It is important to note that neither your LGPS Pension Fund nor Legal & General can give you financial advice. 

After applying for an AVC

Once your AVC has been set up, Legal & General will send you a membership certificate and provide details of how you can log onto their online management service, known as "Manage my Account". This site allows you to:

  • See how your AVCs are invested and their present value;
  • Find out more about how the AVC funds are invested;
  • Change where your existing AVCs are invested;
  • Change where your future AVC payments are invested;
  • Change the date you expect to retire;
  • Get projections of what your AVCs might be worth when you retire.

To change your fund choices with Legal & General, please log into your "Manage my Account" online management service. 

West Sussex AVC review

The West Sussex Pension Fund has used Legal & General as the AVC provider for their members since March 2021. The Pension Fund has asked its advisers to assess the value of this new AVC arrangement for members in terms of:

  • quality,
  • charges and
  • suitability.

For details on the results of the assessment see: Value for Members assessment.

Information for Employers 

If you have an employee interested in making AVC contributions to Legal & General for the first time, please contact West Sussex Pension Fund for guidance on how to proceed ([email protected]).