In Reply to: AVC posted by Roy Band on 27 May 2003 at 10:31:18:
Although Friends Provident impose an early retirement penalty (currently 13% for most), the Equitable do not. Even if Equitable were to go bust, 90% of our funds would be covered by the industry's scheme. Those of us with the GAR get a guaranteed annual 3.5% bonus from Equitable.
This all raises the question of whether IBM did some of us any favours by forcibly moving our contributions from Equitable to Friends Provident.
The L&G options seem preferable to Friends Provident. While the value of the funds may rise or fall with share or bond values at least there is no penalty for early retirement.