A technical fault with Aviva’s intermediary website has left advisers struggling to submit cases, meaning their clients lose out on mortgages and investments.
The problems have been affecting the platform since Monday (6 November), leaving advisers unable to log into the system for long periods of time.
An error message preventing advisers from using the site was still in place last night (9 November) when FTAdviser first contacted Aviva.
At 8am this morning (10 November) it was back up and running, but an IFA in Scotland, who wished to remain anonymous, told FTAdviser the situation since Monday was “shocking” as it had meant he could not carry out transactions on behalf of his clients.
He said: “Unless you can circumvent the system, you cannot make withdrawals for house purchase, switch funds between their accounts or anything.
“If the markets go one way, where does that leave the clients with something to invest?
“You can submit a case with a pleading letter saying it should have been submitted last Monday.”
The IFA said they could ask Aviva to use ‘best price’ or adjust for losses when dealing with requests to account for the time elapsed since the deal was supposed to have been submitted.
These are ways of ensuring the client is treated fairly by basing their prices on the position they would have been in had the transaction been able to go ahead.
Speaking yesterday, an Aviva spokesperson said: “We apologise to advisers, as there have been some issues with slow log on to the Aviva For Advisers at certain times of day for the last few days, but the platform itself has remained available and performing as expected.
“We are working to resolve this as soon as possible.”
Aviva is one of the UK’s largest insurers, with total group assets under management of £475bn, according to its August interim results statement.
Operating profits were up 11 per cent on the first half of 2016 to £1.47bn.
Its fund management business was worth £69m in the first 6 months of 2017.
simon.allin@ft.com
