COBS 19.3 Product disclosure to members of occupational pension schemes

When a firm sells, personally recommends or arranges the payment of an AVC contribution by a member of an occupational pension scheme to be secured by a packaged product purchased by the scheme trustees, it must give the trustees sufficient information to pass to the relevant member for that member to be able to make informed comparisons between the AVC and any alternative personal pension schemes and stakeholder pension schemes available.

This rule applies to an AVC where members' benefits are linked to the earmarked segments of a life policy or scheme, but it does not apply to an AVC where the trustees make pooled investments and have their own arrangements for allocating investment returns to determine members' AVC benefits.