Primary School Teacher AVC Queries

Hello.

I am a first time poster. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated here. I am looking to max out my AVC and possibly change it if that would be better for me in the long term. I am a primary school teacher aged 29.

I currently have an ‘Adventurous’ AVC that I took out with Cornmarket (Irish Life). I have paid the consultation fee (€595) already. My first year contributing to the AVC was 2023. I have been contributing at 2.87% (50ish euro), taken from my paycheque fortnightly. In total, I have €1,112.90 AVC at the moment.

Fees for Cornmarket AVC (Irish Life) are as follows: 0% regular contribution charge, and a tiered AMC starting at 1% dropping by 0.25% on any amount in the AVC between €40,000 and €140,000 and by a further 0.25% on any amount greater than €140,000.

I am on pay scale 5, my salary is €48,495 but I will be going up to pay scale 6, €49,946 from September (I also do a couple of weeks of July/summer provision ever summer around 1600 extra).

My queries:

• I would like to max out my AVC contributions (15% is max for 20-30 years old). How do I know how much (what percentage) to contribute? I have my most recent payslip attached. I presume some employer contributions are included so I would be calculating without that?
• As my AVC is with Cornmarket, how would I move what I have contributed to Irish Life (Cornmarket) to an execution only Zurich AVC?
• Which Zurich AVC should I be looking at for execution only? I like taking risks. I saw that LA Brokers has good options and PRSA.ie. Any preference from these?
• If possible, I would like to max out 2023 also, as well as the current year? I am unsure how to do this for 2023. If anybody has guidance on that it would be great. I have my final pay cheque of 2023 attached. My AVC contributions for 2023 were €491.54.

Shouldn't Cornmarket be advising you on this, after all that is what you paid their fee for.

Just one other comment, 'I like taking risks'. This is your pension you are talking about, invest in equities and let it compound. Go to Paddy Power for risk.

If you set up an AVC PRSA (Zurich AVC) you can then if you want to, transfer all your existing AVCs into this.

(You could keep both the Cornmarket AVC and an AVC PRSA if you want to.
You could suspend contributions to the Cornmarket AVC and leave a small amount of contributions, rather than fully close it. This could be advantageous if Cornmarket was offering a better deal in the future.)

You would ask the execution only broker to liaise with Zurich to make the transfer.
You would notify Irish Life of your wish to transfer.

You would get details of all Zurich's funds from the broker when you apply to open the AVC PRSA.

The funds are arranged from risk level 1 to 6.

Level 6 is the higher risk level. You can choose one, or a mix of these funds.

If you want to maximise for 2023 you would send a lump-sum payment before 31st October 2024 to the AVC provider. Cornmarket or Zurich.

Your maximum AVC contribution is 15% - your employee contributions.