Our types of investment funds

In Aviva’s fund centre, we show all the investment funds we offer to help you see how they’ve performed, what they invest in and their risk ratings. The funds available can be filtered by investment fund type. This will help you compare them to other funds that sit in the same sector, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI). 

If you’re looking for more information you'll also find a glossary on our fund centre to help you.

Funds tend to invest in specific areas – called asset classes. They can use one asset class or a mix. We’ll explain the most popular ones below.

Here is a brief description of each of the fund types we use:

Equities

Company shares are also known as equities. They represent part-ownership in a company. Companies issue shares on stock exchanges such as the London Stock Exchange, and the shares are then bought and sold on stock markets.

Gilts

UK gilts (also known as government bonds) are issued by the UK government as a way for them to borrow money, usually for a fixed term. The government pays interest on the loan.

Corporate bonds

International and UK corporate bonds are loans issued by companies to pay for their operations or to grow the business among other things. Bonds pay the holder of the bond a regular income, and then the full value of the bond is paid when the bond comes to the end of its lifetime. 

Global bonds

Global bonds are issued by companies (corporate bonds) and governments from around the world.

Property 

This usually refers to commercial property. Shops, offices and warehouses are examples of commercial property. There are two components to an investment in commercial property – the value of the property itself and the rental income received from tenants of the property.

Cash/Money-market investments 

Money-market investments are also known as cash investments. They are short-term deposits of cash amounts, usually held with a financial company for less than 12 months. Please note they are not deposit accounts with banks or building societies.

Mixed asset

Mixed asset funds can invest in a range of assets including equities (shares), corporate bonds, gilts, property and cash.

Ethical

Funds where the choice of investments is influenced by social, environmental or other ethical criteria. The fund managers of some ethical funds carry out ethical screening to meet their investment aims. This means they will check companies against certain moral standards before investing in them.

Tracker

These funds aim to perform in line with a particular stock market index. They are often referred to as passive rather than active managed funds, where the fund manager makes the investment decisions.

Specialist/Other

This type of investment covers funds that don’t fit into the other fund types. For example, they may invest in assets such as infrastructure, commodities, derivatives and hedge funds or may be free to invest in any asset type at any time.

Guaranteed

The guaranteed funds offer a fifth anniversary guarantee on a percentage of your original investment into the fund. The funds invest in a mix of assets including equities.

With-Profits

This is a special type of mixed asset investment. It shares the profits and losses of a with-profits fund with investors through a system of bonuses.