What are AVC's?

Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) are contributions you make to build up an additional retirement fund. When you retire, this AVC fund can be used to top up your employer pension benefits, within Revenue limits.

Why would you consider AVCs?

AVCs are a way of increasing your employer pension benefits if they may fall short of the maximum benefits you can get at retirement. A shortfall can arise in different ways, such as:

• You may not have the maximum 40 years service by your minimum retirement age to get the maximum benefits. If you are in the public service, you may be able to bridge this gap using notional service purchase (NSP) instead of AVCs. 
• If you are a public servant and you joined after 6th April 1995, your employer pension benefits are reduced to reflect your entitlement to the State Pension.

• Or you may just want to boost the value of your pension fund.