The insurer has written to individuals invested in the fund asking them to seek an alternative. Those who do not select one will be automatically transferred into the Threadneedle UK Equity Income fund.
The move will affect at least £30m.
A spokesperson for Woodford Investment Management said: “We can confirm that Aviva has removed the Aviva CF Woodford Equity Income fund from its unit-linked insurance platform.
“As a result the fund will close on 4 December 2017.”
Aviva customers with financial advisers will still be able to invest in the Woodford Equity Income Fund via the adviser-only wrap platform.
The move comes following Jupiter’s multi-manager range also pulling approximately £300m from the fund last month.
Woodford Equity Income has been underperforming over a one-year and three-year period with returns of 0.4% and 20.8% respectively, versus the IA UK Equity Income benchmark with 12.6% and 26.2%.
An Aviva spokesperson said: “As part of our standard processes for overseeing the funds we offer, we regularly review them against technical criteria and it is not unusual to change the fund mix. We do not comment publicly on the detail of those reviews.”
Jason Hollands, managing director at Tilney, said: “There’s no doubt it has been a tough year for Woodford, with performance of his flagship the 98th percentile over the last 12 months, having been hit with a several stock blow ups over the summer.
“Even the very best fund managers have occasional bouts of poor performance. The question for investors is whether this is simply a short-term run of bad luck or a more fundamental problem.
“I really don’t think it is right to give up on a manager with an exceptionally good long-term track record on the basis of a short-term patch of turbulence, though there is undoubtedly a debate to be had about whether a manager who is now spanning such a wide range of companies from international mega-caps to small, unquoted companies is stretching themselves.
“In the medium term, performance on the Woodford Equity Income could yet flip either way as he’s taken a quite bold, contrarian position in favour of UK domestically-focused stocks believing prevailing bearish sentiment on the UK economy is unwarranted.”
