Savings and investments FAQs

Anyone who is aged 18 or over and is resident and ordinarily resident in the UK for tax purposes. Crown employees serving overseas, and their spouse or civil partner with a UK address, can also apply.

See the Key Features Document for full details

For the 2013-14 tax year, you can invest up to £11,520 in a Stocks and Shares ISA. Your spouse or civil partner can invest the same, giving you a potential joint investment of £23,040.

Remember this limit is reduced by any amount you pay into a Cash ISA. These limits may be subject to change.

Yes you can, as long as you haven’t reached the annual payment limit (£11,520 for the 2013-14 tax year, less any amounts paid into a Cash ISA).

You can cash in your ISA whenever you want. You can also make regular withdrawals – from once a month to every 12 months, or you can make one-off withdrawals at anytime.

You can do this by telephone on 0845 279 2002. (Calls may be monitored and /or recorded to protect both you and us and help with our training. Call charges will vary.)

Or by writing to us at:
Standard Life
Provide info
1 Baileyfield Crescent
Edinburgh
EH15 1ET

Remember, once you’ve invested your maximum £11,520 for the tax year, you won’t be able to invest more in that year even if you take money out. If you have used up your allowance, you can invest more money through our Investment Funds product.

This is currently not required, but this may change in future tax years.

No. There’s no fixed time limit for a Stocks and Shares ISA. It's generally considered that a Stocks and Shares ISA should be invested for at least five years, but if you need access to your invested money you can cash in your ISA whenever you want.

We’ll send you a statement twice a year that shows you how much you’ve paid in and taken out and how much your ISA is worth.

And you can register for Standard Life online servicing where you can check how your investments are performing.

Fundzone clients need to call 0845 279 2002 to register for online servicing. (Calls may be monitored and /or recorded to protect both you and us and help with our training. Call charges will vary.)

We don’t offer Cash ISAs but we do offer a Stocks and Shares ISA. This has a number of differences to a Cash ISA and, depending on where you invest and the amount of risk you're prepared to take, can potentially provide higher returns.

As with any investment the value of your fund can go up or down and may be worth less than what was paid in.

It is a range of five funds, each with a different level of risk - I being lower risk, V higher risk.

The MyFolio Managed Funds are expertly managed by Standard Life Investments with the aim of maximising potential returns for their given level of risk over the longer term. They invest in a diverse range of assets and investment strategies (including equities, bonds, property and absolute returns) mainly through other actively managed Standard Life Investments funds.

• View ISA and Investment funds

As with any investment the value of your fund can go up or down and may be worth less than what was paid in.

Either contact your IFA, or if you do not use an IFA call us on 0845 60 60 191. Calls may be monitored and /or recorded to protect both you and us and help with our training. Call charges will vary.

An external fund link (EFL) is a Standard Life fund that invests in the fund of an external manager. So if you invest in one of our EFLs, your money will buy units in our EFL instead of the external manager's fund. Our EFL then uses your money to buy units in the external manager's fund, or 'underlying' fund.

EFLs are not available in our Stocks and Shares ISA.

Our EFLs will always have SL or Standard Life in front of the name of the underlying fund. For example the 'Standard Life Invesco Perpetual High Income Fund' invests in the Invesco Perpetual High Income Fund.

The rules and regulations governing life and pension products often mean we can't allow you to invest directly in the fund of an external fund manager. By offering EFLs, Standard Life enables you to invest in some of these funds indirectly - giving you greater choice.

No. You own units in the Standard Life EFL and are not invested directly in the external manager's fund.

Historically, Standard Life did not offer EFLs. Like much of the industry, we would only offer our own funds. We first started offering EFLs in 2000, and our range now includes links to funds from some of the best-known external managers. By doing this, we are able to offer you a much wider range of investment options.