Immediate Vesting Personal Pension

With an Immediate Vesting Personal Pension you can pay in a lump sum to buy an immediate guaranteed income that will be paid to you for the rest of your life. You'll get tax relief too. So for every £100 you give us, the Government adds £25 of tax relief to your pot.

If you have money invested in other pensions, you can buy an Immediate Vesting Personal Pension, though you don’t get any tax relief on the transferred amount.

You could also choose to take up to 25% of your fund as a tax-free lump sum, along with a smaller guaranteed income.

Buying an annuity is a long-term decision and once it’s set up, you can't cash it in or make any changes.

This option might suit you if:

• You want to make a single lump sum payment to buy an immediate annuity from Standard Life

• You want to use either a transfer payment from an approved employer’s pension scheme, a personal pension plan or other qualifying fund to buy an immediate annuity from Standard Life.

• You like the security of knowing that you have a guaranteed regular income for the rest of your life

• You want to receive your pension income at the same time as taking your tax free lump sum

• You are comfortable making a decision now on how you want to receive your pension income

How much income will you get?

The income you'll get can depend on a number of factors. The most important ones are:

• The amount of money you have in your pension pot available to buy the annuity

• Your age

• Annuity rates

• Your residential postcode

• The options you choose – for example, will the annuity include regular increases, or continue to be paid to your dependants when you die

The Standard Life difference

• You’re supported by our award-winning customer service. We’ll take you through the transition from having a pension fund to receiving an income – smoothly and easily.

• An annuity is a long term decision so it’s good to know you’re in experienced hands. Established in 1825, Standard Life provides life assurance, pensions and investment management to over 6 million customers worldwide.

Buying a Standard Life annuity with a pension plan from someone else

If you hold a pension plan elsewhere, you can still buy an Immediate Vesting Personal Pension from Standard Life. First, transfer your other pension or pensions to us. We will then pay out any required tax-free lump sum (up to a maximum of 25%) and set up your annuity.

Transferring a pension needs careful thought. We recommend you get financial advice to make sure you choose the option that’s best for you. There may be a charge for this advice.

Laws and tax rules may change in the future. The information here is based on our understanding in September 2012. Your personal circumstances also have an impact on tax treatment.

It's important to consider your choices carefully. Because once the plan is set up, you can't cash it in or make any changes.

• You have a number of options to choose from to make sure the income you get for the rest of your life meets your needs and the needs of those who are financially dependent on you. For example, it is important to consider how inflation may reduce the purchasing power of the income over the years.

• Adding more options generally reduces the amount of income that you get initially

• When you die, your pension benefits will stop unless you specifically build in an income for your dependants or add a guarantee period of up to 10 years

• Think carefully about the choices you make. Because once you've bought this plan and the 30 day cancellation period has expired, you can't change any of the options and you can't transfer to another provider

Find out more

Before buying an Immediate Vesting Personal Pension you need to be fully aware of the risks and commitments. You should read the Key Features (PDF, 192kb) and the rest of this section.

Get financial advice

Buying an annuity is a long-term decision. It’s also one you can’t change later, so it’s worth seeking professional advice - speak to your financial adviser or contact us on 0845 272 8810 (call charges will vary).

One of the main benefits of an annuity is that you can build in options to make it really suit your needs and work for you in retirement.

Options to consider include:

• How often the payments are made - this could be monthly, every three months, every six months or every year

• When your payments will start - you can have them paid in advance so you'd get the first payment as soon as the annuity was set up, or in arrears where the first payment would be made one 'payment period' after we set up your annuity. For example, if your payments are to be made monthly in arrears, the first payment would be one month after your annuity was set up

• An income that increases each year - by a fixed percentage, up to 8.5% a year

• An income that keeps pace with inflation - by increasing and decreasing in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI). Be aware that RPI can go down as well as up, so your income could go down

• An income for your wife, husband or civil partner - who would still get an income if you died before them

• An income for another adult - who is financially dependent on you, your children or a child with special needs. We may be able to help you set up an income for them if you die first

• Guaranteed payments - for a set period of time. If you die within that time, payments will continue to the end of the guarantee period. You can normally choose a guarantee period of up to 10 years

How annuity options work - shaping your annuity video

Bring together all your pensions

You can combine more than one pension plan – from Standard Life and other companies – in our Immediate Vesting Personal Pension. This would give you one source of income for the rest of your life.

Need help tracking down old pension plans? The Pension Tracing Service could help.

This link is provided for general information purposes only. Standard Life accepts no responsibility for information contained in the site or for the site not being available at all times.

We'd always recommend getting advice before transferring pensions to make sure that you're not losing out on any benefits. Speak to your financial adviser or call Standard Life on 0845 272 8810 (call charges will vary).

Investing a lump sum in an Immediate Vesting Personal Pension

As long as you're in employment and subject to some limits, the Government lets you invest up to 100% of your earnings in a pension plan in any one tax year. You'll get tax relief too. So for every £100 you give us, the Government adds £25 of tax relief to your pot.

If you’re a higher or additional rate tax payer, you may be able to claim additional tax relief through your tax return.

If you're eligible, you'll get tax relief on any lump sum you invest in an Immediate Vesting Personal Pension (within limits). You won't get tax relief if you choose to transfer your pension funds held elsewhere. Remember, you would already have received tax relief when you first invested in these plans.

Laws and tax rules may change in the future. The information here is based on our understanding in September 2012. Your personal circumstances also have an impact on tax treatment.

You can invest between £5,000 and £500,000 in the Immediate Vesting Personal Pension to give you a lifetime annuity, which you can adapt to suit your needs. You can normally take up to 25% of your fund as a tax-free lump sum.

If you want to invest less than £5,000, you can pay £2,880 into our Immediate Vesting Personal Pension Select – the tax man makes this up to £3,600. It's a no frills plan which gives you a tax-free lump sum of £900 and an annual payment for life.

If you have chosen Flexible Drawdown (an alternative form of Drawdown which allows unlimited withdrawals but requires you to meet criteria around minimum levels of guaranteed income), you can make further Pension payments but they would be subject to a tax charge.

Pension pot value more than £50,000? Our Self Invested Personal Pension could offer you greater flexibility.

Are you old enough?

You need to be at least age 55 to buy an Immediate Vesting Personal Pension.

Tax

If you buy your Immediate Vesting Personal Pension with a lump sum, we'll add basic-rate tax relief to that payment. If you're a higher or additional rate tax payer you may be able to claim back more tax relief through your tax return.

Tax relief may be altered and the value to you depends on your financial circumstances.

Apart from the tax-free lump sum, the income you receive from your annuity will be taxed under the Pay as You Earn (PAYE) system.

You can find out more on the HM Revenue & Customs website.

This link is provided for general information purposes only. Standard Life accepts no responsibility for information contained in the site or for the site not being available at all times.

Laws and tax rules may change in the future. The information here is based on our understanding in September 2012. Your personal circumstances also have an impact on tax treatment.