Active Money Personal Pension (AMPP)

Forget about the traditional idea of a pension - where you don't have any flexibility. With the Active Money Personal Pension, you can take control of your investment as never before. Don’t just take our word for it, Moneywise awarded it Moneywise Best Personal Pension 2010.

• Make single, yearly or monthly payments into your plan
• If you want, you can widen your investment options as time goes on
• Change, stop and restart your payments
• Take control and manage your pension online

Flexibility

• Save monthly from £80 with basic rate tax relief on top
• Deposit one-off payments of at least £800 with basic rate tax relief on top at any time
• Transfer funds from another pension (minimum value £1,000), making it easier to see everything in one place
• Once you’ve set up regular payments, save when you like, whatever you like (subject to minimum payments and HM Revenue & Customs limits) – making ad hoc payments into your plan of any amount
• Manage your plan online with help at the end of the phone if you need it
• Upgrade to our award winning SIPP pension in one simple phone call giving you more investment and retirement options (subject to limits)

At retirement options

• Take up to 25% as a tax free lump sum with a guaranteed income (known as an annuity) for the rest of your life
• This annuity can be built to suit your individual needs such as providing an income for a partner or how often you want to receive it
• If you upgrade your AMPP into the active money SIPP before retirement, you will have access to our most flexible range of retirement options including Income Drawdown

Investment returns

Investment returns aren’t guaranteed. The value of your investment can go up or down and may be worth less than what was paid in.

Valuable tax relief

• If you’re a basic-rate taxpayer, the government gives you 20% tax relief on your pension payments topping up your savings for you
• The good news is that you don’t have to do anything – we’ll claim the tax relief for you and automatically add it to your plan. That’s definitely something worth having

• If you're a higher or additional rate taxpayer, you will qualify for extra tax relief (subject to limits). If this is the case, you’ll need to claim the additional tax relief through your tax return

HM Revenue & Customs

Personal payments into pensions only attract tax relief if they are within 100% of relevant UK earnings for the tax year concerned (or £3,600 if greater). Tax charges may apply if you exceed the Annual allowance. Further information regarding Annual allowance and Lifetime allowance is available in the Active Money Personal Pension Key Features (PDF, 237kb).

Tax rules and legislation may change. The value of tax relief may change and will depend on your financial circumstances. The information we have given is based on our understanding of law and current HM Revenue & Customs practice.

• You cannot normally access your money until age 55
• Transferring may not be suitable for everyone. If you’re transferring benefits from another scheme, there is no guarantee that what you’ll get back from your plan will be higher. You may be also giving up rights in the other pensions scheme that you’ll not have with your plan
• The value of your investments can go up or down. What you get back depends on investment performance and is not guaranteed. You may get back less than you invest
• For full details of risks and limitations, see Key Features (PDF, 237kb) document

Payment levels

Other eligibility criteria

• You must be under age 75

• You must be a UK resident

• AMPP offers over 180 funds for you to choose from. However, our customers tell us that choosing where to invest can feel daunting
• To help make this step easier, we have selected five investment options designed to meet a range of risk appetites
• If you think this approach is right for you, all you need to do is pick one of the selected investment options below. Alternatively, if you prefer to choose from a wider range of investments you can access over 180 funds via the full range
• If you would like to speak to someone, you can call Standard Life Direct on 0845 278 5622. (Call charges may vary)
• Alternatively, you may wish to seek financial advice. There may be a cost for this service

Standard Life Direct only advises on, and sells products from subsidiaries of Standard Life Plc and some external providers.

Our selected range

• Each of our five selected investment options is based on a Standard Life MyFolio Managed Fund.
• The MyFolio Managed Funds invest in a wide range of other investment funds, so you’re not putting all your eggs in one basket
• The MyFolio Managed Funds are expertly constructed and managed by Standard Life Investments, which have been specifically designed to maximise potential returns for a given level of risk
• Each MyFolio Managed Fund holds a combination of defensive assets (lower risk investments such as cash and bonds) and growth assets (higher risk investments such as shares and property). The mixture between defensive and growth assets will depend on which of the options you choose – please see the table below
• As you approach retirement the five investment options slowly move into other funds better matched to taking your tax-free lump sum entitlement and purchasing a pension income with the rest of your investments – this is called ‘lifestyling’

The current typical asset split of the MyFolio Managed Funds is shown in the table below. Remember, a fund’s actual exposure to different investments will vary, due to a number of factors including the manager’s short term investment opinion and the precise make up of the underlying funds.

Points to be aware of

• As with all investments, the value of money you invest can go down as well as up and you may not get back as much as you invest
• The higher the risk-level of your investment choice, the greater the potential return but also the greater uncertainty
• The lower the risk-level of your investment choice, the lower the potential return and lower the uncertainty
• Each of the five investment options is a lifestyle profile.  These may not be suitable for all customers, especially those that aren’t considering buying an income in retirement called a ‘conventional annuity’
• If you choose a lifestyle profile you can only combine this with the Trustee Cash Account. You can’t invest in any other funds
• Please be aware that you need to review your investments choices on a regular basis

Lifestyling

• As you approach retirement the five investment options slowly move into funds better matched to taking your tax-free lump sum entitlement and purchasing a pension income with the rest of your investments
• The graphs below show how lifestyling works for each of the corresponding MyFolio Managed funds. You can also access the factsheet for each of the lifestyle profiles

Full fund range

• Alternatively, if you’re comfortable choosing from a wide range of investments, you can select from our full range of over 180 investment options and manage this selection yourself

Charges on our selected range

There are three charges on our selected fund range:

Fund Management Charge (0.80% for each MyFolio Managed Fund)

The Fund Management Charge is set at an annual percentage of the value of your funds. This is a charge for the management of the funds. We deduct this charge daily before we set the fund price.

Additional Expenses (currently between 0.30% and 0.59% depending on the MyFolio Managed Fund)

Additional expenses such as depositary’s, registrar’s, auditor’s and regulator’s fees are deducted from the funds. In addition the additional expenses also include the cost of managing the underlying funds. These expenses have been taken into account in the calculation of the unit price.

Service charge (0.20% applies to all investment choices)

This charge relates to the distribution costs of the pension itself. It is taken to cover our costs for making this pension available online and providing telephone support. This is set as an annual percentage of the value of your funds (applied monthly) and is deducted from your investment.

Charges are regularly reviewed and may be increased to reflect increases in overall costs and/or changes in the assumptions made. Any increases in charges will not increase Standard Life’s profit margins above reasonable levels.

Charges on the MyFolio Managed Lifestyle range

These charges differ from the MyFolio Managed Fund charges.

The Fund Management Charge for both the Standard Life Pension Protection and Managed Cash Fund is 1.00% and no additional expenses currently apply. The 0.2% service charge will also apply to these funds.

Charges on our full fund range

The charges on individual funds vary. There is a fund filter tool you can use if you apply for an AMPP, which will let you see these charges. The 0.2% service charge will also apply to these funds.