Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP)

Our most flexible personal pension is a SIPP, which stands for ‘self invested personal pension’ – the reason it’s our most flexible pension is because:

• Investment choice: You can choose to invest in over 1,300 funds and a wide range of other investments such as stocks and shares and commercial property

• Choices in retirement: More ways to take money from your pension

• How you pay: Decide to make regular or single payments – which you can stop and start when you want. Stopping or reducing payments will reduce your future pension income

The Standard Life difference

• The active money SIPP from Standard Life adds another big benefit – it’s incredibly easy to manage your investments online and you have a range of income options to choose from. In fact, Defaqto named us ‘SIPP Provider of the Year 2010’ – just one of the many awards we’ve won for our SIPP

Retirement options

• When you take your benefits from a traditional pension you usually pay all or part of your fund to an insurance company to buy an annuity. The annuity then pays you a guaranteed pension income for the rest of your life

• A SIPP is different. It offers you flexibility when it comes to accessing the money you've built up by using Income Drawdown

• Take all or part of your income from the age of 55, provided you have at least £50,000 in your fund. Handy, perhaps, if you’re looking to cut your hours

Valuable tax relief

• If you’re a basic-rate taxpayer, the government gives you 20% tax relief on your pension payments topping up your payments 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 Limits

• 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 the Annual allowance is available in the SIPP Key Features (PDF, 331kb).

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

• If you are taking a flexible income using Income Drawdown, you will need to have regular reviews to ensure your fund can sustain the level of income you are taking. There may be charges for accessing your fund

• Flexible income may not be suitable for everyone. There are lots of things to consider before deciding to take an income. Our Flexible Income Options guide (PDF, 305kb) has more information

• A SIPP gives you more choice than most traditional personal pensions – and because of that, there are some higher risks related to some of the investments available to you. You need to keep a close eye on your SIPP – with active investment management and investment advice. You will need to be satisfied you have the necessary investment skills to do this, we can help with this by calling Standard Life Direct 0845 279 8810 (Call charges may vary) or take advice from your financial adviser – there could be charges for this service

Standard Life Direct is provided by Standard Life Client Management which advises on, and sells products from, subsidiaries of Standard Life plc and some external providers.

Other eligibility criteria

•    You must be a UK resident
•    You must be under age 75

Traditional pensions usually let you invest in pension funds only. SIPPs are different.

Instead, you can choose from a huge range of investments from Standard Life and other providers. Whatever your investment style, you can precisely tailor your portfolio to suit, mixing and matching:

• Funds – you can invest in a wide range of mutual funds and pension funds

• Commercial property – are you planning to invest in commercial property or do you own your business premises? A SIPP can help you enjoy tax free capital growth and rental income. If you invest in commercial property as part of your SIPP, this may take longer to sell. You'll need to take this into account when planning to take your benefits. The valuation of property is generally a matter of a valuer's opinion, rather than fact

• Discretionary investment management – a discretionary manager will build a unique investment strategy around your individual needs. Together, our panel members act on behalf of more than 3,900 discretionary clients and manage over £1.25 billion in assets as at July 2010

• Specialist investments – if you're in the market for a more unusual pension investment strategy, we think we can help. From hedge funds to holiday resort development funds, we can give you the support you need.

As with all investments, the value of the fund you have invested can go down as well as up and you may not get back as much as you invest.

You only pay for the services you use.

And talking of charges, you may be able to reduce your admin costs if you consolidate your investments from other providers into a SIPP. If you decide to do this, you should know that you may:

• Have to pay to switch investments
• Be giving up valuable benefits from your existing plan.

Our charges are regularly reviewed and may be changed 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.

By paying more, you may be able to save on charges by receiving a large fund discount.

Our advisers at Standard Life Direct on 0845 279 8810 (Call charges may vary) or your financial adviser will be able to advise you on the charges payable with SIPP. You can also read more about the charges with SIPP by downloading our charges and discounts brochure (PDF, 246kb).