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 1,800 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 may 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.

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, 309kb).

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

• 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

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

• 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 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 should keep a close eye on your SIPP - regularly reviewing your investments and taking investment advice where necessary. We can help with this - call Standard Life Direct on 08445 279 8810 (call charges will vary). Alternatively, you can speak to a financial adviser. There may be a cost for this.

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 only let you invest in pension funds. SIPPs are different.

Instead, you can choose from a huge range of investments from Standard Life and other providers. This means you can tailor your portfolio to suit your needs, and how and where you want to invest:

• 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 with more tax efficient 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 6,200 discretionary clients and manage almost £2.5 billion in assets as at June 2012

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

You only pay for the services you use.

Our advisers at Standard Life Direct on 0845 279 8810 (Call charges will 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).

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.
• There is no guarantee that what you will get with the new plan will be higher.

We regularly review our charges and may alter them to reflect changes in our overall costs, or assumptions. Any increases will be fair and reasonable.

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